Virginia Is Creating Killers! How? Why? Gun Control Needed!

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Explosives Found at Christopher Speight's Home



Bomb technicians discovered a "multitude" of explosives Wednesday at the home of a man suspected in the shooting deaths of eight people, and crews were detonating the devices as more details about the gunman came to light.

Christopher Bryan Speight, a 39-year-old security guard, surrendered to police at daybreak Wednesday after leading authorities on an 18-hour manhunt following the shootings at a house in rural central Virginia where deputies found a mortally wounded man and seven bodies.

As of late Wednesday, bomb squads had found and detonated seven explosives. The blasting was expected to continue into Thursday.

Speight had no weapons when he surrendered shortly after 7 a.m. Wednesday wearing a bulletproof vest over a black fleece jacket, camouflage pants and mud-caked boots.

Neither the sheriff nor a state police spokeswoman would disclose what Speight said when he gave up.

Authorities remained tightlipped on most details surrounding the slayings, including any possible motive. Nor did they immediately identify any of the victims or their relationship to the suspect. Authorities would say only that he knew his victims.

Speight was being held on one charge of first-degree murder Wednesday night, said Lt. J.D. Baker of the Lynchburg Adult Detention Center.

Speight co-owned and lived in the home where some of the bodies were found. Reporters were allowed to see the home Wednesday. The two-story house had a big patio, where there was furniture, a children's bicycle and a plastic basketball hoop. The yard was landscaped and well-manicured.

Gun enthusiast

Neighbor Monte W. Mays said Speight's mother deeded the house to Speight and his sister in 2006, shortly before she died of brain cancer.

Mays, the county's retired commissioner of accounts, said Speight was a good neighbor. They waved as they passed each other on the road and sent their dogs out to play with one another.

"All the dealings I've ever had with him have been cordial and polite," Mays said. "We got along fine."

Speight long had been a gun enthusiast and enjoyed target shooting at a range on his property, Mays said. But the shooting recently became a daily occurrence, with Speight firing what Mays said were high-powered and automatic rifles.

"Then we noticed he was doing it at nighttime," and the gunfire started going deeper into the woods, Mays said.

Mays said the entire community is devastated and wondering what triggered the slayings.

"The only one who's going to know now is Chris," he said.

David Anderson, co-owner of the Sunshine Market grocery store in Lynchburg, where Speight sometimes provided security, said Speight was worried that his sister and brother-in-law wanted to kick him out of the house.

Speight never wanted to talk about it, but he "constantly paced the floor," Anderson said. "I thought he was going to wear a trench in it."

Clarence Reynolds, who also works at the market, said he recently discussed a personal family problem with Speight, and Speight told him "don't let your emotions get the best of you."

Reynolds said Speight was not married and had no children.

Experience with Weapons

Police were alerted to the bloodbath when they found the mortally wounded man on the side of a road. Then sheriff's deputies discovered seven more bodies — three inside the house and four just outside.

When officers converged on the area, the suspected shooter fired a high-powered rifle at a state police helicopter, rupturing its gas tank and forcing it to land.

The shots revealed his location, and more than 100 police swarmed into the woods until Speight gave up the following morning.

Police said Speight appeared to have had weapons training, but there was no information suggesting he had served in the military.

Speight's uncle, Jack Giglio of Tampa, Fla., told The Associated Press that his nephew was a deer hunter, but as far as he knew Speight did not have any specialized weapons training. Giglio said he had not seen Speight since 2006, when both attended the funeral for Speight's mother, who died of brain cancer.

"We're shocked, of course," Giglio said. "I'm not aware of any problems with him. It's kind of out of the blue. We're still trying to pick up facts, too."

Appomattox County court records show a concealed weapons permit was issued to a Christopher Bryan Speight three times between 1999 and last year.





VA Tech Massacre Worst U.S. Shooting, Kills 33 On Va. Campus


Local, state and federal investigators scoured a university campus in Virginia for clues to what set off the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history after a gunman shot two people to death in a dormitory Monday morning before making his way to a classroom building where, silently and coolly, he killed 30 more people before turning his weapon on himself, authorities said.

At least 15 other people were wounded in the shootings, which took place over 2½ hours at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Some of them were injured as they leapt to safety from the windows of their classrooms.

