Fort Hood, Texas - The suspected gunman at Fort Hood in Texas argued heatedly with fellow soldiers before going on a shooting spree that left three dead and 16 injured at the expansive US Army base, a military investigator said on Friday.
The suspected shooter Ivan Lopez, a 34-year-old soldier battling mental illness, then turned the gun on himself in the second mass shooting at the base in the last five years.
“We do have credible information he was involved in a verbal altercation with soldiers from his unit just prior to him allegedly opening fire,” Christopher Grey, of the US Army Criminal Investigation Command, told a news conference, without offering further details.
“At this time, we have not established a concrete motive,” Grey added.
Lopez purchased the weapon used in the shooting, a .45 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun, on March 1 in Killeen at Guns Galore, the same shop where former Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan bought the weapon used in the 2009 rampage at the base where he shot dead 13 people and wounded 32 others.
Investigators from the military, Texas Rangers and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have interviewed more than 900 people to gather details of the crime scene that played out over an area covering about two city blocks, Grey said. - Reuters