Fort Hood gunman was identified as US Army Major Dr. Malik Nadil Hasan.
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McCaffrey: Rampage "hard to put into context". Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey offers analysis on the impact the shootings.
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Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R) is horrified over the Fort Hood shootings.
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May 12: A U.S. Army veteran accused of opening fire on his fellow soldiers has been charged with murder. US Army Sgt. John Russell killed five of his military comrades.
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13 dead, 30 injured in shootings at Fort Hood
An Army psychiatrist opened fire Thursday at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 12 people and wounding 30 others before being shot to death, officials told NBC News.
Eleven of the victims died at the scene, military officials said. A 12th died later at a hospital, NBC station KCEN-TV of Waco reported.
NBC News’ Pete Williams reported that U.S. officials identified the gunman as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who had been promoted to major in May. Defense officials said Hasan, 39, arrived at Fort Hood in July after practicing for six years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, which included a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry.
Hasan was scheduled to be deployed to Iraq on Nov. 28, officials said. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said military officials had told her that Hasan was “pretty upset” about his deployment orders.
The Associated Press, quoting military officials, said Hasan received a poor performance evaluation at Walter Reed. The officials would reveal no further details, citing the confidentiality of military records.
Medical records on file in Virginia, where Hasan was born and was registered to practice, and Maryland, where he received his medical degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, revealed no disciplinary actions or formal complaints.
Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, commanding general of the Army’s III Corps said the gunman used two handguns.
Two other soldiers were taken into custody after the shooting, but Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, said they were released.
A senior administration official told NBC News that the shootings could have been a criminal matter rather than a terrorism-related attack and that there was no intelligence to suggest a plot against Fort Hood.
Military and local hospital officials said the victims were a mixture of men and women, military and civilian. At least one of those killed was a civilian police officer, Cone said. At least four local SWAT officers were among those wounded, NBC affiliate KCEN-TV of Waco reported.
Two of the victims remained in surgery late Thursday afternoon at Metroplex Hospital in Killeen. One of them, a woman, is an emergency medical worker the base, the hospital said.
Reminders of 1991 massacre
Fort Hood, one of the largest military complexes in the world, was on lockdown, as were schools in the area. Dozens of agents of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the post, federal officials said.
The base is surrounded by the town of Killeen, where a man shot and killed 23 people in a Luby’s restaurant in October 1991.
“Unfortunately, this is a day we had dreaded,” said Hilary Shine, a spokeswoman for the city of Killeen. “Every time you hear of a mass casualty situation in Killeen, you think of Luby’s. ...
“Here in City Hall, it’s panic,” Shine said. “We all have friends and family members who work or have business on Fort Hood.”
Speaking in Washington, President Barack Obama called the shootings a “horrific incident.”
“It’s difficult enough when we lose these great Americans in battles overseas,” Obama said at the Interior Department. “It’s horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil.”
Noting the Arabic nature of the gunman’s name, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington interest group, condemned “this cowardly attack in the strongest terms possible and ask that the perpetrators be punished to the full extent of the law.”
”No political or religious ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence,” the council said in a statement. “The attack was particularly heinous in that it targeted the all-volunteer army that protects our nation. American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens in offering both prayers for the victims and sincere condolences to the families of those killed or injured.”
Shootings in deployment center
Emergency Services officials at Fort Hood said the incident began about 1:30 p.m. CT (2:30 p.m. ET) when the gunman opened fire in the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center on the west side of the base. A spokesman for the base, Sgt. Major Jamie Posten, said the processing center was where soldiers “cycle through as they prepare to deploy.”
Retired Army Col. Greg Schannep, an aide to Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, who was on the post to attend a graduation service, told the Fort Hood Sentinel that he heard “three or four volleys of shots, with eight to 12 shots in each volley.”
“Initially, I thought it was a training exercise,” he said. But then, “a soldier came running past me and said, ‘Sir, there is someone shooting.’
“As he ran past me, I saw blood on his back,” Schannep told the base paper. “I don’t think he even knew he had been shot.”
Fort Hood is adjacent to Killeen, about 60 miles northeast of Austin. The sprawling complex is home to at least 4,929 active-duty officers and 45,414 enlisted. Civilian employees total nearly 9,000.
A spokesman for the Army, Lt. Col. Lee M. Packnett, said he was unaware whether security measures were put in place at other military bases. Other U.S. military bases told local NBC stations that said the shootings were being treated as an isolated incident and that no special security measures were being implemented in response.
Shocked and saddened
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, said in a statement: “I am shocked and saddened by today’s outburst of violence at Fort Hood that has cost seven of our brave service members their lives and has gravely injured others. My heart goes out to their loved ones.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign spokesperson said the governor was in Denton, scheduled to attend a campaign event, when word of the shooting occurred. There was no word on whether he had left Denton or whether he was headed to Fort Hood.
