Once again, the link between mass shooting and domestic violence is further established, this time as Mercy Hospital Emergency Room doctor Tamara O’Neal was shot and killed by her ex-fiancé Juan Lopez before he moved on to kill two other targets. According to CBS News, the Chicago Police department reported that O’Neal and Lopez argued outside of the hospital before Lopez went on his shooting rampage. After he shot O’Neal, Lopez moved further into the hospital, killing a resident pharmacist, Dayna Less, and and police officer Samuel Jimenez during a firefight.

CBS Chicago reports that O’Neal studied at the University of Ilinois in Chicago before becoming employed by Mercy as an ER doctor. Records at Bed, Bath, and Beyond show Lopez and O’Neal had set a wedding date of October 27th, but the wedding had been called off for unknown reasons. It is still unknown what exactly caused Lopez’s violent actions or what made him shoot and kill his former fiancée.

However, the New York Times reports that in many recent cases, shootings that have received notoriety have been tied to domestic violence. In several other mass shootings, the men who carried out these attacks have been tied to domestic violence. Shootings in Orlando, Florida; Hesston, Kansas; Sutherland Springs, TX; and Sydney, Australia all involved men who had been accused of domestic violence.

Billy Rosen, managing director of state policy and government affairs for Everytown for Gun Safety, a group advocating for stricter gun laws told the New York Times, “Not only is the intersection of guns and domestic violence deadly for the immediate intimate partner. It often, and all too often, spills over into public.” Additionally, as public research has indicated, the victims of shootings at hospitals are generally targeted by shooters.