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 pharmacist was shot in an elevator, and the officer was struck in the exchange of gunfire.
The funeral for the Chicago police officer who was shot and killed along with two employees at Mercy Hospital Monday will be held one week after the officer's tragic death.
A wake is set for Sunday at Oehler Funeral Home and a funeral mass will take place Monday at Chapel of St. Joseph at Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines, according to the Chicago Police Department.
Samuel Jimenez was among three people killed at Mercy Hospital after a gunman, who also died in the shooting, opened fire.
Juan Lopez, 32, is accused of opening fire at the hospital, killing Dr. Tamara O'Neal in the parking lot before entering the building and fatally shooting a pharmacist, Dr. Dayna Less, and Jimenez.
Chicago police Supt. Eddie Johnson said O'Neal was leaving after her shift at around 3:28 p.m. Monday when she and Lopez got into a verbal altercation in the parking lot.
A friend tried to intervene in the argument, Johnson said, and Lopez lifted his shirt and displayed a handgun. The friend fled into the hospital, and witnesses said they saw Lopez shoot O'Neal at least six times in the parking lot.
As police arrived at the scene, Johnson said Lopez shot at officers before they exited their cars, and then ran into the hospital, where he and police engaged in an exchange of gunfire.
During the exchange, Less was exiting an elevator when she was fatally shot, Johnson said.
Jimenez, 28, was also shot in the exchange and taken in critical condition to the University of Chicago Hospital. He later died from his wounds.
Fellow officers and friends gathered in his Edison Park neighborhood at a local bar Tuesday night to remember Jimenez, a young man with a growing family and who was proud to have recently become a Chicago police officer.
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“He was a great guy," Officer Gorzerany, Jimenez's close friend through the police academy and beyond said. "He made time for everybody you know."
“He’s the last person you’d think this would happen to," he said, adding that Jimenez would "never turn his back" on a dangerous situation like Monday's shooting.
Mercy has set up a fund for donations to benefit the victims' families, and a candlelight vigil was scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Chicago's Federal Plaza.