The shootings, which came just four days before the eighth anniversary of the Columbine High School bloodbath, in which two students killed 13 people and themselves near Littleton, Colo., created panic and confusion at the university, which was already on edge after two weeks of bomb threats.

After the scope of the carnage was clear, angry students and employees demanded to know why the first e-mail warning from police and administrators did not go out to them for more than two hours, even though the killer of two people was at large. By then, the gunman had struck a second time.

Nearly 50 victims

In all, 33 people died Monday at Virginia Tech, including the gunman. The 15 who were wounded were treated for gunshots or other injuries, authorities said. Their conditions were not reported.

Campus Police Chief Wendell Flinchum would not officially confirm that the two incidents were related, pending the results of the investigation, but he referred to only one gunman and said no other suspect was being sought. Numerous federal and local law enforcement officials told NBC News that the events were the work of a lone gunman.

Federal investigators told NBC News’ Pete Williams that they believed the man was a Virginia Tech student in his early 20s. Their identification was delayed for several hours, they said, because the man’s face was disfigured when he shot himself, he carried no ID and an initial check on his fingerprints came up empty.

The man’s two guns, which were bought in Virginia and whose serial numbers had been obliterated, were to be examined at a laboratory of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Williams reported, citing federal law enforcement officials. That examination was also delayed because authorities had to drive the guns to the lab in the suburbs of Washington after high winds precluded them from using an airplane.

Early reports in the initial confusion said police had a suspect in custody, but Flinchum said later that the person was only being questioned for information because he knew one of the dormitory victims. Officers were interviewing him off-campus when reports of the second round of shooting came in, Flinchum said, and the man was not in custody.

Warnings came too late

Charles Steger, the university’s president, and law enforcement authorities gave this account of the day’s events in public statements and comments to NBC News:

The rampage began about 7:15 a.m. ET at West Ambler Johnston, a co-educational residence hall that houses 895 people. The gunman, armed with a 9-mm pistol and a .22-caliber handgun, killed a man and a woman there.

About 2½ hours later, police responded to a 911 call reporting that shots had been fired at Norris Hall, an engineering classroom building about a half-mile away on the opposite end of the 2,600-acre campus. They discovered that the front doors had been chained from the inside, apparently so victims could not escape and police could not enter.

Officers forced their way in and followed the sound of gunshots to the second floor, where they found the gunman, who had shot himself in the face. As they canvassed the building, they found dozens of gunshot victims. Eventually, they announced that 31, including the gunman, were dead in the classroom building.

“It’s probably one of the worst things I’ve seen in my life,” Flinchum said.

Shaken students said they believed many of the victims might have been spared if campus officials had taken more immediate steps to secure the campus after the first shootings at the dormitory.

The first e-mail warning to students and employees did not go out to students, faculty and staff until 9:26 a.m., more than two hours after the shooting at the dormitory, according to the time stamps on copies obtained by NBC News. By then, the classroom shooting was under way. The message warned students to be cautious but did not warn them not to go to class.

“I really thought they should have canceled classes sooner,” Sam Leake, a junior who lives in West Ambler Johnston, told the campus newspaper, The Collegiate Times. “If they had, maybe some of these deaths could have been prevented.”

Steger said administrators and police initially believed the first shooting was an isolated incident and did not see a need to close the university. He said they believed the gunman had fled the campus.

“We can only make decisions based on the information you had on the time. You don’t have hours to reflect on it,” he said.


Silent gunman strikes without warning

As the first warning was just going out, a bloody scene was unfolding inside the engineering building. Police could not monitor what was going on because the building is not equipped with surveillance cameras, Flinchum said.

Trey Perkins, a sophomore, told MSNBC-TV’s Chris Jansing in a telephone interview that the gunman never said a word.

“He didn’t say, ‘Get down.’ He didn’t say anything. He just started shooting,” Perkins said.

The gunman left that classroom and then tried to return, but students kept him out by bracing the door closed with their feet. “He started to try to come in again and started shooting through the door,” Perkins said, but hit no one.

“I got on the ground and I was just thinking, like, there’s no way I’m going to survive this,” Perkins said. “All I could keep thinking of was my mom.”

Derek O’Dell, a sophomore biology major, told MSNBC-TV’s Alison Stewart that it was “very surreal.”

“At first, I thought it was joke,” said O’Dell, who was shot in an arm. “You don’t really think of a gunman coming on campus and shooting people.”

