2 More Heroes Emerge From Fort Hood Shooting

Timothy Owens, Danny Ferguson both died amid acts of bravery
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 4, 2014 5:22 AM CDT
Updated Apr 4, 2014 7:53 AM CDT
Fort Hood Counselor Died Trying to Calm Gunman
This undated image provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety shows Army Spc. Ivan Lopez.    (AP Photo/Texas Department of Public Safety)

As investigators continue to puzzle over the motive of Fort Hood gunman Ivan Lopez, two more tales of heroism during the shooting have emerged:

  • Military counselor Timothy Owens was one of the three people Lopez killed, and his wife says he was shot five times as he tried to calm the shooter in a parking lot, the Washington Post reports. Friends say the Illinois native turned his life around after a tough upbringing by joining the Army, and was well known for his skill at defusing conflicts. Owens, 37, married his second wife just last summer and had recently signed up for another six-year stint in the Army. He served as a counselor for around 500 soldiers, though there is no indication that he knew Lopez before the shooting. "I want people to remember him as a brave, young man, and as a loving man," his mother tells the Wall Street Journal. "To me, it's just a dream. It's hard to believe that he's gone."

  • Another soldier killed in the attack, Sgt. First Class Danny Ferguson, died while protecting other military personnel, his fiancee tells WTSP. Kristen Haley, herself a soldier, says Ferguson died while holding a door closed to keep the gunman out of a crowded room. "It wouldn't lock," Haley says of the door. "If he wasn't the one standing there holding those doors closed, that shooter would have been able to get through and shoot everyone else." Ferguson, 34, had recently returned from Afghanistan.
  • The military has not officially confirmed the identity of the third victim, but family members and a fellow soldier say it's Carlos Lazaney, 38, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports. The death toll will likely stand at three: A doctor told media outlets including NPR yesterday, "We do not expect any more fatalities at this point."
Commanders have also praised the heroism of a military policewoman who faced down the shooter in a confrontation that ended in his suicide. (More Ivan Lopez stories.)

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