Posted on 04/04/2014 3:08:11 PM PDT by PaulCruz2016
When Army Spec. Ivan Lopez went on the shooting rampage Wednesday at Ft. Hood, Texas, killing three soldiers and injuring 16 others, he had just learned that superiors in Washington had rejected his request to take a temporary leave to deal with family matters related to his mother’s death, a federal law enforcement official said.
Officials had turned down an earlier leave request and Lopez was attempting to renew it, said the official, speaking anonymously because the investigation is ongoing.
The rejection, delivered Wednesday, set him off, the official said.
“He had put in for something regarding his mother's death and some other matters, and it was denied,” the official said. “Or it wasn't going to happen as quickly as he wanted it to.
“When they told him, he blew his top,” the official said.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Loser on Meds-what could go wrong?
Blaming the meds is like blaming the gun. He was evil, bottom line.
In 20 years, they never turned down my husband for leave. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen but it does sound odd to me. Especially for a death.
Today’s story. Yesterday it said he “may have” had a dispute with another soldier - turned out he hadn’t, and it was just a government source speculating.
Nobody knows his Muslim name yet, but I’ll bet he had one. He had the shaved head and the faint beard in the one photo I saw of him. Most Muslim converts are mentally ill or socially dysfunctional.
Sure that’s the reason, and it just happened that day. Does anyone really believe that he hadn’t been planning it for some time?
It happens…. My husband ( an AF major at the time) had a colleague (also an officer) who was denied leave to go see his mother who was dying of cancer. Their commander was a heartless SOB.
Leave is approved at the local commanders level most likely his company commander.
I'm guessing he was waiting for the red cross to validate an emergency leave request related to his mother's death. If it wasn't recent, there would be no emergency it would just be regular leave.
This millenial had a hissy fit and killed 3 over that??
Yet he didn’t go berserk and kill people.
I’m sure more excuses will be forthcoming.
This story has a smell.
We’ll soon hear that a vending machine ate his dollar, too.
No this was an idea that his brain could not shut off, fueled by loss of Mother & Grand Father,dealing with the ravages of depression, & muddled by the meds [which can have very weird sideeffects of the person using them] A thought can enter the mind & not be shut off unless the person is either dead or the thought has been completed. I should know, I am dealing with the effects of multiple head injuries & take a large doses of meds to deal with them. But you also have to add talk therapy to help deal with issues & NOT just rely on the meds to do everything. Then he should have not been able to purchase the pistol, in his medical condition/s, he was not in his right Army from the Reserves [they do not promote as fast as the regular forces do] so calling him a looser because of his age versus his rank is wrong folks.
I saw another story where is mother was suffering his loss just after being re-united with a daughter. Is she really dead?
His mother died last year and they were only going to give him one day. They did change
that and he got two days.
Apparently he was attempting to schedule another leave. Here is a snip from CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/02/us/fort-hood-shooter-profile/
snip
Before the shooting, Lopez stopped at the base’s personnel office to pick up a leave form,
according to the father of one of the soldiers injured in the attack.
Theodis Westbrook, the father of Sgt. Jonathan Westbrook, told CNN affiliate WLBT that
his son was working in the office. When one of the other officers asked Lopez to come
back for the form the next day, he returned a short time later with a gun and opened
fire, Westbrook said.
end snip
Could it be that he created the scene (argument about leave) so he could do his Muslim thing?
No he did not. He was and is a good man.
There is no excuse for what this man has done at fort hood. I was only saying that commanders can be heartless with their leave denials.
May God give comfort to all the victims and their families
Except I believe the deaths of his relatives were months ago.
Deaths usually slow you down...not aggravate you. And the deaths were months ago.
And nobody in Washington was involved in an E4’s leave request!
Yep, and especially for someone assigned to the Warrior Transition Brigade. It's not like he was on the short list for deployment. He was in limbo status as it were. Also, since when does any soldier need leave approval from a DA level authority? His immediate commander could grant him leave.
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