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November 5, 2009 in Nation/World
Man opens fire at Fort Hood, killing 12
Army says suspect is military mental health doctor
Sgt. Anthony Sills, right, comforts his wife outside Fort Hood Army Base near Killeen, Texas on Nov. 5, 2009. The Sills’ 3-year old son was still in day care on the base, which was in lock-down after a mass shooting earlier.
(Full-size photo)
FORT HOOD, Texas — A military mental health doctor facing deployment overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post Thursday, setting off on a rampage that killed 12 people and left 31 wounded, Army officials said.
Authorities said immediately after the shootings that they had killed the suspected shooter, but later in the evening said that he was alive and in stable condition at a hospital, watched by a guard.
“His death is not imminent,” said Lt. Gen. Bob Cone at Fort Hood. He offered little explanation for the mistake, other than to say there was confusion at the hospital.
A law enforcement official identified the shooting suspect as Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
Investigators were trying to piece together how and why Hasan allegedly gunned down his comrades in the worst case of violence on a military base in the U.S. The rampage unfolded at a center where some 300 unarmed soldiers were lined up for vaccines and eye tests.
Soldiers reported that the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar!” — an Arabic phrase for “God is great!” — before opening fire Thursday, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the base commander. He said officials had not confirmed Hasan made the comment.
Hasan’s family said in a statement Friday that his alleged actions were deplorable and don’t reflect how the family was reared.
“Our family is filled with grief for the victims and their families involved in yesterday’s tragedy,” said Nader Hasan, a cousin who lives in northern Virginia. “We are mortified with what has unfolded and there is no justification, whatsoever, for what happened. We are all asking why this happened, and the answer is that we simply do not know.”
The wounded were dispersed among hospitals in central Texas. W. Roy Smythe, chairman of surgery at Scott and White Memorial Hospital, said several patients were still at “significant risk” of losing their lives. Army briefers told lawmakers in Washington that 38 people were wounded, eight more than officials had reported previously.
The dead included a pregnant woman who was preparing to return home, a man who quit a furniture company job to join the military about a year ago, a newlywed who had served in Iraq and a woman who had vowed to take on Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
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The violence was believed to be the worst mass shooting in history at a U.S. military base.
The shooting began around 1:30 p.m., when shots were fired at the base’s Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening, Cone said.
It was unclear what the motive was, though it appeared he was upset about a scheduled deployment. U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said the Army major was about to deploy overseas, though it was unclear if he was headed to Iraq or Afghanistan and when he was scheduled to leave. Hutchison said she was told about the upcoming deployment by generals based at Fort Hood.
© Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Greg_Martin on November 05 at 1:23 p.m.
There are tons of people tweeting about this story. I’m following this story via http://feeltiptop.com/Fort%20Hood%20shooting/.
SniperCraig on November 05 at 5:04 p.m.
It is a crying shame that active duty soldiers are forbidden to carry a personal sidearm while on a military base! Obviously, only the law abiding are defenseless.
Rifleman__Dodd on November 05 at 8:17 p.m.
SniperCraig where did you get that B.S.? They cant carry while on duty or in uniform mainly because most personal firearms are not on compliance with Geneva Convention.
biasedopinion on November 05 at 9:08 p.m.
Rifleman….it is too bad that someone did not have a shotgun because I guess they could have just shot it up in the air and incapacitated the shooter. Right????
“With a shot gun you always fire a round in the air since the noise pretty much incompacitates anyone near it anyway. You can hear a shotgun for miles during duck/pheasant season.”
Rifleman__Dodd on November 03 at 9:09 p.m.
arroyoribera on November 05 at 9:53 p.m.
The Ft. Hood incident is just further indication that the U.S. imperialist policies of illegal invasion, occupation, torture, extraordinary rendition, etc., are reaching their end. The U.S. is a broken empire which has over-reached both its capacities and its credibility. After 60 years of post-World War II adventurism, covert action, human rights abuses, support of dicatators (Somaza, Noriega, Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussien, etc), death squads (El Salvador, Colombia), and corrupt regimes (Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia), the U.S. now faces large numbers of military suicides, out of control soldiers and contractors, and now this fragging on an unprecedented scale inside the largest U.S. military base in the world, soldiers refusing to return for back to back to back tours, an economy stressed to the point of staganation if not collapse, and a society falling apart at the seams and without cohesion. All this indicates that it is time to shut down this bloody, genocidal, out of control U.S. military-industrial complex which has turned the vast majority of the world against the U.S., ruined any claim to moral superioity that it may once have laid claim to, and divided the people of this country in a way that has diplomats resigning, military men grumbling out loud, soldiers killing themselves and other soldiers, and the public turning its back on this failed, worthless, bloody fiasco that is about to turn into another U.S. defeat in Afghanistan. U.S. out of Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia and elsewhere. Bring the troops home now.
