Print
E-mail
Share
digg
Newsvine
Facebook
Stumble
Technorati
reddit
Fark
twitterArmy: 12 dead, 31 hurt in attacks at Fort Hood
AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Rodolfo Gonzalez
Army Lt. Gen. Robert Cone gives a news conference after a shooting in Fort Hood, Texas on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009.
Published Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 | 12:58 p.m.
Updated Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 | 9:11 p.m.
An Army psychiatrist set to be shipped overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post Thursday, authorites 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 and in stable condition under military guard, said Lt. Gen. Bob Cone at Fort Hood. "I would say his death is not imminent," Cone said. Col. Ben Danner said the suspect was shot at least four times.
The man was identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old, eight-year veteran 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."
There was no official word on motive. 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.
Officials were investigating whether Hasan was his birth name or if he may have changed his name, possibly as part of a conversion to Islam. However, they were not certain of his religion.
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, Schanepp said.
Cone said initially three people were held, and all have been interviewed. Authorities believe, however, that there was a single shooter.
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 was 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.
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.
Around the country, some bases stepped up security precautions, but no others were locked down.
Covering 339 square miles, Fort Hood is the largest active duty armored post in the United States. Home to about 52,000 troops as of earlier this year, it is located halfway between Austin and Waco.
Barrett reported from Washington, D.C. Associated Press Writers Pam Hess, Anne Gearan, Lara Jakes, Suzanne Gamboa and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, D.C., Jay Root in Temple, Linda Stewart Ball, Anabelle Garay and Andre Coe in Dallas and Colin Fly in Milwaukee and the Associated Press News Research
Discussion: 24 comments so far…
Post a comment
- Most Read
- Discussed
- Most E-mailed
- Three arrested in fatal shooting of Metro officer
- Stripper-mobile will roll again, owner says
- Boyd chief: Recession forcing Vegas back to roots
- FBI looking at hundreds in mortgage schemes
- Franchione potential early candidate for UNLV football post
- Rebels’ reserves ignite comeback in 88-75 victory over UNR
- GOP and Palinpaloozza
- Has Water Authority ever considered tapping Lake Tahoe?
- Las Vegas to lay off 19 city employees as part of budget cuts
- Danny Tarkanian’s ad narrator can’t pronounce Nevada; pulls down web ad within minutes
Blogs
Bloggity, Bloggity, Bloggity
Will a fourth consecutive title by Jimmie Johnson be good or bad for NASCAR?
Top Chef: Las Vegas
The Jet Stream: And then there were four
Top Chef Episode 12: On keeping it simple
Miech Again
Chilly start for Chace, but Stanback says he'll warm up (1 Comment)
Elsewhere
Harvard Poker Pro: Texas Hold 'Em skills can help traders
Oscar De La Hoya wants to see Pacquiao/Mayweather
The Kats Report
Funny Face: Carrot Top's stage act a mask of contradictions (23 Comments)
- Live chat
- Tuesday, noon PST
- Chat with Krista Creelman
- Problem Gambling Center executive director Krista Creelman will answer questions about gambling addiction from Las Vegas Sun readers from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. ... Submit question
Calendar »
- 20 Fri
- 21 Sat
- 22 Sun
- 23 Mon
- 24 Tue
-
Rock 'n' Roll Wine tasting at Risque
Risqué de Paris | 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
-
Julio Iglesias at the Las Vegas Hilton
Las Vegas Hilton
-
The Vatos Locos Tour with Hollywood Undead and Atreyu
House of Blues | 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.
-
Led Zeppelin IV performance at The Cannery
Cannery Casino & Hotel | 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.
-
Crown Boxing at the Orleans
Mardi Gras Room
-
DJ Drez at Brass Lounge
Brass Lounge | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
These MASS MURDERS are not isolated incidents in the USA; they are epidemic. Something is SERIOUSLY WRONG IN THE USA!
The Psycho-Wacko's "How do you feel?" Group therapy nonsense, Handfuls of brain-frying meds that don't work, and mandatory 12-step religious cult insanity FOR EVERY HUMAN PROBLEM IS A FRAUD & SCAM!
PEOPLE NEED REAL HELP! If people lose their housing THEY NEED HOUSING, not a mat on a filthy church's basement floor for years.
If people lose their jobs THEY NEED JOBS, not years of "Life Skills" nonsense & anger management crap & sorting clothes at goodwill masqueraded as "Job Training"!
12 Killed
31 Injured
rejco100,
MSNBC: Official IDs a shooter as Army Major Malik Nadal Hasan. Fascinating name, huh?
I don't think this was a run-of-the-mill nutjob shooter. I bet it was terrorism related.
Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan was a white medical doctor who the TV news channels are reporting was a Jordanian Moslem.
The extremists in the Moslem religion teach the righteousness of killing Americans as retribution for all sorts of things America has done to them.
Here in the United States, we will not be safe until every Moslem who is not a U.S. citizen is rounded up and deported.
Here in the United States, we will not be safe until any entry into the United States by Moslems as tourists or business visitors is forbidden. Included should be the thousands of Moslems, mostly Pakistani and Algerian, who live in Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec respectively.
People who are Moslems are enemy aliens, plain and simple. Those who are not U.S. Citizens need to be deported, plain and simple.
This is not racism, this is reality.
cynical, know know if staff will do it but i suggested removal of this hate. what kind of people do we have out there that hate one another. can't wait for facts, just judge every person the same as a named shooter. shame on you and others that feel this way.
rejco, your right on
Just wait until the TRUE Muslim Plan is revealed, but then it will be too late. Right Obama?
