There was nothing that could have prepared the hospital staff at Mercy Hospital in Chicago for what was going to happen on November 19, 2018.
A week earlier, hospital staff members finished active shooter training, but they didn’t think they would ever have to use what they learned…
Engagement
In September 2018, Juan Lopez, a Chicago Housing Authority worker, and Dr. Tamara O’Neal got engaged. O’Neal, who works as an emergency room doctor, was overjoyed, and she began planning a wedding.
Calling It Off
Shortly after, O’Neal decided that she didn’t want to marry 32-year-old Lopez and she called off the wedding. Although, it was unclear why, according to the Chicago Tribune. “The only thing I could say for that: She broke off the engagement; he couldn’t get over it,” O’Neal’s father, Thomas, said.
Confrontation
Lopez confronted O’Neal to demand the engagement ring back. He was known to have a history of violence. In 2014, a judge granted a restraining order against him for his ex-wife. At around 3:30 pm, Lopez confronted O’Neal in the parking lot of Mercy Hospital, while she was still wearing her scrubs.
ER Shift
As she was about to start her shift as an ER doctor, Lopez demanded O’Neal give back the engagement ring he gave her. When O’Neal said she didn’t have it, that’s when Lopez shot her three times. A witness sitting in a van full of nursing home patients watched in horror as the incident unfolded.
Parking Lot Of Mercy Hospital
The witness spoke to WGNTV and said the nursing home patients were in the parking lot of Mercy Hospital when a woman ran from the hospital and asked for help. “She got on the phone and she was trying to call the police,” the witness said. “She asked us not to leave her alone because he is going to kill her.”
Gunshots
The witness then saw a man approach the woman and demand the ring from her. When the woman replied she didn’t have it, she started going back toward the hospital to get security guards, and then the man reemerged with a gun. “The guy comes really quickly from behind the van and just pulls out a gun and shoots her six times before she even hits the ground,” the witness said.
Firing Rounds
The witness drove off in the van and headed toward the exit just as police were entering the parking lot. “He started firing in our direction and at the cops.” Another witness, who worked at a nearby building, heard five shots. She went to a window and saw someone running into the hospital and she saw officers shooting back and forth.
Police Surrounding The Hospital
“The police came from everywhere. I mean, within seconds they were just surrounding the hospital – firefighters and ambulances, everything, they were just surrounding the hospital. … They were behind the cars, protecting themselves, and at that point I just said, ‘You know what, I don’t know where this person is, I don’t know if they’ve come out or if they’re still in there,’ so we got away from the windows,” she said.
Active Shooter In The Hospital
Maria Teo, a nurse at the hospital, who was registering a patient when the incident started, said that just one month ago, she underwent active shooter training. But no matter how much training she got, it couldn’t have prepared her for the real thing.
Fearing For Her Life
“I was texting, called my mom, whispered to her the situation. She didn’t want to believe it,” Teo said. “I texted my family and all I thought about was my kids. My daughter asked me if I was okay, and all I said was, ‘I love you,’ and she was like, ‘I know something is wrong.’ I’m like, I’m OK, I’ll text you, I just can’t talk to you right now, but I’ll keep texting you.”
Samuel Jimenez
Police pursued Lopez as he ran into the hospital, and inside, he kept firing at police. Officer Samuel Jimenez was struck with a bullet in the head, just above the bulletproof vest he was wearing, and he soon died. Jimenez, 28, had only just completed his probationary period and he was a father of three.
Dayna Less
The gunman also turned and fired at Dayna Less, 25, a first-year pharmacy resident at Mercy, who was engaged to be married. Lopez shot at Less when the doors of the elevator opened, and she died. During the exchange of gunfire, Lopez was shot once in the abdomen.
Earlier Call
Steve Mixon, who was a clerk at the emergency room, told the Chicago Tribune that Lopez had called around 1 pm and asked to speak with his fiancee. “She said, ‘Oh, just tell him I’m with a patient,’” Mixon said. “She was trying to avoid him and move around. And when he saw me, she waved for me to come that way.”
How The Incident Unfolded
Mixon had started running toward O’Neal when Lopez opened fire. He then ran back into the emergency room to try and get help. Another man, James Gray, saw the incident unfold in the parking lot and then escalate into “mass chaos.”
Mass Chaos
Once Lopez entered the hospital, Gray saw him “shooting at random.” “It looked like he was turning and pointing at people at random,” Gray told NBC Chicago. CBS 2 said that Lopez was fatally shot by a SWAT team officer, although at a press conference, others said it was unclear how Lopez was killed.
Press Conference
Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said at the press conference that the officers who responded to the shooting were heroes. He added that the tragedy could have been even worse if the gunman had not been stopped. “These officers who responded today saved a lot of lives,” Johnson said.
A Frenzy
Patients inside the hospital even started to run and hospital employees were in a frenzy. “It was too close for comfort,” hospital employee Patricia Rinella said. She was terrified as she and others barricaded themselves into a room with a copy machine blocking the door. She said she could hear the gunman getting closer as she crouched on the floor.
Head Of Emergency Medicine
Dr. Patrick Connor, head of Emergency Medicine, was emotional during a press conference when speaking about the two staff members who died in the shooting. He said O’Neal was “simply one of the most fascinating, hard-working people” at the hospital. He added that she grew up in Portage, Indiana, and graduated from the University of Illinois in Chicago in 2016.
Healing
“From the Mercy family to the community that we serve, for our physicians and technicians and first responders, we train for this, but we never think we have to experience what we’ve had today. We’ll all need healing, to say the least,” he said. O’Neal’s fatal shooting was a reminder that doctors face the same challenges in life as the people they treat, Connor added.
Three Lives Lost
“If I were to collapse right now and she was around, she was the person I’d want taking care of me,” Connor said. Like many others who were interviewed, he turned the focus of his comments to O’Neal’s exceptional qualities. A procession from the hospital to Cook County Morgue was also held for Jimenez after he died of injuries at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
