Dayna Less was 24 when she was shot and killed on November 19, 2018, at Mercy Hospital in Chicago. She was stepping off an elevator when Juan Lopez, who had just confronted and killed his former fiancée, Dr. Tamara O’Neal, in the hospital parking lot, fatally shot her. Lopez also killed Chicago Police Officer Samuel Jimenez and was shot dead by police after a running gun battle.

A Purdue University PharmD graduate, Dayna was in her first year of pharmaceutical residency at Mercy and had been planning to return for a second year and to marry her fiancé, Adam Keric, the following June. Her father, Brian Less, remembered her as intelligent, funny, kind, and always willing to help others.

In November 2019 the family filed a 12-count lawsuit alleging the hospital and its security contractor failed to follow protocols, including issuing a Code Silver alert or locking down the building, which the complaint said allowed Lopez to re-enter the hospital. The family later pursued a wrongful-death settlement.

If anyone knew Dayna or has information about what happened that day, please share what you remember.