The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Tuesday said that it will be interrogating hundreds of patients of a West Texas veterans’ hospital regarding a shooting case that left two people dead, including the suspected shooter.
FBI’s top El Paso agent said that all these patients may have witnessed the fatal shooting incident that took place on Tuesday afternoon at the El Paso Veterans Affairs Health Care System near the William Beaumont Army Medical Center, and can offer crucial clues to the probing agency in solving the case.
Briefing about the investigations, Douglas Lindquist, special agent in charge of the FBI’s El Paso office, said, “The hundreds of potential witnesses were at the hospital seeking medical assistance. We understand the difficulties they would face during questioning, but we’re trying to expeditiously get through those hundreds of witnesses to find out details about this incident.”
The FBI investigators also denied commenting on whether the shooter killed himself or was shot down by someone else. The probing agency has also not revealed any details of the victim or the shooter.
VA hospital’s acting director Peter Dancy said that the clinic will remain closed on Wednesday.
Last year, the VA clinic had to face severe scrutiny following a federal audit that showed the medical center possess some of the country’s longest wait times for veterans who tried to consult a doctor for the first time.
A survey of hundreds of veterans last year found that they waited an average of over two months to consult a mental health professional and even longer to see a physician.
