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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Wednesday, November 21,2018 5A
Gunman had previously threatened firefighter cadet
DAVID BANKS I Associated Press
Chicago police officers and firefighters form an honor guard
as the body of Chicago Police Officer Samuel Jimenez is
brought to the coroner Monday, Nov. 19, in Chicago.
BY AMANDA SEITZ
AND DON BABWIN
Associated Press
CHICAGO — A man who
fatally shot his ex-fiancee
outside a Chicago hospital
before killing two people
inside the building was
once kicked out of the city’s
firefighting academy after
threatening a female cadet,
officials said Tuesday.
Juan Lopez, who died fol
lowing the shooting Monday
at Mercy Hospital, was also
the subject of a protection
order request filed four
years ago, and he legally pur
chased several guns in recent
years, police said.
It was unclear whether
Lopez shot himself or was
fatally shot by police.
Four years ago, fire
department officials learned
of the threats to the cadet
and told Lopez that he would
be disciplined. He was dis
missed after he went AWOL,
fire department spokesman
Larry Merritt said.
Merritt did not have any
details of the past threats. But
they were made the same
year a woman sought an
order of protection against
Lopez because he was inces
santly texting her. Police said
they have not determined if
the woman was granted an
order of protection. Lopez
was not criminally charged.
On Monday, Lopez’s first
victim was Dr. Tamara
O’Neal, to whom he had been
engaged. O’Neal had recently
called off their engagement,
and Lopez confronted her
about returning the engage
ment ring, police said.
After shooting the emer
gency room doctor near a
hospital parking lot, the gun
man ran into the medical
center, where he continued
firing. The gunshots killed
a police officer and a phar
macy resident, authorities
said.
Lopez had a permit to pos
sess a concealed firearm,
but it was unclear if offi
cials knew about the 2014
complaint when the permit
was granted, Chicago police
spokesman Anthony Gug-
lielmi said.
Lopez had legally pur
chased four guns in the last
five years and worked for the
Chicago Housing Authority,
Guglielmi said.
Investigators identified
the other shooting victims as
Dayna Less, 25, who worked
in the hospital’s pharmacy
and had recently graduated
from Purdue University, and
Officer Samuel Jimenez, 28,
who joined the department
in February 2017 and had
recently completed his pro
bationary period. Police said
he was a married father of
three children.
“This officer, all of those
officers, are heroes. They
saved a lot of lives because
we just don’t know how much
damage he was prepared to
do,” Chicago Police Superin
tendent Eddie Johnson said
late Monday outside another
hospital, just minutes after
leaving the slain officer’s
family.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel,
fighting back tears, said the
victims were “all going about
their day, all doing what they
loved.” He added: “This just
tears at the soul of our city. It
is the face and a consequence
of evil.”
Lopez, 32, and O’Neal had
been arguing in the hospi
tal parking lot. When one
of O’Neal’s friends tried to
intervene, “the offender
lifted up his shirt and dis
played a handgun,” Johnson
said.
The friend ran into the
hospital to call for help, and
the gunfire began seconds
later. After O’Neal fell to the
ground, Lopez “stood over
her and shot her three more
times,” a witness named
James Gray told reporters.
When officers arrived, the
suspect fired at their squad
car then ran inside the hos
pital. The police gave chase.
Inside the medical center,
Lopez exchanged fire with
officers and “shot a poor
woman who just came off
the elevator” before he was
killed, Johnson said, refer
ring to Less.
Jennifer Eldridge was
working in a hospital phar
macy when she heard three
or four shots that seemed to
come from outside. Within
seconds, she barricaded
the door, as called for in the
building’s active shooter
drills. Then there were six
or seven more shots that
sounded much closer, just
outside the door.
“I could tell he was now
inside the lobby. There was
screaming,” she recalled.
The door jiggled, which
Eldridge believed was the
shooter trying to get in. Some
15 minutes later, she esti
mated, a SWAT team officer
knocked at the door, came
inside and led her away. She
looked down and saw blood
on the floor but no bodies.