David Brookbank — “Hasta donde debemos practicar las verdades?”
nslopeofw on November 05 at 10:19 p.m.
Or, perhaps it was just another Islamic terrorist (in military garb), practicing his “peaceful” religion. The only blame here is this psycho. He was all for suicide bombers, and other revolutionary fighters, as long as his cowardly a** wasn’t one of them.
Support our troops, who overwhelmingly believe in this war, and what they are doing. Too bad our “commander in chief” doesn’t support them.
arroyoribera on November 05 at 11:11 p.m.
Just to put an end to the name calling and religious bigotry and flag-waving irrationalism before it gets started, here is a list just printed at the online Christian Science Monitor of soldiers who recently have killed other soldiers.
• May 11, 2009: Five soldiers shot dead at Camp Liberty in Baghdad by Sgt. John Russell.
• Sept. 8, 2008: Spc. Jody Michael Wirawan shoots himself to death after killing 1st Lt. Robert Bartlett Fletcher at Fort Hood.
• Feb. 25, 2008: Dustin Thorson, an Air Force technical sergeant, fatally shoots his son and daughter at home on Tinker Air Base in Oklahoma in domestic dispute with ex-wife. He had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from Iraq.
• June 7 2005: Two National Guard officers are killed by a grenade at headquarters in Tikrit. Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez is later acquitted of murder in a court-martial.
• March 23, 2003: Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar tosses grenades into three tents and then fires a rifle at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait, killing one and injuring 14. Akbar later receives death sentence.
• Oct. 27, 1995: Sgt. William Kreutzer goes on shooting spree at Fort Bragg, killing one and injuring 18 in a sniper attack during formation. He is serving a life sentence after a death sentence was overturned.
This makes clear that issues raised by an early commenter about religion, courage, etc., are misplaced. U.S. soldiers are stop-lossed so they can not get out of the service and are sent to repeated deployments in a war of occupation involving massive civilian casualities including U.S. attacks on wedding parties, etc. We are supporting a corrupt government in Afghanistan. We are not welcomed in any of the countries we occupy, including Japan and Okinawa, not to mention Iraq and Afghanistan where we are responsible for war crimes and massive civilian deaths.
Veterans Against the Iraq War (www.viaw.org), West Point Graduates against the War, Service Academy Graduates against the War, The Central Committee for Conscientious Objection, Gold Star Families for Peace, Peace Out, GI Hotline, Veterans for Peace, The Center for Conscience and War, Bring Them Home Now, and Operation Homefront, among others, all have excellent websites. Referring the honor code of the military academies, both the West Point and the Service Academies websites emphasize, “Stop the dying for lies. Stop the killing for lies.”
This leaves completely aside the numbers of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, now nearly 10% of the number killed in Vietnam not to mention the numbers of Iraqis and Afghanis, number in the 100,000s to over a million depending on the count you use. It also does not address the skyrocketing number of U.S. soldiers committing suicide, a number which reached 128 in 2008 and has grown every year since 2004. This doesn’t mention the 100,000s of head injuries U.S. soldiers are said to have suffered. And none of it address the destruction to themselves, their families, and our society that these physically and psychologically wounded soldiers (not to mention the mercenaries/contractors) will do over the next many decades after they return home, just as was and continues to be the case with Vietnam war veterans.
For those that require deference to tradition and perfunctory saluting of flags and genuflecting before dieties, may God, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, and all creation bless the U.S (and the rest of the world)!
That said, U.S. out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Stop the wars NOW!
empyrius on November 05 at 11:14 p.m.
How do you know the psychologist was “psycho” nslovewfw? I think he knew full well what he was doing . . .
Indeed arroyoribera, indeed!
I would say “peace” but obviously this will not happen anytime soon; let me guess, next stop Iran right . . .
The death of empires is not pretty.
nslopeofw on November 06 at 11:27 a.m.
So, empyrius, do you think its not psychotic behavior to walk into a staging area, and open fire on a group of people who’s beliefs are unknown to you? Do you think its OK to choose to kill a bunch of people, rather than do your duty? He didn’t seem to mind enjoying all that the military gave him, until of course, they asked him to do something in return. Then, his cravenness came out, and rather than man up, he started killing.