Feds investigating how Methodist hospital shooting suspect — a felon — got handgun

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is investigating how the Methodist hospital shooting suspect acquired a handgun as both a felon and parolee, officials confirmed to The Dallas Morning News on Thursday. Sara Abel, a spokeswoman for the ATF’s Dallas division, said the agency is tracing the firearm police said 30-year-old Nestor Oswaldo Hernandez used Saturday, when Jacqueline Ama Pokuaa, a caseworker, and Katie Annette Flowers, a nurse, were fatally shot inside Methodist Dallas Medical Center in north Oak Cliff. Hernandez was booked into the Dallas County jail Wednesday, where he faces charges of capital murder and aggravated assault of a public servant, with bail set at $3 million. His attorney, Paul Johnson, declined to comment Thursday.

According to an arrest-warrant affidavit, Hernandez was at the hospital Saturday for the birth of his child when he began acting strangely, accusing his girlfriend of cheating on him. Hernandez then struck his girlfriend with a handgun and vowed to shoot the first person who walked into the room, the affidavit says. Pokuaa was shot as she entered to provide routine patient services, according to Dallas police Chief Eddie García, and Flowers was struck moments later when she looked inside the room. The affidavit said Hernandez then fired at a Methodist police sergeant who shot Hernandez in the leg, causing him to surrender after a brief standoff. Hernandez was on parole and had an active ankle monitor when he went to the hospital’s labor and delivery wing Saturday, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, but had permission to be there because his girlfriend gave birth to their child. Hernandez was previously sentenced to eight years in prison in 2015 for an aggravated robbery conviction, but was released on parole in 2021 after he served 80% of his sentence, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles said.