WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will travel on Wednesday to a Texas military base to honor the victims of a deadly shooting by a troubled US soldier, the White House said.
Presidential adviser Dan Pfeiffer told CBS television on Sunday that president and First Lady Michelle Obama will attend a memorial service at the Fort Hood army base for three soldiers who died last week when Army specialist Ivan Lopez, 34, opened fire at the sprawling military facility.
“The president and the first lady send their thoughts and prayers out to the victims and families and everyone on the base, and they´re going to actually travel down on Wednesday to the memorials they´re running,” Pfeiffer told CBS´s “Face the Nation” program.
In addition to the dead, Lopez, 34, wounded 16 people before taking his own life with his .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol.
Military officials have said that Lopez — who served in Iraq in 2011 but did not see combat — was being examined for post traumatic stress disorder, although they do not know what led him to open fire on his fellow soldiers.