Until Monday, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard plowed his pickup truck into a Luby’s Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.

The deadliest previous campus shooting in U.S. history took place in 1966 at the University of Texas, where Charles Whitman climbed to the 28th-floor observation deck of a clock tower and opened fire. He killed 16 people before he was gunned down by police.

All entrances to the campus were closed Monday, and Tuesday’s classes were canceled. The university set up a meeting place for families to reunite with their children at the Inn at Virginia Tech. It also made counselors available and planned a convocation for Tuesday at the Cassell Coliseum basketball arena, which White House officials said President Bush was considering attending.

Bush said in a brief televised statement: “Schools should be places of sanctuary and safety and learning. When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community. Today, our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones at Virginia Tech.”



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Fort Hood Killings: ARMY & FBI Ignored Warning Signs Of Pending Jihad & Mental Illness...13 Now Dead

Fort Hood hotline: Red Cross

Fort Hood has set up a hotline for relatives of soldiers at the base to call for more information. The numbers, which are for family members only, are 254-288-7570 and 866-836 2751.

Relatives can also register and search on the Red Cross’ Safe and Well site to find out more.






Were red flags about the Fort Hood shooting suspect (Major Hasan) ignored?

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, has long been accused of having ties to terrorists. Now the group may be facing its most serious charges yet.

Four Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, are calling for a federal investigation into CAIR. At a press conference on Capitol Hill, they cited explosive new documents contained in a new book about CAIR called "Muslim Mafia."



Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, in a press conference, clarifies that the Fort Hood suspect is not dead but is in the hospital in stable condition. The first responder, who was also reported dead, is also still alive and in stable condition.

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Authorities say an Army psychiatrist opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post, killing 13 and wounding 30 in the worst mass shooting at a U.S. military base in history.



Federal agents investigate motive in Ft. Hood shootings. NBC Chief Justice Correspondent Pete Williams reports on the man suspected in the Fort Hood shooting rampage.

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NBC’s Charles Hadlock reports that the Army base will observe a day of mourning Friday.

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Horrific rampage stuns Army's Fort Hood (Could Have Been Prevented)


An Army psychiatrist who had counseled troops and was upset about being deployed to Iraq opened fire on a crowd of soldiers at Fort Hood Army base Thursday afternoon, killing 13 people and wounding 30, military officials said.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. citizen born in Virginia to Jordanian parents, was wounded by a civilian police officer responding to a shooting rampage that is believed to be the worst ever at a U.S. base, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, commanding general of Fort Hood.

Hasan was unconscious Friday, on a ventilator and in custody in a hospital. Immediately after the shootings, authorities began trying to determine whether the incident was a coordinated act or the work of a lone gunman. Three other people were questioned but were released, Cone said.

As of Friday morning, all of those wounded were listed in stable condition, said Col. Steven Braverman, hospital commander at the sprawling base. Half of those wounded required surgery, Braverman said.

Those who died included one civilian and 12 soldiers, military officials said at a morning news conference.

The shooter was wearing his uniform, said Col. John Rossi. Investigators are still tracing the handguns that were used in the shootings, Rossi said.

"We believe the evidence indicates it was a single shooter," Cone said late Thursday, adding that despite earlier widespread reports that Hasan had been killed, the alleged gunman's death was "not imminent."

Hasan, 39, is a Virginia Tech graduate who spent six years studying at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., before moving to Fort Hood, according to military records.

Nader Hasan, who described himself to Fox News as a cousin, said Hasan is a Muslim who went into the military against his parents' wishes. Nader Hasan called his cousin a "good American" who never got into trouble but added that he did not support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"He had always wanted to just get away from the war and (that) environment," Nader Hasan said. "He wasn't someone who even enjoyed going to the firing range.

"We're blown away as a family. We're shocked."

Noel Hamad, Nidal Hasan's aunt, said the family had not talked to Hasan since he arrived at Fort Hood.

"He didn't tell us he was going to deploy. We didn't know," Hamad said in an interview with USA TODAY from her home in Falls Church, Va. "He was trying to get out of the military since 9/11 because they were giving him a hard time," she said, without elaborating.

Fort Hood is home to the 1st Cavalry Division, whose soldiers have deployed multiple times to Iraq. At 339 square miles, it is one of the largest military bases in the world, and has been a focus of the Pentagon's efforts to counter rising wartime stress among troops.

