Excerpted from NY DAILY NEWS: The Fort Hood gunman was devastated by his mother’s death last year and furious at the Army for its initial refusal to let him attend her funeral, according to a newspaper in his native Puerto Rico.Ivan Lopez, who took his own life after killing three people and wounding 16 more at the Texas army base, was also feuding with someone at Fort Hood in the days before the shooting, a childhood friend of the shooter told El Nuevo Dia.
In a conversation two days before the bloody rampage, Lopez appeared upbeat when speaking with his old pal – but mentioned a problem with another person at the base.
“It seems he had an argument with someone back at base,” the friend told the newspaper. “Seems that he had been robbed or something.”
The friend also said that Lopez was distraught when the Army initially denied his request to attend his mother’s funeral last year in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico.
Lopez was finally given a 24-hour pass to join his family for the farewell to his mom, Carmen Lopez, the newspaper reported Thursday.
The Iraq War veteran was receiving treatment for mental illness prior to Wednesday afternoon’s carnage – the second Fort Hood shooting spree in five years.
Nine of the shooting victims remained hospitalized Thursday at Scott & White Memorial Hospital, where three remained in critical condition.
“There is a possibility that several of them will be released today,” said Dr. Matthew Davis, the hospital trauma director. “The ones who are awake and talking are in good spirits.”
Lopez spent nine years in the Puerto Rico National Guard before going on active duty with a one-year deployment on the Sinai Peninsula and four months in Iraq, said Army Chief of Staff Raymond Odierno. Keep Reading
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