Fort Hood shooting: 13 killed and 30 injured at US Army base

A US army officer called Major Malik Nadal Hasan has been named as the man responsible for killing 13 people and injuring 30 more in a mass shooting at a Texas military base.

By Nick Allen, in Los Angeles
Published: 7:18AM GMT 06 Nov 2009, Daily Telegraph Newspaper

Major Hasan, a military psychiatrist who had allegedly called for Muslims to attack Americans over the Iraq war, is critically ill and under guard in hospital.

The authorities initially believed he had been killed in the ensuing gun battle with police but it later emerged he was still alive despite being shot four times in the incident at Fort Hood base, the largest American military installation in the world.

The serviceman was about to be posted to either Iraq or Afghanistan and argued regularly against the wars, it has been claimed.

Hasan, armed with two handguns, walked into a training centre and opened fire on fellow soldiers who were having last-minute medical check-ups before being deployed to Afghanistan. Thirteen were killed and 30 injured.

However, there were suggestions that some of the dead might have been shot by the authorities in their attempt to stop the gunman.

Hasan is now under guard in hospital where he is unconscious and on a ventilator.

Hasan, a Muslim by birth, was born in Virginia, and his family is believed to have come from Jordan.

A former colleague, Col Terry Lee, said Hasan had fallen out with other soldiers on the base. He claimed that Hasan said he was “happy” when a US soldier was killed in an attack on a military recruitment centre in Arkansas in June.

However, Hasan’s cousin said that he had been the victim of harassment but had never expressed violent sentiments.

“He never went to Iraq. He was dealing with people coming back, trying to help them with their trauma,” Nader Hasan said. “He was just normal, loved sports, never got into trouble.” He said his family was “shocked and baffled” by the incident.

Ten of the victims were soldiers and one was a civilian police officer.

Earlier, gunfire erupted around the base as two men, thought to have been accomplices, were captured. Police feared there may have been more than one gunman but the two soldiers were later released.

More than 500 soldiers were deployed to lock down Fort Hood as helicopters hovered overhead. Lt Gen Bob Cone, the base’s commander, said: “It has been a terrible tragedy, it’s stunning.

“Soldiers, family members and the civilians that work here are absolutely devastated.

“The shooter was killed. He was a soldier. There were eyewitness accounts that there may have been more than one shooter.”

The shootings took place in the ’soldier readiness center’, a former sports dome, where soldiers are sent for final checks before being sent overseas. As well as soldiers about to be deployed, those returning and undergoing medical screening would have been there.

The attack happened shortly before a graduation ceremony for soldiers was due to start at the base.

President Barack Obama, speaking from Washington, described the attack as a “horrific outburst of violence.”

He said: “These are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk, and at times, give their lives to protect us. It’s difficult enough when we lose these brave men and women overseas. It is horrifying when we lose them on American soil.”

Officials are examining the possibility that some casualties may have been victims of “friendly fire” according to a senior US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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 also spoke on condition of anonymity.

Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison 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.

Fort Hood is one of America’s most important bases for training its forces and tens of thousands of soldiers go through every year.

It covers an area of 340 sq miles near Killeen, some 50 miles from Waco, Texas. There are up to 65,000 people, including military families, on the site at any one time.

Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said: “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.”

John Carter, a local Republican congressman, said: “I had a man on the scene, who is the former chaplain at Fort Hood. He was waiting to go to a graduation ceremony when a soldier came running up to him saying somebody was shooting. He heard small arms and rifle fire.”

Fort Hood has also been working to rehabilitate many soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, Mr Carter said.

Base commanders and the Pentagon said they had no early indication of a motive for the shootings.

The base has seen other violence in recent years. In September last year a 21-year-old 1st Cavalry Division soldier shot dead his lieutenant and then killed himself.

Five American soldiers also died in Baghdad earlier this year in a shooting by one of their comrades at a combat stress clinic. It had been set up following criticism that the US military had not done enough to treat soldiers who had undergone repeated tours of duty.

Fort Hood is close to the site of one of the worst mass shootings in American history. On October 16, 1991, George Hennard smashed his pickup truck through a window of 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.