CynicalObserver, making decisions about millions of people based on the actions of a few.
No, that is pretty much racism on your part (and rejco100's part). As a white person, I would not like major, damaging decisions to be made about my life (such as deportation) based on the actions of people like Timothy McVeigh or the Columbine shooters.
Yo CynicalRacist,
Get a brain please. Let's round up all the white northern european scumbags who stole all our nations money and ship them back to Europe first.
What a douche.
This month Rolling Stone magazine has a horrific article about murders committed by returning Iraqi soliders at Fort Carson in Colorado.
The lack of our government/military to understand and deal with the overwhelming mental health issues that arise from combat is astounding and disgusting--it pretty much amounts to, "take 3 of these horsepills and call me next week"
And god knows we all know somebody who went thru these same mental problems after Vietnam--so this ISN'T a new issue.
If this is how the government is treating our young heros, I can only imagine how they feel about the rest of us.....
looks like the muslims are bringing it home to us.
bush lied...thousands died!
jefferson davis, lyndon johnson, george bush, jr.
all southern war making losers.
what a bunch of creeps!
To cynicalobserver: Check your history books. We did that to the Japanese/Americans in WWII and it blew-up in our faces. The following is a short history lesson for you. The 442nd was a self-sufficient fighting force, and fought with uncommon distinction in Italy, southern France, and Germany. The unit became the most highly decorated military unit in the history of the United States Armed Forces, including 21 Medal of Honor recipients, earning the nickname "The Purple Heart Battalion".
I am not a Japanese/American and my father served with the USMC in the Pacific Theatre during WWII.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
What a surprise, the racist right-wingers rush to judgment with little facts to support their hatred.
My prayers are with the families of the victims of this horror.
Stop the wars in the middle east now. We have got to think about our soldiers here and over there. Our soldiers are losing it when they come home and in this case are losing it before they go. Save our soldiers, bring them home. Stop these occupations.
Nutjob for sure. However, unlike SCOTUS in-justice Alito, at least this murderer was serving his educational payback time. Taxpayers sent this clown to college on a FULL-RIDE. Ditto for Alito. Alito was required to serve 11 years on active duty too. Alito is a UCMJ felon too (AWOLee * deserter). He served a whooping "90" days on active duty.
On the other hand, America is getting what it deserves from poor quality military recruits. No lessons learned where CONVICTED felons were allowed into our military units during the Vietnam War. I served with these thugs. Felons recruiting felons. Boy George is a UCMJ felon too (AWOLee * deserter). He sent convicted felons into Iraq-NAm and everyone knows the good they did over there.
All wars have elements of rape, murder, pillage, plunder, etc. Also American soldiers are known to intentionally kill each other (fragging). America needs her rich WASP kids to suit-up and finally fight to defend America. When PIGS fly!
Nuts. Lots of em.
As usual, it's all about Obama. He can't even give an official statement about a massacre of local troops without making it about him.
No wonder Hussein looked so perturbed. "Horrific", yes-for his never-ending social calendar, which was no doubt interrupted, thanks to this follower of the "religion of peace." I certainly hope this didn't interfere with the weekly concert series or his basketball game.
What a sticky wicket for Moabama. How to condemn the terrorist actions that are virtually identical to those of his good friend and ghost writer, William Ayers?
I'm sure the elitist Chairman Maobama is planning his next phony photo op-you know, to
show us all how much he "cares" for the military that "cling to their guns and religion".
See?
Narcissa, you seem to be the only nutjob desperately trying to make this about our president. I hope you didn't tread mud on that soldiers casket you are using as a personal soapbox.
The psychiatrist (didn't you know all psychiatrists are crazy?) was enjoying the good life under a Fellowship with Walter Reed MC and then after 6 years he's sent to the middle of Texas this last July. Then he gets the news that it is time to pay back the taxpayer for his free medical school via a stint in Iraq. The genetically-challenged couch-doctor then snaps. It has absolutely zero to do with terrorism, religion, race, Obama, or Cindy Brady. After reading some of these posts, it sounds like many would do the exact same thing in that situation.
"After reading some of these posts, it sounds like many would do the exact same thing in that situation"
Umm, no. I nominate this post as the stupidist one of the year.
I am from Fort Hood TX. serving over in Iraq. and my husband is currently at Fort Hood. My first thought is this person should be tryed and placed in FULL POPULATION!!!! and he should feel the pain he has caused my brother's and sister's in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood!! My prayer are to them and there familys! But lets keep our mind in the game. Lets take the fight to them and keep it out of our Home!!
alphachick you seem to be pretty well brainwashed. If I remember correctly we attacked and are occupying Afghanistan. We have killed innocent Afghanis for what reason? The majority of the Afghanis carrying guns are citizens trying to keep their people from getting killed. Remember ,if we were attacked and occupied by a foreign entity our citizens would arm themselves and fight for our land, wouldn't we? Would we be then considered an insurgent?
The blood that spilled in this,lays soley on OUR GOVERNMENTS HANDS!According to reports,they knew this guy was unstable,as well as his stance with the war for a few months.I for one would never step on anyone persons religous beleifs,but the stance this man showed should have put him to the front of the line for discharge,as well as full watch!He'll get his help now,and may it be at the end of a rope!MILITARY JUSTICE!