On Tuesday, April 3, a soldier at the Fort Hood military post in Texas killed at least four people and wounded 16 others. 

The shooting took place around 4 p.m. and sent a shockwave of fear around the base, resulting in a lockdown that lasted several hours to protect the family members of soldiers. 

After the gunman was confronted by military police, he turned the gun on himself and died moments later. 

During a press conference, General Mark A. Miley told reporters that the suspected gunman is Specialist Ivan Lopez. 

Miley reveled that Lopez walked into a building and began firing with a semi-automatic pistol. 

"There is no indication that this incident is related to terrorism, although we are not ruling anything out," he said. 

Miley further explained that Lopez had been under evaluation for behavioral health and mental issues, possibly related to his four-month duty in Iraq three years ago. According to NBC News, Lopez served with the Puerto Rican Army National Guard. 

"Lopez self-reported a traumatic brain injury and was taking anti-depressants," Miley said. "He was currently under assessment for post-traumatic stress disorder and had not yet been diagnosed," he added. 

The Fort Hood shooting occurred more than four years after Army psychiatrist, Nidal Hasan, went on a shooting rampage at the military base in 2009. 

Hasan shot more than 40 people leaving 13 dead and 31 wounded. He was sentenced to death in August 2013.

President Obama held a press conference following the recent shooting and told reporters "we'll get to the bottom of exactly what happened."

"Any shooting is troubling. Obviously this reopens the pain of what happened at Fort Hood five years ago. Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Fort Hood community," Obama said. 

"We're heartbroken that something like this happened again," he continued. 

Racists tweets of Lopez's heritage

News outlet, Latino Rebels, wrote an article about racist twitter messages labeling Lopez as Puerto Rican, stating a "Puerto Rican" angle was being discussed online.  

Here are some tweets the website highlighted.

"Ivan Lopez is a Puerto Rican. There is a strong Anti American sentiment in Puerto Rico. Example: Anti-White Sonya Sotomayor is a PR," one person tweeted.

A second tweeted, "It's a good thing that GW Bush isn't in office or we'd already be bombing Puerto Rico in response to the Ft. Hood Shooting #Toosoondontcare."

Based on several tweets, the website  also stated that some "Puerto Rican actually thought Lopez's news would be a blow to Puerto Rican statehood."

Here is the tweet Latino Rebels is referring to. 

"Iván López was boricua? Now statehood will be pushed back another 100 years." a user tweeted.