What to Know
- A Chicago police officer and two hospital employees died in a shooting Monday at Mercy Hospital. The suspected shooter also was killed.
- The incident began with an altercation in the hospital parking lot, police said, where the suspect fatally shot a doctor he knew.
- The gunman ran into the hospital. A pharmaceutical assistant was shot in an elevator, and the officer was struck in the exchange of gunfire.
A Chicago doctor shot and killed by her ex-fiance in a tragic shooting at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center was laid to rest Friday.
Dr. Tamara O'Neal, a devoted physician who "loved helping people," was among three victims fatally shot when a gunman, who was also killed, opened fire at the hospital on Chicago's South Side.
Her funeral follows those of Officer Samuel Jimenez and Dr. Dayna Less.
"She’s one of the sweetest nieces that I have," O'Neal's aunt, Delores Davis said. "She was also dedicated to her church."
O'Neal had recently called off her engagement to the alleged gunman Juan Lopez before the fatal shooting. She called police to report that she had spotted him near the hospital where she worked and feared for her life.
When Lopez confronted her in the parking lot, the former couple argued and Lopez demanded that she return the engagement ring. Then, police said, people inside and around the hospital heard gunfire.
As police arrived at the scene, the shooter fired at officers before they exited their cars, police said. The man then ran into the hospital as the gunfire continued, killing Jimenez and Less.
O'Neal, an emergency room doctor at the hospital, was described as "a sweetheart" who "had a heart of gold."
"This tears at the soul of our city," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said at a press conference Monday night. "It is the face and the consequence of evil."