Fort Hood has seen other violence in recent years. In September 2008, a 21-year-old 1st Cavalry Division soldier shot his lieutenant to death and then killed himself. Spc. Jody Michael Wirawan of Eagle River, Alaska, shot himself to death after shooting 1st Lt. Robert Bartlett Fletcher, 24, of Jensen Beach, Fla. to death.
Jihad at Fort Hood? Shooter: Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan (Jihad Watch)
Evidently a convert to Islam, and an apparent jihad attack has taken place at Ft. Hood.
Twelve dead, thirty wounded in what was apparently an attack coordinated between two or three gunmen -- belying the post-traumatic stress syndrome spin playing out in the mainstream media.
If this turns out to be a jihad attack, watch for the President to caution against "backlash" and "Islamophobia."
Fort Hood shooter a Licensed Psychiatrist
Lots of predictable mainstream media dissembling going on about Malik Nadal Hasan, the one murderer who has been identified in the attacks at Fort Hood today that left 12 dead and 31 wounded. One AP story says that his religion is not known. The CBS story below is a bit better, actually identifying him as a Muslim. But no one, no one at all, in the mainstream media is discussing jihad as a motivation. It's all about "snapping," "not wanting to go to war" (then why join the Army), etc.
"Soldier Opens Fire at Ft. Hood; 12 Dead," from CBS News, November 5 (thanks to Joe):
[...] A law enforcement official identified the shooting suspect as Army Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan. The official said Hasan, believed to be in his late 30s, was killed after opening fire at the base. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
The official says investigators are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name, or if he changed his name and converted to Islam at some point in his life.
CBS News investigative producer Len Tepper reports that Hasan, 39, is a licensed psychiatrist from Silver Spring, Md...
Soldier Opens Fire at Ft. Hood; 12 Dead
A soldier opened fire at a U.S. Army base in Fort Hood, Texas on Thursday, unleashing a stream of gunfire that left 12 people dead, including the gunman, and 31 wounded.
Local police who responded to the incident killed the primary gunman and apprehended two other soldiers suspected in what appears to be the worst mass shooting at a U.S. military base.
The shooting began around 1:30 p.m., Lt. Gen. Bob Cone, commander of the Fort Hood army post, said at a news conference. He said all the casualties took place at the base's Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening.
A law enforcement official identified the shooting suspect as Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. The official said Hasan, believed to be in his late 30s, was killed after opening fire at the base. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
The official says investigators are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name, or if he changed his name and converted to Islam at some point in his life.
The CBS News investigative unit reports that Hasan, 39, is a licensed psychiatrist who has lived in Bethesda and Silver Spring, Md. and Roanoke, Va.
A spokesman for Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison says Hasan was upset about an upcoming deployment to Iraq.
A Fort Hood press release confirmed that "more than one shooter fired shots into the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center and Howze Theater on Fort Hood."
The victims of the shooting have not been identified but Cone said that the slain included U.S. soldiers and a civilian police officer working at the base. He said that no children had been killed to his knowledge.
"It’s a terrible tragedy. It's stunning," Cone said. "Soldiers and family members and many of the great civilians that work here are absolutely devastated."
The wounded are dispersed among several central Texas hospitals and the extent of their injuries varied, Cone said.
President Barack Obama, speaking before a scheduled event in Washington, said, "It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."
"I would ask all Americans to keep the men and women of Fort Hood in your thoughts and prayers. We will make sure that we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident," Obama said.
The Army post was still on lockdown as of 5 p.m. but Cone said that all of the deaths and injuries had taken place during the initial 1:30 p.m. incident and that authorities were determining whether to lift the lockdown.
FBI agents have responded to the base and the military is asking the FBI's help in investigating the backgrounds of the two soldiers held as suspects in the shooting, Cone said.
During the attack, terrified military families turned to Twitter to find out what was happening, reports CBS News correspondent David Martin.
One tweet read, "locked in my post housing, scared, don't know where the shooters are." Another: "haven't heard warning sirens in about 15 minutes, just waiting to get to my husband. And a third, capturing the shock brought on by today's attack: "i thought i was living in one of the safest places ever."
There has been some confusion about the exact location of the shooting. Cone said that the shooting took place in the Readiness Center but that the two surviving suspects were taken into custody in an "adjacent facility."
At the Soldier Readiness Center, soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening - on average about 300-400 screened a day, said Sgt. Rebekah Lampam, a spokeswoman at Fort Hood.
A graduation ceremony for soldiers who finished college courses while deployed was going on in an auditorium at the Readiness Center at the time of the shooting, said Lampam said.
