FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) -- An Army psychiatrist
set to be shipped overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post
Thursday, authorities said, a rampage that killed 12 people and left 31
wounded in the worst mass shooting ever at a military base in the
United States.
The gunman, first said to have
been killed, was wounded but alive in a hospital under military guard,
said Lt. Gen. Bob Cone at Fort Hood. He was shot four times, and was on
a ventilator and unconscious, according to military officials. "I would
say his death is not imminent," Cone said.
The man was identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old from Virginia.
President
Barack Obama called the shooting at the Soldier Readiness Center, where
soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo
medical screening, "a horrific outburst of violence."
"It's
difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles
overseas," the commander in chief said. "It is horrifying that they
should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."
Soldiers
rushed to treat their injured colleagues by ripping their uniforms into
makeshift bandages. Officials have not ruled out the possibility that
some casualties may have been victims of "friendly fire," shot by
authorities amid the mayhem and confusion at the scene, said a senior
U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters
that were under investigation.
(Written story continues below this video)
Hasan had
transferred to Fort Hood in July from Walter Reed Medical Center, where
he received a poor performance evaluation, according to an official who
spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to
discuss the case publicly.
Sen. Kay Bailey
Hutchison, R-Texas, said generals at Fort Hood told her that Hasan was
about to deploy overseas. Retired Col. Terry Lee, who said he had
worked with Hasan, told Fox News he was being sent to Afghanistan.
Lee
said Hasan had hoped Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and
Iraq and got into frequent arguments with others in the military who
supported the wars.
Faizul Khan, a former
imam at a mosque Hasan attended in Silver Spring, Md., said he spoke
often with Hasan about how Hasan wanted to find a wife. Hasan was a
lifelong Muslim and attended prayers regularly, often in his Army
uniform, Khan said.
The shooter used two pistols, one of them semiautomatic. Neither were military-issued, Col. Ben Danner said.
Video
from the scene showed police patrolling the area with handguns and
rifles, ducking behind buildings for cover. Sirens could be heard
wailing while a woman's voice on a public-address system urged people
to take cover.
"I was confused and just
shocked," said Spc. Jerry Richard, 27, who works at the center but was
not on duty during the shooting. "Overseas you are ready for it. But
here you can't even defend yourself."
Soldiers at Fort Hood don't carry weapons unless they are doing training exercises.
The
Rev. Greg Schannep was about to head into a graduation ceremony when a
man in uniform approached him, warning him that someone had opened
fire. Schannep heard three volleys of gunfire and saw people running.
"There
was a burst of shots and more bursts of shots and people running
everywhere," said Schannep, who works for local Congressman John Carter.
The
uniformed man who had warned him ran to the theater. Schannep said he
could see the man's back was bloodied from a wound. The man survived,
was treated and will be fine, Schannep said.
Cone
said initially three people were held, and all have been interviewed.
Authorities believe, however, that there was a single shooter. In
Washington, the senior U.S. official said authorities at Fort Hood
initially thought one of the slain victims was the shooter, a mistake
that resulted in a delay of several hours in identifying Hasan as the
suspect.
The Soldier Readiness Center holds
hundreds of people and is one of the most populated parts of the base,
said Steve Moore, a spokesman for III Corps at Fort Hood. Nearby there
are barracks and a food center where there are fast food chains.
The
wounded were dispersed among hospitals in central Texas, Cone said.
Their identities, and the identities of the dead, were not immediately
released.
Amber Bahr, 19, was shot in the stomach but was in stable condition, said her mother, Lisa Pfund of Random Lake, Wis.
"We
know nothing, just that she was shot in the belly," Pfund told The
Associated Press. She couldn't provide more details and only spoke with
emergency personnel.
Hasan, whose family said
he was born in suburban Washington, is single with no children. He
graduated from Virginia Tech, where he was a member of the ROTC and
earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry in 1997. He received his
medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University of the
Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001 and was at Walter Reed for
six years for his internship, residency and a fellowship.
"We
are shocked and saddened by the terrible events at Fort Hood today,"
his cousin, Nadar Hasan, said in a statement issued on behalf of their
family. "We send the families of the victims our most heartfelt
sympathies."
The attack happened just down
the road from one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. On Oct.
16, 1991, George Hennard smashed his pickup truck through a Luby's
Cafeteria window in Killeen, Texas, and fired on the lunchtime crowd
with a high-powered pistol, killing 22 people and wounding at least 20
others.
No other shooting at a military base
in the U.S. has been anywhere near as deadly as Thursday's. In 1993, a
gunman at Fort Knox shot five civilian co-workers, killing three, and
then fatally shot himself.
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Plainview Texas Branch; Lubbock Stake Announcements;
Sunday, November 8th, 2009: PEC 1:15
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