WANT MORE? We’ve got it. salina.com Friday Serving Kansas since 1871★ NOT A SHOCKER: WSU head coach Gregg Marshall is AP Basketball Coach of the Year. PAGE C1 FROM TRAGEDY TO TRIUMPH: “4th Trimester Bodies Project” embraces motherhood. PAGE D1 April 4, 2014 75 cents Vol. 144, No. 94 Calling it quits • David Letterman to retire from late night TV in 2015. PAGE C7 Fort Hood attack: Why did he do it? Associated Press Bob Gordon works on a memorial for the victims of Wednesday’s shooting at Fort Hood on Thursday at Central Christian Church in Killeen, Texas. A 34-year-old soldier, Spc. Ivan Lopez, opened fire Wednesday on fellow service members at the military base, killing three and wounding 16 before committing suicide. Argument may have preceded deadly Fort Hood shooting Texas shooting provokes debate over ban on guns on bases By WILL WEISSERT and PAUL J. WEBER By MARIA RECIO Associated Press FORT HOOD, Texas — The soldier who killed three people at Fort Hood may have argued with another service member prior to the attack, and investigators believe his unstable mental health contributed to the rampage, authorities said Thursday. The base’s senior officer, Lt. Lopez Gen. Mark Milley, said there is a “strong possibility” that Spc. Ivan Lopez had a “verbal altercation” with another soldier or soldiers immediately before Wednesday’s shooting, which unfolded on the same Army post that was the scene of an infamous 2009 mass shooting. However, there’s no indication that he targeted specific soldiers, Milley said. Lopez never saw combat during a deployment to Iraq and had shown no apparent risk of violence before the shooting, officials said. The 34-year-old truck driver from Puerto Rico seemed to have a clean record that showed no ties to extremist groups. But the Army secretary promised that investigators would keep all avenues open in their inquiry of the soldier whose rampage ended only after he fired a final bullet into his own head. See ARGUMENT, Page A3 It’s outta here McClatchy Washington Bureau Associated Press Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, Fort Hood’s senior officer, addresses reporters following the shooting that killed three people and wounded 16 before the shooter committed suicide. WASHINGTON — The haunting scene of another mass shooting at Fort Hood is igniting a debate among lawmakers, especially from Texas, about the Pentagon’s rules against personnel carrying guns on military bases. Wednesday’s shooting marks 28 victims killed in three mass shootings at military installations over the past five years. The 1993 Pentagon regulation was designed to ensure safety by imposing “limit and control” of firearms on military and civilian workers at bases. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, warned Thursday that military bases are Don’t forget to vote National juco tournament to leave Salina after 2015 By Tim Unruh Salina Journal Just before a Salina Area Chamber of Commerce contingent left for Colorado Springs on Thursday morning, members were informed they’d lost the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball National Championship tournament. The group was headed west aiming to continue as hosts, as they have for 17 years. But the NJCAA championship events committee gave the tournament to Lubbock, Texas — from 2016 to 2018. The association’s board of directors won’t make the decision official until Saturday, said Mary Ellen Leicht, the NJCAA executive director. “There would have been many who knew the outcome of that, and they wanted to let us know,” said Tiffany Benien, the tournament director, and sports and events coordinator at the chamber. The event will be staged for the 18th straight year in 2015 at the Salina Bicentennial Center. FORECAST High: 56 Low: 31 Sunny with wind gusting to 24 mph. / c6 • More than half of the 22,000 mail ballots sent out in the Salina School District’s $110 million bond issue have been returned, Saline County Clerk Don Merriman said late Thursday afternoon. • Merriman said that 11,666 ballots had been counted, and “well over 12,000 have been returned. • Merriman estimates that more than 300 ballots had been returned with the outer envelope unsigned. Those won’t be counted unless the voter comes to his office at the CityCounty Building and signs it before the deadline at noon Tuesday. • Merriman’s office has been sending out letters to people whose ballot envelopes weren’t signed, asking them to come in, and many have. • New projections lower the cost of the district’s building project, Page A5. See NJCAA, Page a2 ju s t say i n’ If they need revenue If the state of Kansas needs revenue, it might try getting it from the state income tax on businesses. This would pay for education and the KanCare extension, with money left over to repay campaign funding favors. — GARY SIMS, Herington Associated Press According to Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, Ivan Lopez, the shooter, purchased his weapon recently at Guns Galore, seen Thursday in Killeen, Texas. now, in effect, “soft targets” that make those working and living at Department of Defense facilities vulnerable. See GUNS, Page A3 Heil ‘freaked out’ after Tyler’s death DeWeese expected to testify today in his murder trial By ERIN MATHEWS Salina Journal A neighbor of Joel M. Heil’s testified Thursday that she heard a loud vehicle pull up outside his house in the early morning hours of April 26, 2013, and saw Heil walk in and go straight to his bedroom, where he sat on the floor and leaned against the wall. “He was nervous,” said Jayme Cartlich. “He was pale — a little freaked out, maybe.” Cartlich was among witnesses on the second day of defense evidence presentation in the first-degree • What’s on your mind? “Just Sayin’ ” must be fewer than 100 words and include your name and phone number. Email them to [email protected], or mail them to Salina Journal letters, P.O. Box 740, Salina, KS 67402-0740. INSIDE Opinion / a7 • Classifieds / b1 • Fun / b3 • Sports / c1 • Almanac / c6 • encore! / d1 murder trial of Dane C. DeWeese, who is accused of assisting Heil in the murder Kristin Tyler, 27, of Salina. Attorney Doug Thompson, who represents DeWeese, said his client would testify this morning in Saline County District Court. Cartlich DeWeese said Heil’s clothes were wet and dirty. She said her fiance asked Kimberly French, a teen runaway who was staying at Heil’s house at the time, if Heil wanted company. See tyler, Page a3 6 82346 36363 8