“It may have been 15 min
utes, but it seemed like an
eternity,” she said.
Maria Correa hid under a
desk, clutching her 4-month-
old son Angel, while the vio
lence unfolded. Correa was
in the waiting area of the hos
pital for her mother-in-law’s
doctor appointment when a
hospital employee told them
to lock themselves in offices.
400 years later, natives who helped Pilgrims finally gain a voice
STEVEN SENNE I Associated Press
Visitors walk past a fort at Plimoth Plantation living history museum
village on Sunday Nov. 18, in Plymouth, Mass., where visitors can get a
glimpse into the world of the 1627 Pilgrim village.
BY WILLIAM J. K0LE
Associated Press
PLYMOUTH, Mass. — The sea
side town where the Pilgrims came
ashore in 1620 is gearing up for a
400th birthday bash, and everyone’s
invited — especially the native peo
ple whose ancestors wound up los
ing their land and their lives.
Plymouth, Massachusetts, whose
European settlers have come to
symbolize American liberty and
grit, marks its quadricentennial in
2020 with a trans-Atlantic commem
oration that will put Native Ameri
cans’ unvarnished side of the story
on full display.
“It’s history. It happened,” said
Michele Pecoraro, executive direc
tor of Plymouth 400, Inc., a non
profit group organizing yearlong
events. “We’re not going to solve
every problem and make everyone
feel better. We just need to move the
needle.”
Organizers are understandably
cautious this time around. When the
350th anniversary of the Pilgrim
landing was observed in 1970, state
officials disinvited a leader of the
Wampanoag Nation — the Native
American tribe that helped the hag
gard newcomers survive their first
bitter winter — after learning his
speech would bemoan the disease,
racism and oppression that followed
the Pilgrims.
That triggered angry demonstra
tions from tribal members who
staged a National Day of Mourn
ing, a somber remembrance that
indigenous New Englanders have
observed on every Thanksgiving
Day since.
This time, there’s pressure to get
it right, said Jim Peters, a Wampa
noag who directs the Massachusetts
Commission on Indian Affairs.
“We’ll be able to tell some stories
of what happened to us — to delve
back into our history and talk about
it,” Peters said. “Hopefully it will
give us a chance to re-educate peo
ple and have a national discussion
about how we should be treating
each other.”
The commemoration known as
Plymouth 400 will feature events
throughout 2020, including a mari
time salute in Plymouth Harbor in
June, an embarkation festival in
September, and a week of ceremo
nies around Thanksgiving.
The Mayflower II, a replica of
the ship that carried the settlers
from Europe to the New World four
centuries ago, will sail to Boston in
the spring. That autumn, it will head
to Provincetown, at the outermost
tip of Cape Cod, where the Pilgrims
initially landed before continuing on
to Plymouth.
Events also are planned in Brit
ain and in the Netherlands, where
the Pilgrims spent 11 years in exile
before making their perilous sea
crossing.
But the emphasis is on highlight
ing the often-ignored history of the
Wampanoag and poking holes in
the false narrative that Pilgrims
and Indians coexisted in peace and
harmony.
An interactive exhibit now mak
ing the rounds describes how the
Wampanoag were cheated and
enslaved, and in August 2020 tribal
members will guide visitors on a
walk through Plymouth to point out
and consecrate spots where their
ancestors once trod.
There are also plans to invite
relatives of the late Wampanoag
elder Wamsutta “Frank” James to
publicly read that speech he wasn’t
allowed to deliver in 1970 — an
address that includes this passage:
“We, the Wampanoag, welcomed
you, the white man, with open arms,
little knowing that it was the begin
ning of the end.”
“The Pilgrims had hardly
explored the shores of Cape Cod for
four days before they had robbed
the graves of my ancestors and
stolen their corn and beans,” the
speech reads.
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