A well-respected doctor was hunted down, shot and killed at her place of employment by her ex- fiancé at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, in a violent and horrifying rampage that left four people dead yesterday.
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According to reports, on Monday Dr. Tamara O’Neal was targeted and shot outside of the Chicago Hospital before the gunman entered the building firing shots as staff, doctors and patients ran for their lives.
In the end, O’Neal was shot dead as well as police officer Samuel Jimenez, and a pharmaceutical assistant. The gunman was killed, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said, The Mirror reports.
Police report that O’Neal engaged in a domestic dispute before her death. Witnesses said the gunman demanded his engagement ring back before opening fire.
“She’s one of the sweetest nieces that I have,” O’Neal’s aunt, Delores Davis told Chicago 5. “She was also dedicated to her church.”
O’Neal, an emergency room doctor, was also described as “a sweetheart” who “had a heart of gold.”
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Johnson told reporters that the incident started in the hospital parking lot, during a verbal altercation between the shooter and O’Neal, who he was “in a domestic relationship with.”
A friend tried to intervene in the argument, Johnson said, and the shooter lifted his shirt and displayed a handgun. The friend fled into the hospital, and then the man shot O’Neal.
Many in the medical community took to social media to share their sentiments over the tragic loss of the 38-year-old ER physician.
Dr. O’Neal also had grit, that most magical of qualities. There are very few female POCs in our field; they don’t get there by accident. It’s an uphill journey. She had to be special, tenacious, a stand-out doc.
— Esther Choo MD MPH (@choo_ek) November 20, 2018
My sorrow knows no bounds.
Sorrow at the unimaginable loss of life.
Sorrow that this preventable death persists.
Sorrow that one of our own, Dr. Tamara O’Neal, was killed on her way to work in the Emergency Department today. #ThisIsOurLane https://t.co/kVWS9KS0So
— Shannon McNamara, MD (@ShannonOMac) November 20, 2018
According to Heavy.com, O’Neal enjoyed giving back to her community. According to a National Medical Fellowships program, to which O’Neal was named as a Residency Scholar in 2014, she volunteered as a mentor for at-risk youth and as an after school tutor while in college at Purdue.