Cape man killed in Jordan
A Cape Coral man was among those shot and killed Monday at a police training facility overseas.
Lloyd “Carl” Fields Jr., 46, of 4322 S. Chiquita Blvd., was one of the two Americans fatally injured at the Jordan International Police Training Center in Amman, Jordan. According to the Associated Press, a Jordanian police captain opened fire on instructors, killing at least five people, before being shot dead.
Officials reported that Fields, a second American and another contractor, Conrad Vaughn Whitehorn, 37, of Johannesburg, South Africa, were killed. Two Jordanians were critically wounded and later died.
Both Fields and Whitehorn were working for DynCorp International at the time.
“Three DynCorp International team members were killed in Mon-day’s shooting,” Mary Lawrence, a spokeswoman with the global services provider, said in a prepared statement released Tuesday.
“The name of the third DI team member is not being released by the company at this time, out of respect for the family’s privacy,” she continued.
The U.S. State Department said the two Americans worked for DynCorp in a program funded by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.
Fields began working for DynCorp International in 2006 as a police advisor in Iraq, according to Lawrence. He later worked in Afghanistan as a police advisor and an embedded police mentor.
Fields previously worked as a deputy sheriff for the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana.
The AP reported that the training center is where Jordanian and foreign instructors, including Americans, have trained thousands of police officers from the Palestinian territories and other parts of the Arab world in recent years. It was not clear if there was a political motive to the shooting.
“Our colleagues gave their lives working on a program designed to positively impact essential national security objectives in this vitally important region,” Lou Von Thaer, the chief executive officer of DynCorp International, said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with their families, friends and colleagues.”
Fields’ wife, Tamara, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Officials did not release the shooter’s name, but a former Jordanian parliament member identified him as his relative, Anwar Abu Zaid, 29, a captain in the police force. According to the AP, the alleged shooter’s brother, Fadi Abu Zaid, reported that Anwar was mentally stable and “not an extremist at all.”
Fadi Abu Zaid told the AP that the father of two joined the security forces at age 18 and had been working at the training center for several months. His brother had given notice recently because he had received a job offer from a Gulf country, but that Anwar had reported to work as usual on Monday.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said eight people died in the attack, but officials would only confirm five as of Tuesday morning.
The AP reported that six additional people were injured in the shooting. Three Jordanians and a Lebanese, along with two American civilians, were treated at an Amman hospital for their injuries.
Jordanian authorities have launched an investigation into what motivated the shooting.
In Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama said that “we take this very seriously and will be working closely with the Jordanians to determine exactly what happened,” the AP reported.
Fields is survived by his wife and his children, Trey, Bevin and Breana.
Associated Press reports were used for this article.