The shootings occurred at Fort Hood's Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers preparing to deploy overseas go for medical care and other duties. In an adjoining auditorium, 600 people had gathered to celebrate the college graduation of 138 soldiers, Cone said. When the shooting began, soldiers closed the doors to the auditorium to prevent the shooter from entering, he said.

Base officials locked down the base and began a building-by-building search across the fort that continued more than six hours after the shootings, said Hilary Shine, spokeswoman for the city of Killeen, which abuts Fort Hood.

Most of the dead and wounded are soldiers, Cone said. Two civilians were among the wounded.

Cone said he could not rule out terrorism but said the evidence "doesn't suggest that." He said he did not know whether the gunman had shot randomly or targeted certain people or units.

Ten of the shooting victims were taken to Scott and White Health System in nearby Temple. All arrived with gunshot wounds, said hospital spokesman Glen Couchman. He said four were in surgery late Thursday. The other six were in the emergency room and all would wind up in intensive care, he said.

He said hundreds of people had answered the hospital's request for blood donations immediately after the shootings.

The thirteenth death was announced early Friday by Fort Hood Spokesman Tyler Broadway. Late Thursday, officials said 12 people had been killed and 31 wounded in the afternoon attack.

President Obama cut short his speech at the White House Tribal Nations Conference and consulted with Pentagon officials about the shooting.

"It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas," the president said. "It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."

He called it "a horrific outburst of violence" and said his administration will work for "answers to every single question."

Former president George W. Bush, whose ranch in Crawford, Texas, is about 20 miles from the perimeter of Fort Hood, said in a statement, "Laura and I are keeping the victims and their families in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time."

A disgruntled doctor

Hasan was born in Virginia and graduated from Virginia Tech university, according to The Roanoke Times archives.

He later received two degrees from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., according to Hasan's military record and a university newsletter.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Austin, was briefed by military officials and said Hasan had taken some unusual classes for someone studying about mental health.

"He took a lot of extra classes in weapons training, which seems a little odd for a psychiatrist," McCaul said.

McCaul said Hasan had received poor grades for his work at Walter Reed and was not happy about his situation in Fort Hood, where Hasan apparently felt like "he didn't fit in."

"He's disgruntled because he had a poor performance evaluation, he doesn't believe in the mission, he's looking at getting transferred to Afghanistan or Iraq," McCaul said. "He's not happy about all that."

McCaul added that officials planned to interview Hasan to try to determine for sure that he was not working with foreign agents.

"From an intelligence standpoint, that's key, finding out if he talked to anyone overseas," McCaul said.

Hasan had come to the attention of federal law enforcement officials at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats, according to a federal law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

The official said investigators were trying to confirm that Hasan was the author of the postings, one of which was a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades. One of the officials said federal search warrants were being drawn up to authorize seizure of Hasan's computer.

'It's just nerve-racking'

Soldiers and others described a chaotic scene at the base.

Sirens wailed as Tammy Biggers, wife of an Army specialist deployed in Iraq, huddled in her locked house, fielding phone calls from family and friends while sending text messages to her daughter at the local high school.

"Now I can't even get a hold of her. The cellphones are jammed. I can't even send a text," Biggers said. "They still have us on lockdown. I'm just staying right beside my computer with the news on and praying."

The basewide siren and announcement system, usually used to warn of tornadoes, instructed base residents to seek shelter, lock their doors and turn off the air-conditioning. Biggers had been outside her house with their chihuahua when she heard the first sirens.

"Down here you don't think a lot about sirens. It could be a training exercise," she said. Then came the orders to seek shelter. "It's just nerve-racking."

"It is crazy to see it happen on your home turf," said Army Sgt. Dominic Moes, 28, from Boyne City, Mich. "You don't really expect it at all, especially soldier-to-soldier. It's pretty shocking."

Moes was among hundreds of soldiers waiting outside the base, which had been locked down for hours. Dozens of cars were lined up at the gate, going nowhere.

"A lot of us deal with the stress but it's something else to hurt another soldier," said Moes, who said he has deployed to Iraq three times. "These are the guys we confide in. A lot of these soldier are as close to me as my own family."

Specialist David Straub, from Ardmore, Ala., waited in a line of cars to re-enter Fort Hood. He said he had twice deployed and was proud that both times they "came back with everybody."

