Following up on Rachel’s reporting last night, the details surrounding the mass shooting at Fort Hood yesterday continue to come into sharper focus.
The enlisted Army soldier who shot and killed three people Wednesday at Fort Hood before turning his weapon on himself suffered from mental health issues, military officials confirmed.The shooter, 34-year-old Ivan Lopez, was confirmed dead. As many as 16 others were wounded.
Every mass shooting is tragic, of course, but the fact that yesterday’s violence took place at Fort Hood, one of the world’s largest U.S. military installations, was especially painful — this is the same base that suffered through a 2009 mass shooting that left 13 people dead.
Under the circumstances, there were many questions about whether yesterday’s shooting was related to terrorism, but according to remarks made last night by Lt. General Mark Milley, Fort Hood’s commanding general, that does not appear to be the case.
Rather, Lopez, the suspected shooter, suffered from behavioral and mental health issues, and was undergoing a diagnostic process for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
We also learned overnight that Lopez, who was an active duty enlisted soldier, served in the Army National Guard in Puerto Rico, was assigned to a Force Sustainment Brigade, and served at least one tour in Iraq.
Lopez had not been wounded in action, but he self-reported a traumatic brain injury when he returned from serving in Iraq.
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."