Greg Schanepp, U.S. Rep. John Carter's regional director in Texas, was representing Carter at the graduation, a Carter spokesman said.
Schanepp was at the ceremony when a soldier who had been shot in the back came running toward him and alerted him of the shooting, Stone said. The soldier told Schanepp not to go in the direction of the shooter, he said. Stone said he believes Schanepp was in the theater.
"I was here for a 2 p.m. graduation," Schannep, a retired Army colonel, told the Temple Daily Telegram. "As I drove up, I heard some shots. A soldier came running past me and said, 'Sir there is someone shooting.'
"I heard three or four volleys of shots with eight to 12 shots in each volley. Initially, I thought it was a training exercise," he said.
The shootings on the Texas military base stirred memories of other recent mass shootings in the United States, including 13 dead at a New York immigrant center in March, 10 killed during a gunman's rampage across Alabama in March and 32 killed in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history at Virginia Tech in 2007.
In May, a U.S. soldier opened fire at a counseling center on a U.S. military base in Iraq, killing five fellow soldiers. An investigation showed that that shooter had shown signs of mental problems for months.
Around the country, some bases stepped up security precautions, but no others were locked down.
A woman interviewed by CBS affiliate KWTX in Waco shortly after the shooting said that news of the shooting had reached her husband and other U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq.
At 2 p.m. emergency responders en route to Fort Hood were told that their planned staging area, Soldier's Dome, was not safe to use, the Temple Daily Telegram reports.
Banks said it is too soon to tell whether there is any link to battle stress or repeated deployments. The Army is suffering a record high suicide rate and other signs of stress from fighting two wars.
In a statement, Hutchison said, "I am shocked and saddened by today's outburst of violence at Fort Hood that has cost seven of our brave service members their lives and has gravely injured others. My heart goes out to their loved ones. Our dedicated military personnel have sacrificed so much in service to our country, and it sickens me that the men and women of Fort Hood have been subjected to this senseless, random violence."
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, the sprawling base is located halfway between Austin and Waco.
The base is home to nine schools - seven elementary schools and two middle schools - and all were on lockdown, said Killeen school spokesman Todd Martin.
Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said Texas Rangers and state troopers were en route to Fort Hood to help seal the perimeter of the 108,000 acre base.
Fort Hood officially opened on Sept. 18, 1942, and was named in honor of Gen. John Bell Hood. It has been continuously used for armored training and is charged with maintaining readiness for combat missions.
US Army shooting suspect was heading to Iraq
The man identified as the shooting suspect at Fort Hood was an Army psychiatrist preparing to deploy to Iraq.
NBC News’ Pete Williams reported that U.S. officials identified the gunman as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who had been promoted to major in May. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, said military officials told her that the gunman, who was 39 or 40, was about to be deployed to Iraq and was “upset about it.”
NBC News' Robert Windrem said Hasan specialized in traumatic stress. A U.S. military official said Hasan had orders to deploy to Iraq on Nov. 28.
It was not known whether he was treating people at the base. NBC News said he had been at the base since July.
Hasan was born in Virginia, where he graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in biochemistry. He later attended U.S. military medical school, where he specialized in psychiatry.
The gunman was shot to death on the base after 11 people were killed and 31 wounded.
Officials says it was not clear what Hasan's religion was, but investigators are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name or if he may have changed his name and converted to the Islamic faith at some point.
Hutchison's office told NBC News that he had been overheard making negative comments about his impending deployment.
The shootings on the Texas military base stirred memories of other recent mass shootings in the United States, including 13 dead at a New York immigrant center in March, 10 killed during a gunman's rampage across Alabama in March and 32 killed in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history at Virginia Tech in 2007.
Fort Dix plotters sentenced to life in prison
Three brothers convicted of plotting to kill military personnel at a base in New Jersey will spend the rest of their lives in prison.
A federal judge has sentenced 30-year-old Dritan Duka and 28-year-old Shain Duka to life in prison plus 30 years. Their 25-year-old brother, Eljvir, has been sentenced to life in prison.
Their brother Shain is also being sentenced Tuesday on conspiracy and weapons charges.
The Duka brothers are ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia.
Two other men convicted in the plot are to be sentenced Wednesday. They are Mohamad Shnewer, a Jordanian-born cab driver, and Turkish-born convenience store clerk Serdar Tatar.
The five were convicted of conspiring to kill military personnel at Fort Dix in a plot that authorities portrayed as one of the most frightening homegrown terrorism plans ever in the United States.
The Duka brothers ran a roofing company in Cherry Hill before they were arrested two years ago.
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Sources: MSNBC, Huffington Post, CBS News, Jihad Watch, Google Maps
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