I don’t know what else there is to say. It’s so stupid. It keep happening, and we keep letting it. Will it ever change? Don't know.
Chicago PD spokesman says officer who died is Samuel Jiminez. Police briefing supposed to start soon.
Doctor who died has been identified as emergency physician Tamara E. O'Neal, and the shooter is supposedly her ex-fiance. She called off the wedding a few weeks ago. He showed up as she was walking into the hospital to work her evening shift.
Now the AP is reporting that the county medical examiner has said four people are dead from the shooting.
From the press conference going on now: third victim was a female hospital staff member who worked in the pharmacy. Her name has not been released.
Fourth death was the shooter. Police say they’re not sure if he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound or was shot by the police during an exchange of gunfire from officers who arrived on the scene.
Here is the fallen officer:
He was 28 years old and had four young children. On the job for less than 2 years. He’d just completed his probationary period that all officers undergo when they first begin working at the department.
Chicago fire officials said two women were shot; one was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in extremely critical condition, the other was taken to University of Chicago Hospital in extremely critical condition.
Sources told the ABC7 I-Team the first victim was an ER doctor who was reporting to her afternoon shift at the hospital. The sources said she encountered her former fiance in the parking lot, where he shot her before entering the hospital and continuing to shoot.
ABC Chicago
James Gray saw at least two people get shot. Gray said he was coming out of the clinic area when he saw a man in a black coat, black hat and dark pants shoot a woman three times in the chest. The man and the woman had been walking and talking to each other before the shooting, said Gray. The gunman stood over the woman and shot her three more times after she fell to the ground, said Gray. Then a squad car turned its lights on and came down the drive and the gunman shot at the squad car.
"It was chaos,” said Gray. "It was just mass chaos.”
When the gunman came into the hospital, it appeared that he was shooting people at random, said Gray, who saw one other person who was shot.
Chicago Tribune
A hospital employee said she was in her office when a notice came over a public address system telling those in the hospital to lock their doors. They were later evacuated and people were put on CTA buses as authorities dealt with the situation.
“I don’t know what happened,” she said as she was ushered onto a bus.
“They told us to run so we did,” one hospital employee said.
Chicago Tribune
Here’s an interview with someone who was in the hospital at the time.
OMG, I couldn’t figure out what the blanket was. Maybe that it’s cold there and someone gave her a blanket after evacuating?
No, it’s a baby. She’s holding a baby. You can see the tiny hand behind the microphone. And she has a big sucker. A very young mother with a baby?
Here’s a man who was there when it started.
Erix Horton, who works in Environmental Services at the hospital, spoke to a Tribune reporter while outside smoking a cigarette after being inside the hospital when the shooting occurred.
“I was checking out, getting ready to leave,” said Horton. “One of the nurses ran back here and it was like she was about to collapse and said (a staff member had) been shot. And she’s like, ‘Call the police. We have an active shooter.’ And that¹s when everybody took cover. They got on the PA, letting everybody know."
Horton said he took cover with others in the break room across from the ER, which has a combination lock, until police entered and escorted everyone out. A Fire Department crew that had just brought in a patient took cover in the room also, Horton said.
While in the break room, they could hear someone firing gunshots in the hallway, eight or nine of them, he said.
Chicago Tribune
I think this woman said it all:
Is it really that hard to understand that SOME Americans have demonstrated time after time that they are not capable of safely owning guns. They are simply not capable.
They drink. They get high. They have anger issues. They’re irresponsible. They have mental health issues, and they grab one of their guns or a lot of their guns and start shooting people.
And SOME people can’t be trusted to safely store a gun in their home. Even police officers can’t do it or they make one mistake, one day, and it has tragic consequences.
The answer is not more gun safety courses.
Some people are not responsible enough to have a gun. No matter how many gun safety courses they have, it won’t be enough. It’s like drunk driving. Some people can’t be trusted behind the wheel of a car, and you have to take their license away and put breathalyzer locks on their cars.
And it’s hard to tell who the irresponsible/angry/drunk/high/mentally ill people who shouldn’t have guns are from the people who truly are responsible with their guns.
Plus, its one of those situations where you can be one of the most responsible people on earth, and you just make one mistake, one time, and your gun isn’t secure or it’s loaded when you think it’s not or you turn your back, leave your houses and someone you love gets it.
There no room for errors with guns. The consequences are too high. The consequences are that people may die, because an otherwise careful, responsible person screws up one time.
How hard is that to understand?