KILLEEN, Tex. — Amid a public outpouring of grief on Friday for those gunned down at the Fort Hood Army base, new details emerged about the chaotic moments of the shooting and the Army psychiatrist suspected of opening fire on dozens of his fellow soldiers.
The gunman, identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was shot four times by a Fort Hood civilian police officer responding to the scene. He remained hospitalized on a ventilator on Friday in stable condition and was expected to live, Army officials said.
The death toll rose to 13 people, including 12 soldiers, in what is thought to have been the most lethal shooting on an American military base in history. Another 27 people were still hospitalized on Friday afternoon, all in stable condition.
Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, and John M. McHugh, the Army secretary, traveled to Fort Hood as a widespread investigation into the shooting began, and promised to provide whatever resources the staff at the base might need. The Army is already sending chaplains and mental-health counselors.
But General Casey acknowledged that the wounds from the shooting would not heal quickly.
“This is a tough one,” he said in a news conference at the base. “It is inside. And it’s a kick in the gut. There’s no doubt about that.”
As military and law-enforcement investigators waited to interview Major Hasan, a contradictory portrait of him emerged. Neighbors described him as a man who dressed alternately in a military uniform and flowing white robes, and who gave a copy of the Koran to his next-door neighbor a day before the shooting.
Reports from the shooting suggested that soldiers may have heard him shout something like “Allahu Akbar” — Arabic for “God is great!” — just before he fired two automatic handguns. He was shown on a security video tape from a local convenience store wearing white robes just hours before the shooting. And family members said that he had complained about being harassed expressly because he was a Muslim, and that he had expressed deep concerns about deploying.
Acquaintances said Major Hasan was upset about his future deployment in a war zone, and heatedly opposed United States foreign policy in discussions with fellow soldiers. Earlier this year law-enforcement officers monitoring Islamic Web sites identified a man of the same name as a blogger who posted comments on suicide bombings in which he equated such acts to those by soldiers who use their own bodies to shield fellow soldiers from exploding shrapnel.
But Major Hasan also reportedly required counseling at different times in his life, including for a time as a medical student before United States involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan were issues.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, said Army officials were trying to determine “if there is something more than just one deranged person involved here.” She said in remarks at the base on Friday that while he was the only one who had fired at the other soldiers, it was still unclear if he had planned this completely alone.
“That is a question still to be asked,” she said. “That is not a question that has been resolved.”
Senator Hutchison said the shooting had prompted Army officials to examine procedures in tracking people who may have problems.
“Was enough done?” she asked. “Should there have been more triggers? I think that’s what we’re trying to learn right now. And I think that it’s a legitimate question and it’s a question the Army is asking itself.”
“I don’t think that anyone would have ever expected a psychiatrist trained to help others mental health would be the one who would go off himself, unless there’s more to it, and that’s what they’re looking for,” she added.
President Obama asked people to avoid “jumping to conclusions” while the investigations continued.
Army officials said Friday morning that Major Hasan had not caused any problems since transferring to the Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood this year. Col. John Rossi, an Army spokesman, told reporters that investigators were examining whether Major Hasan had registered the two handguns used in the shooting.
Major Hasan is the sole suspect, after three others who were immediately taken in custody were released.
A joint investigation by agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Army criminal investigative division is under way, as government officials discuss how to prosecute Major Hasan. He could face murder charges in federal district court or a military court martial.
A law-enforcement official said high-level discussions between Justice Department and Pentagon officials over that question have been taking place since Thursday evening. The ultimate decision will be made in collaboration between the two agencies, the official said.
One factor that could shape the decision is whether investigators conclude that Major Hasan acted alone — so that it was a purely military-on-military crime — or whether they uncover evidence of any civilian co-conspirators off the base.
Under either civilian law or the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a murder conviction could carry a penalty of death. But there are some procedural differences between the two systems.
Army officials said they had declared a day of mourning on the base. President Obama said flags at the White House and other federal buildings would fly at half-staff until Veteran’s Day, “as a modest tribute to those who lost their lives.”
In interviews with reporters on Friday, Army officials praised the police officer who shot Major Hasan, Kimberly Munley, saying she and her partner had arrived within three minutes of reports of gunfire and put an end to the rampage. Ms. Munley, 34, was wounded in the exchange, officials said.
In a brief telephone interview, her stepmother, Wanda Barbour, said Ms. Munley had grown up in Carolina Beach, N.C., and described her as an excellent police officer.
“She’s concerned about all the people who’ve lost their lives,” Ms. Barbour said. “We’re just real proud of her and so grateful and thankful to the Lord that she’s going to be O.K.”
By midday on Friday, family members had publicly identified five of those killed. Among them was Sgt. Amy Krueger, a 1998 graduate of Kiel High School in Kiel, Wisc.
“Amy was a typical high school student,” said Dario Talerico, the high school’s principal. “She was kind of a tomboy type of kid. I know she was very, very proud of being able to serve in the military. She chose the military very soon after graduating.”
The victims were cut down in clusters as Major Hasan, clad in a military uniform, sprayed bullets inside a crowded medical processing center for soldiers returning from or about to be sent overseas, military officials said.
In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, a base spokesman, was asked about the reports that Major Hasan had yelled “Allahu Akbar.” General Cone said soldiers at the scene had reported “similar” accounts.
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.
Gunshot victims were “everywhere,” as were soldiers who rushed to the scene to help, said Sgt. Andrew Hagerman, 27. Some of them pressed uniforms onto victims’ wounds to stanch their bleeding while others broke down tables and used them as stretchers. Soldiers carried their wounded friends, and directed ambulance traffic.
“I was here all night,” said Maj. Stephen Beckwith, 33, who attended to victims in the hospital.
Fort Hood, near Killeen and about a two hours’ drive 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.
United States military around the world observed a moment of silence Friday afternoon, in honor of those who died at Fort Hood, which General Cone said, was “absolutely devastated.”
But already the shooting has been glorified on at least one Jihadist Web site. A nearly four-minute video displayed media clips of the aftermath of the shooting, and declared that Maj. Hasan "did Jihad in that base and killed no less than 13 Crusader foreigners" and "put terror and chaos in the ranks of the enemy."
Michael Brick and Campbell Robertson contributed reporting from Fort Hood, Tex.; Elisabeth Bumiller, Charlie Savage and David Stout from Washington; and Carla Baranauckas, Michael Luo and Liz Robbins from New York.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sXOQtLDUay-Y3s6ZGP2kVYh11CzlmL1NvBYSmj21TJ_HdQNa7XGWx97sK4U0_DtL52udSJKMsci9HmPYACSPT7XzIaxhOElphNc6DLK8j3GG0r5Wb3qQrqxasrjWjtNwE88B3jBRlEfW_Sh-BxL7xZ=s0-d)
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