"Now this happens," Straub said. "I feel like I've been stabbed in the back."

'Everything's locked down'

The shooting also rattled the city of Killeen, near the sprawling base.

About 15 children remained after hours at the Miles Ahead day-care center because parents were unable to leave the post when it was sealed off, said Tanisha Laws, 35, a cook at the center.

"You don't know who is who or what is what," Laws said.

There was only one customer inside the normally busy Henderson's Family Restaurant in Killeen.

"It's dead right now because everything's locked down," said cashier Kelly Kuehnle, 43. "It's a very oppressive atmosphere. Everybody's devastated."

Beauty salon owner Chemar Jones said she and three employees spent a nerve-wracking afternoon holed up in the Killeen salon with the front and doors locked. Jones was worried about her cousin, a medic with the military police on Fort Hood, who she tried multiple times to reach without success.

Shine, the Killeen spokeswoman, said she was "immediately reminded" of the 1991 massacre at the Luby's cafeteria in the city in which 23 were killed.

"Our community is restless and worried," Shine says. "Because a lot of people have family and friends working at Fort Hood, I know many are wondering if the victims are people they know. Unfortunately, for some, that is going to be true."






Army Doctor Held in Ft. Hood Rampage (FBI & US Army Had Warning Signs)


An Army psychiatrist facing deployment to one of America’s war zones killed 13 people and wounded 30 others on Thursday in a shooting rampage with two handguns at the sprawling Fort Hood Army post in central Texas, military officials said.

It was one of the worst mass shootings ever at a military base in the United States.

The gunman, who was still alive after being shot four times, was identified by law enforcement authorities as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, who had been in the service since 1995. Major Hasan was about to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, said Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas.

Clad in a military uniform and firing an automatic pistol and another weapon, Major Hasan, a balding, chubby-faced man with heavy eyebrows, sprayed bullets inside a crowded medical processing center for soldiers returning from or about to be sent overseas, military officials said.

The victims, nearly all military personnel but including two civilians, were cut down in clusters, the officials said. Witnesses told military investigators that medics working at the center tore open the clothing of the dead and wounded to get at the wounds and administer first aid.

As the shooting unfolded, military police and civilian officers of the Department of the Army responded and returned the gunman’s fire, officials said, adding that Major Hasan was shot by a first-responder, who was herself wounded in the exchange.

In the confusion of a day of wild and misleading reports, the major and the officer who shot him were both reported killed in the gun battle, but both reports were erroneous.

Eight hours after the shootings, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, a base spokesmen, said Major Hasan, whom he described as the sole gunman, had been shot four times, but was hospitalized off the base, under around-the-clock guard, in stable condition and was not in imminent danger of dying.

Another military spokesman listed the major’s condition as critical. The condition of the officer who shot the gunman was not given.

Major Hasan was not speaking to investigators, and much about his background — and his motives — were unknown.

General Cone said that terrorism was not being ruled out, but that preliminary evidence did not suggest that the rampage had been an act of terrorism. Fox News quoted a retired Army colonel, Terry Lee, as saying that Major Hasan, with whom he worked, had voiced hope that President Obama would pull American troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, had argued with military colleagues who supported the wars and had tried to prevent his own deployment.

As a parade of ambulances wailed to the scene of the shootings, officials said the extent of injuries to the wounded varied significantly, with some in critical condition and others lightly wounded. General Cone praised the first-responders and the medics who acted quickly to administer first aid at the scene.

“Horrible as this was, I think it could have been much worse,” the general said.

The rampage recalled other mass shootings in the United States, including 13 killed at a center for immigrants in upstate New York last April, the deaths of 10 during a gunman’s rampage in Alabama in March and 32 people killed at Virginia Tech in 2007, the deadliest shooting in modern American history.

As a widespread investigation by the military, the F.B.I., and other agencies began, much about the assault in Texas remained unclear. Department of Homeland Security officials said the Army would take the lead in the investigation.

A federal law enforcement official said the F.B.I. was sending more agents to join the inquiry. On Thursday night, F.B.I. agents were interviewing residents of a townhouse complex in the Washington suburb of Kensington, Md., where Major Hasan had lived before moving to Texas.

Mr. Obama called the shootings “a horrific outburst of violence” and urged Americans to pray for those who were killed and wounded.

