A man from Effingham, Illinois was reportedly among the three people killed when a gunman attacked the Ft. Hood military base in Texas.
Authorities said three soldiers were killed and 16 others wounded by 34-year-old Spc. Ivan Lopez before Lopez turned the .45 caliber handgun on himself Wednesday, April 2, 2014.
The day after the shooting, Effingham, Illinois native Timothy Owens, 37, was reported as one of the three people killed in the incident, according to the Effingham Daily News.
The paper reported Owens grew up in Effingham before he moved to Rolla, Missouri. His cousin said Owens was stationed at Fort Hood and working as a counselor at the time of the shooting, the report said.
His death was confirmed by CNN affiliate WICS in Springfield, Illinois, which spoke to his mother, Mary Muntean. She said he had planned to make the military his career.
“Very terrible that they had to shoot my son,” she said. “He was a good person. Why would they shoot a good person that was helping them?”
Owens is survived by his mother, his wife and two children, according to a family statement.
Lopez was was undergoing diagnosis procedures for post-traumatic stress disorder.
