Texas Army base death toll climbs to 13
One of the 31 people wounded in the initial attack at the U.S. Army base Thursday afternoon died of injuries, base officials said early Friday, the Killeen (Texas) Daily Herald reported.
The military identified the suspect as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, an Army psychiatrist who specialized in treating soldiers' post-traumatic stress and was stationed at a hospital on the sprawling base in Central Texas.
A SWAT team and FBI agents were searching Hasan's Killeen apartment for clues Friday morning into what might have led to the worst shooting ever at a U.S. military base, CNN reported.
Hasan, who allegedly pulled out two handguns, one a semi-automatic, and began firing, was shot by a civilian police officer and remained hospitalized, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, the Fort Hood base commander, said Thursday night.
The military had reported Hasan was dead through most of the day and into the evening Thursday. But Thursday evening, Cone said the suspect was, in fact, alive and had been in custody since just after the shooting. Cone blamed "confusion at the hospital" for the initial inaccurate report.
A civilian police officer who returned fire was among those wounded, Cone said.
Three others who had initially been held have been released, and authorities concluded Hasan was the only shooter.
The shootings happened in the Soldier Readiness Center, a building where soldiers deal with necessary dental and medical check-ups, paperwork and such before being deployed.
Cone described a chaotic scene in which soldiers were ripping uniforms off their bodies to use the fabric to cover fellow soldiers' wounds. He praised the quick response of soldiers and police.
"I'm sure this could have been much worse, horrible as it was," Cone said.
Cone would not comment on Hasan's condition beyond saying his wounds from four gunshots did not appear to be life-threatening. CNN said Hasan was in stable condition Thursday night.
The base commander also refused to comment on a possible motive beyond saying while terrorism could not be ruled out, it seemed unlikely.
Hasan had been transferred from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington to Darnall Army Medical Center on Fort Hood in July.
He apparently was upset he was about to be deployed to Iraq, relatives said.
"He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy," a cousin, Nader Hasan, told The New York Times. "He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there."
Nader Hasan also said his cousin had faced harassment from some colleagues because he is Muslim and that contributed to his misgivings about being deployed. Nidal Hasan, a lifelong Muslim, grew up in Arlington, Va., and joined the Army right out of high school, family members said, and the military paid his way through college and medical school.
But he had recently spoken openly against the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq and desperately wanted out of the military, relatives said.
President Obama expressed shock about the attack and sympathy for the victims.
"It is horrifying that (soldiers) should come under fire on an Army base on American soil," he said. "My immediate thoughts and prayers are with the wounded and with the families of the fallen, and with those who live and serve at Fort Hood. These are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk and at times give their lives to protect the rest of us on a daily basis."
Obama said the Pentagon, the FBI and the Department of Homeland security were investigating.
The 340-square-mile Fort Hood, one of the largest U.S. military installations in the world, is home to about 65,000 soldiers and family members, with thousands of soldiers deployed at any given time. The base serves as a processing facility for troops about to be deployed and for those returning from combat. Fort Hood is named for John Bell Hood, a Confederate Army general. It is a town onto itself, with nine schools, lots of civilian housing, malls, a theater and ball fields.
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