CHICAGO _ Mercy Hospital shooter Juan Lopez spent a recent summer interning for a Chicago alderman, the alderman said Wednesday.
Alderman Roberto Maldonado of the 26th Ward said he was shocked to see Lopez's picture on TV this week. That's when he realized the person responsible for killing a doctor, a Chicago police officer and a pharmacy resident at the hospital Monday afternoon was the same man who worked in Maldonado's office in the summer of either 2016 or 2017.
"I couldn't believe it," Maldonado said. "It was completely surprising to me that he could be capable of that."
Maldonado said Lopez applied for the intern position and got the job. He said he had no relationship with Lopez before he started. The internship lasts for a couple of months each summer and is administered by the city, not by individual aldermen's offices. "We don't get very many applicants, because it requires a college degree," he said.
"The intern gets coffee, makes copies, things like that," Maldonado said. "It doesn't last very long, obviously. He seemed like a nice person, very outgoing personality."
Maldonado said he heard from Lopez after his internship that he had applied for a job at the Chicago Housing Authority. The alderman said he didn't play any part in helping Lopez get the CHA job.
Lopez was hired at the CHA in February 2018 as an associate program specialist. The agency said in a statement that he was hired "after undergoing the usual background checks. There is no history of complaints about him during the course of his employment at CHA."
On Monday afternoon, Lopez confronted his ex-fiancee, Dr. Tamara O'Neal, in the parking lot of the Near South Side hospital, where she worked.
Lopez wanted his engagement ring back and they began to argue. After O'Neal called 911, Lopez pulled out a gun and fired. She fell and he stood over her and fired again.
He then shot Chicago police Officer Samuel Jimenez as he arrived on the scene and pharmacist Dayna Less as she exited an elevator before turning the gun on himself. All four died.