“It is difficult enough when we lose these men and women in battles overseas,” he said. “It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil.”

The president pledged “to get answers to every single question about this horrible incident.”

Military records indicated that Major Hasan was single, had been born in Virginia, had never served abroad and listed “no religious preference” on his personnel records. Three other soldiers, their roles unclear, were taken into custody in connection with the rampage. The office of Representative John Carter, Republican of Texas, said they were later released, but a Fort Hood spokesman could not confirm that. General Cone said that more than 100 people had been questioned during the day.

Fort Hood, near Killeen and 100 miles south of Dallas-Fort Worth, is the largest active duty military post in the United States, 340 square miles of training and support facilities and homes, a virtual city for more than 50,000 military personnel and some 150,000 family members and civilian support personnel. It has been a major center for troops being deployed to or returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The base went into lockdown shortly after the shootings. Gates were closed and barriers put up at all entrance and exit checkpoints, and the military police turned away all but essential personnel. Schools on the base were closed, playgrounds were deserted and sidewalks were empty. Sirens wailed across the base through the afternoon, a warning to military personnel and their families to remain indoors.

Military commanders were instructed to account for all personnel on the base.

“The immediate concern is to make sure that all of our soldiers and family members are safe, and that’s what commanders have been instructed to do,” said Jay Adams of the First Army, Division West, at Ford Hood.

General Cone said the shooting took place about 1:30 p.m., inside a complex of buildings that he called a Soldier Readiness Processing Center. The type of weapons used was unclear, and it was not known whether the gunman had reloaded, although it seemed likely, given that 43 people were shot, perhaps more than once.

All the victims were gunned down “in the same area,” General Cone said.

As the shootings ended, scores of emergency vehicles rushed to the scene, which is in the center of the fort, and dozens of ambulances carried the shooting victims to hospitals in the region.

Both of the handguns used by Major Hasan were recovered at the scene, officials said. Investigators said the major’s computers, cellphones and papers would be examined, his past investigated and his friends, relatives and military acquaintances would be interviewed in an effort to develop a profile of him and try to learn what had motivated his deadly outburst.

Major Hasan was assigned to the Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood.

The weapons used in the attack were described as “civilian” handguns. Security experts said the fact that two handguns had been used suggested premeditation, as opposed to a spontaneous act.

Rifles and assault weapons are conspicuous and not ordinarily seen on the streets of a military post, and medical personnel would have no reason to carry any weapon, they said. Moreover, security experts noted, it took a lot of ammunition to shoot 43 people, another indication of premeditation.

It appeared certain that the shootings would generate a whole new look at questions of security on military posts of all the armed forces in the United States. Expressions of dismay were voiced by public officials across the country.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council, speaking for many American Muslims, condemned the shootings as a “heinous incident” and said, “We share the sentiment of our president.”

The council added, “Our entire organization extends its heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed as well as those wounded and their loved ones.”

General Cone said Fort Hood was “absolutely devastated.”

News of the shooting set off panic among families and friends of the base personnel. Alyssa Marie Seace’s husband, Pfc. Ray Seace Jr., sent her a text message just before 2 p.m. saying that someone had “shot up the S.R.P. building,” referring to the Soldier Readiness Processing Center. He told her he was “hiding.”

Ms. Seace, 18, who lives about five minutes from the base and had not been watching the news, reacted with alarm. She texted him back but got no response. She called her father in Connecticut, who told her not to call her husband because it might reveal his hiding place.

Finally, 45 minutes later, her husband, a mechanic who is scheduled to deploy to Iraq in February, texted back to say that three people from his unit had been hit and that a dozen people in all were dead.

By late afternoon, the sirens at Fort Hood had fallen silent. In Killeen, state troopers were parked on ridges overlooking the two main highways through town. In residential areas, the only signs of life were cars moving through the streets. In the business districts, people went about their business.

In 1991, Killeen was the scene of one of the worst mass killings in American history. A gunman drove his pickup truck through the window of a cafeteria, fatally shot 22 people with a handgun, then killed himself.

Fort Hood, opened in September 1942 as America geared up for World War II, was named for Gen. John Bell Hood of the Confederacy. It has been used continuously for armor training and is charged with maintaining readiness for combat missions.

