3 Soldiers Identified as Victims of Shooting

The Army on Friday identified the three people killed in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood as decorated soldiers who had served multiple tours of duty overseas.

One of the victims, Sgt. First Class Daniel Michael Ferguson, 39, a transportation supervisor from Mulberry, Fla., died using his body to barricade a door to keep the gunman away, his fiancée, Kristen Haley, also a soldier, told Tampa's WTSP-TV. He enlisted as a private in 1993 and served eight months in Afghanistan before returning to Fort Hood last year. Previously, he had served twice in Kuwait and once in Iraq, and earned a Bronze Star, the fourth-highest individual military award, given for acts of heroism, acts of merit, or meritorious service in a combat zone.

'If he wasn't the one standing there holding those doors closed, that shooter would have been able to get through and shoot everyone else,' Ms. Haley, told the Tampa station.

Staff Sgt. Carlos Alberto Lazaney-Rodriguez, 38, from the seaside town of Aguadilla, P.R., was a unit supply sergeant for the First Medical Brigade. He had been planning to retire soon after completing 20 years of service, his hometown's mayor, Carlos Méndez Martínez, told CNN en Español. He had enlisted in 1994, and was deployed to Kuwait in December 1998 for four months and to Iraq in April 2007 and July 2009 for yearlong tours.

During his last tour in Iraq, from July 2009 to July 2010, he was part of a police platoon responsible for making sure American forces could travel safely and training Iraqi police forces.

Sgt. Timothy Wayne Owens, 37, of Effingham, Ill., was shot in the chest at close range, his mother-in-law, Darlene Humphrey, told The Chicago Sun-Times. In August, he married her daughter, Billy, a high school friend, after they reunited last year. Sergeant Owens, a heavy vehicle driver, served a year in Iraq in 2005 and Kuwait in 2010.

His mother, Mary Muntean, had recently reunited with the daughter she gave up for adoption at birth 54 years ago, and the siblings were preparing to meet each other, family members told .

'She finds one child and loses another,' Betty Goodwin, Sergeant Owens's cousin, said.

The soldiers had earned a total of 77 awards, including Army medals for achievement, commendation, good conduct and service.

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