Gary and Betty Gabel “were concerned about helping others,” Arlington Heights Mayor Thomas W. Hayes told the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald. The mayor said he’s known the family for 25 years as members of the Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Arlington Heights. Gary Gabel sang in the church choir, was involved with church youth groups and the leadership team. “He was someone who wanted to give back of his talents, enthusiasm and faith.”

CHICAGO – A proud father visiting his son in Afghanistan spent what would become both men’s final days seeing the city where the younger man ran a small clinic, drinking tea with a university colleague and learning about his son’s work.

A planned visit to a Kabul hospital brought them together with a third Illinois man, a doctor who shared their interest in the Afghan people and a faith-driven commitment to helping others.

Gary Gabel of suburban Chicago and his son, John Gabel, were killed Thursday [April 24] when an Afghan police security guard opened fire on the group as they entered the grounds of a hospital in Kabul. Also killed was Dr. Jerry Umanos, a pediatrician from Chicago. John Gabel’s wife, also an American, was wounded.

Afghan policemen keep watch as foreign nationals wait outside the Cure hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 24, 2014, where a guard shot dead three Americans, including Dr. Jerry Umanos, inset.

CBS/AFP/Getty Images

What prompted the guard to fire on the Americans was not clear, but recently there have been a number of so-called “insider attacks” – incidents in which Afghan security forces fire on their comrades or foreign trainers or civilians. Violence has increased in Afghanistan ahead of the NATO withdrawal and also in the weeks leading up to the country’s April 5 election.

Garywas a member of the Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Arlington Heights, IL; his son John Gabel worked for the Colorado Springs-based charity Morning Star Development

Read More