US gun rampage: Soldier opens fire then kills himself on military base

FOUR people are dead and 16 injured after a soldier opened fire and shot himself in the head on a US military base.
This is the second tragedy to hit Fort Hood, Texas, as more than a dozen people were slain in a 2009 attack.
The shooter apparently walked into a building yesterday and began firing a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol that had been purchased recently. He then got into a vehicle and continued firing before entering another building.
When confronted by military police he put his hands up but then reached under his jacket and pulled out his gun. The suspect put his gun to his head and pulled the trigger a final time.
The gunman, named Ivan Lopez, 34, had sought help for depression, anxiety and other problems. Before the attack, he had been undergoing an assessment to determine whether he had post-traumatic stress disorder, according to Lt. Gen. Mark A. Milley, the senior officer on the base.
It was confirmed that he was married and served in Iraq for four months in 2011.
President Barack Obama said he was "heartbroken" that another shooting had occurred at the Fort Hood Army base.
"We are going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened," he told reporters in Chicago.

TRAGEDY: This is the second mass shooting to hit the military base [GETTY]

"We're heartbroken that something like this might have happened again."
The 2009 assault on Fort Hood was the deadliest attack on a domestic military installation in U.S. history. Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 wounded.
The suspect in yesterday’s shooting was transferred from another base in February. He was taking medication, and there were reports that he had suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Investigators have already started looking into whether the gunman's combat experience caused lingering psychological trauma.
A federal law enforcement official, who chose not to be named, said: "We have to find all those witnesses, the witnesses to every one of those shootings, and find out what his actions were, and what was said to the victims.”
The official said authorities would begin by speaking with Lopez's wife and also expected to search his home and any computers he owned.

DISASTER: Soldiers listen as their general gives a press conference [AP]

Dr. Glen Couchman, chief medical officer at Scott and White Hospital in Temple, said the first four people admitted there had gunshots to chest, abdomen, neck and extremities. Their conditions ranged from stable to "quite critical."
After the shooting began, the post was locked down.
Relatives waited hours for information.
Tayra DeHart, 33, said she had last heard from her husband, a soldier at the post, that he was safe, but that was hours earlier.
"The last two hours have been the most nerve-racking I've ever felt. I know God is here protecting me and all the soldiers, but I have my phone in my hand just hoping it will ring and it will be my husband," DeHart said.
Brooke Conover, whose husband was on base at the time of the shooting, said she found out about it while checking Facebook. She said she called her husband, Staff Sgt. Sean Conover, immediately to make sure he was OK.
"I just want him to come home," Conover said.

SHOCK: Obama said he is 'heartbroken' after Wednesday's events [REUTERS]

Related articles

• Shot man believed to have been an armed robber 'hit by own gun in his rucksack'
• Pablo Zabaleta thinks Manchester City have found their shooting boots at the right time

The November 2009 attack happened inside a crowded building where soldiers were waiting to get vaccines and routine paperwork after recently returning from deployments or preparing to go to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan was convicted and sentenced to death last year in that mass shooting. He said he acted to protect Islamic insurgents abroad from American aggression.
According to testimony during Hasan's trial last August, Hasan walked inside carrying two weapons and several loaded magazines, shouted "Allahu Akbar!" – Arabic for "God is great!" – and opened fire with a handgun.
After that shooting, the military tightened security at bases nationwide.
In September, a former Navy man opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard, leaving 13 people dead, including the gunman. After that shooting, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the Pentagon to review security at all U.S. defense installations worldwide and examine the granting of security clearances that allow access to them.
Asked Wednesday about security improvements in the wake of other shootings at U.S. military bases, Hagel said, "Obviously when we have these kinds of tragedies on our bases, something's not working."