It is a place that feels, on ordinary days, like one of the safest in the world, surrounded by those who protect the nation with their lives. It is home to nine schools — seven elementary schools and two middle schools, for the children of personnel. But on Thursday, the streets were lined with emergency vehicles, their lights flashing and sirens piercing the air as Texas Rangers and state troopers took up posts at the gates to seal the base.

Shortly after 7 p.m., the sirens sounded again and over the loudspeakers a woman’s voice that could be heard all over the base announced in a clipped military fashion: “Declared emergency no longer exists.”

The gates reopened, and a stream of cars and trucks that had been bottled up for hours began to move out.





Suspect (Hasan) Was Mortified About Deployment to War


Born and reared in Virginia, the son of immigrant parents from a small Palestinian town near Jerusalem, he joined the Army right out of high school, against his parents’ wishes. The Army, in turn, put him through college and then medical school, where he trained to be a psychiatrist.

But Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the 39-year-old man accused of Thursday’s mass shooting at Fort Hood, Tex., began having second thoughts about a military career a few years ago after other soldiers harassed him for being a Muslim, he told relatives in Virginia.

He had also more recently expressed deep concerns about being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. Having counseled scores of returning soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, first at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and more recently at Fort Hood, he knew all too well the terrifying realities of war, said a cousin, Nader Hasan.

“He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy,” Mr. Hasan said. “He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation earlier became aware of Internet postings by a man calling himself Nidal Hasan, a law enforcement official said. The postings discussed suicide bombings favorably, but the investigators were not clear whether the writer was Major Hasan.

In one posting on the Web site Scribd, a man named Nidal Hasan compared the heroism of a soldier who throws himself on a grenade to protect fellow soldiers to suicide bombers who sacrifice themselves to protect Muslims.

“If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory,” the man wrote. It could not be confirmed, however, that the writer was Major Hasan.

Major Hasan was wounded and taken into custody by the Fort Hood police after the shooting rampage, in which 12 people were killed and at least 31 others were wounded.

Though Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas reported that Major Hasan was to be deployed this month, that could not be confirmed with the Army on Thursday night.

Nader Hasan said his cousin never mentioned in recent phone calls to Virginia that he was going to be deployed, and he said the family was shocked when it heard the news on television on Thursday afternoon.

“He was doing everything he could to avoid that,” Mr. Hasan said. “He wanted to do whatever he could within the rules to make sure he wouldn’t go over.”

Some years ago, that included retaining a lawyer and asking if he could get out of the Army before his contract was up, because of the harassment he had received as a Muslim. But Nader Hasan said the lawyer had told his cousin that even if he paid the Army back for his education, it would not allow him to leave before his commitment was up.

“I think he gave up that fight and was just doing his time,” Mr. Hasan said.

Nader Hasan said his cousin’s parents had both been American citizens who owned businesses, including restaurants and a store, in Roanoke, Va. He declined to confirm reports that they were Jordanian but said the parents, who are both dead, had immigrated from a small town near Jerusalem many years ago.

His mother’s obituary, in The Roanoke Times in 2001, said she was born in Palestine in 1952. It described her as a restaurant owner “known for her ability to keep sometimes rowdy customers out of trouble and always had a warm meal for someone who otherwise would not have anything to eat that evening.”

Records show that Major Hasan received an undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech and a medical degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He did a residency at Walter Reed Medical Center and worked there for years before a transfer to the Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood this year.

Major Hasan had two brothers, one in Virginia and another in Jerusalem, his cousin said. The family, by and large, prospered in the United States, Mr. Hasan said.

The former imam at a Silver Spring, Md., mosque where Major Hasan worshiped for about 10 years described him as proud of his work in the Army and “very serious about his religion.” The former imam, Faizul Khan, said that Major Hasan had wanted to marry an equally religious woman but that his efforts to find one had failed.

“He wanted a woman who prayed five times a day and wears a hijab, and maybe the women he met were not complying with those things,” the former imam said.

Mr. Hasan, 40, a lawyer in Virginia, described his cousin as a respectful, hard-working man who had devoted himself to his parents and his career.

Mr. Hasan said his cousin became more devout after his parents died in 1998 and 2001.

“His parents didn’t want him to go into the military,” Mr. Hasan said. “He said, ‘No, I was born and raised here, I’m going to do my duty to the country.’ ”



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Sources: NY Times, MSNBC, USA Today, Youtube, Jihad Watch, KCEN-TV, Google Maps