Fort Hood shooting kills 12, injures 31. One gunman shot, two others in custody.

[Sugaree]

By JAY ROOT and ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writers Jay Root And Anne Gearan, Associated Press Writers – 4 mins ago

FORT HOOD, Texas – A soldier opened fire at a U.S. Army base in Fort Hood, Texas on Thursday, unleashing a stream of gunfire that left 12 people dead and 31 wounded. Authorities killed the gunman, and apprehended two other soldiers suspected in what appears to be the worst mass shooting at a U.S. military base.

The shooting began around 1:30 p.m., Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said at a news conference. He said all the casualties took place at the base's Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening.

"It's a terrible tragedy. It's stunning," Cone said.

A law enforcement official identified the shooting suspect as Army Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan. The official said Hasan, believed to be in his late 30s, was killed after opening fire at the base. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
The official says investigators are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name, or if he changed his name and converted to Islam at some point in his life.

Cone said the soldier used two handguns in the attack. It was not clear if the gunman had stopped to reload.

A graduation ceremony for soldiers who finished college courses while deployed was going on in an auditorium at the Readiness Center at the time of the shooting, said Sgt. Rebekah Lampam, a Fort Hood spokeswoman.

Greg Schanepp, U.S. Rep. John Carter's regional director in Texas, was representing Carter at the graduation, said John Stone, a spokesman for Carter, whose district includes the Army post.

Schanepp was at the ceremony when a soldier who had been shot in the back came running toward him and alerted him of the shooting, Stone said. The soldier told Schanepp not to go in the direction of the shooter, he said. Stone said he believes Schanepp was in the theater.
The base was locked down after the shootings. The wounded were dispersed among hospitals in central Texas, Cone said.

The shootings on the Texas military base stirred memories of other recent mass shootings in the United States, including 13 dead at a New York immigrant center in March, 10 killed during a gunman's rampage across Alabama in March and 32 killed in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history at Virginia Tech in 2007.

Around the country, some bases stepped up security precautions, but no others were locked down.

"The bottom line for us is that we are increasing security at our gates because the threat hasn't yet been defined, and we're reminding our Marines to be vigilant in their areas of responsibility," said Capt. Rob Dolan, public affairs officer for the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Ariz.
In Washington, President Barack Obama called the shooting "a horrific outburst of violence." He said it's a tragedy to lose a soldier overseas and even more horrifying when they come under fire at an Army base on American soil.

"We will make sure that we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident," the commander in chief said. "We are going to stay on this."

Covering 339 square miles, Fort Hood is the largest active duty armored post in the United States. Home to about 52,000 troops as of earlier this year, the sprawling base is located halfway between Austin and Waco.
About a mile from Fort Hood's east gate, Cynthia Thomas, director of Under the Hood Cafe, a local coffee shop and nonprofit military support center, has been calling soldiers and friends on the post to make sure they're OK.


"It's chaotic," Thomas said, as a SWAT team just drove by. "They're just saying that they're under attack they don't know what's going on. ... The phones are jammed. Everybody is calling family members and friends. Soldiers are running around with M-16s."
Fort Hood officially opened on Sept. 18, 1942, and was named in honor of Gen. John Bell Hood. It has been continuously used for armored training and is charged with maintaining readiness for combat missions

Source (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_fort_hood_shooting)

[2D]

I was just about to post this. But you beat me to it.

It's a terrible tragedy though. My dad told me about is and said the shooter was reprimanded (wrong word but you get the point) for proselytizing Islam. He started the shooting because he was being shipped off to combat. (Or so I heard) And of course we're going to have to be very politically correct about everything. *sigh*

[clone]

what a psycho

[mrmcdonaldduck]

i hope those poor men rest in peace.

[Sugaree]

Just got reported this morning: The gunman was NOT shot and killed. He is currently in custody.

[Church]

I hope the shooter gets executed.

[OneManArmy]

Here's another article on the matter.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33710487/ns/us_news-washington_post/

WASHINGTON - Fort Hood, the Texas military base that was the scene of a mass shooting Thursday, has been hard hit by the growing strain on the Army from multiple combat deployments -- with its personnel suffering the highest number of suicides among Army installations since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to official data.

After many years of lengthy war zone rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army personnel are experiencing record rates of suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other mental health problems, as well as worsening alcohol and drug abuse.

The psychological toll on the all-volunteer force today is unprecedented, Army officials say, acknowledging that they do not know how much the Army can sustain before it breaks -- making the health of the force a major consideration in President Obama's current deliberations over sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
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Pervasive strains
It's unclear what motivated the Army psychiatrist who is thought to have opened fire on fellow soldiers Thursday, although it's clear he had worked in settings where the effects of combat stress were pervasive.

A small but increasing number of soldiers undergoing the mental strain of repeated combat deployments are taking lives -- often their own.

This year, 117 active-duty Army soldiers were reported to have committed suicide, with 81 of those cases confirmed -- up from 103 suicides during the same period last year. Ten suicides have been reported at Fort Hood this year; more than 75 of its personnel have committed suicide since 2003. Fort Hood's high number of suicides is also linked to the fact that it is the Army's largest base, with more than 53,000 soldiers.

An estimated 30 percent of those returning from combat suffer mental health symptoms such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress. Such problems grow worse with repeated deployments and the constant exposure to danger and the sights, smells and emotions of seeing others killed or wounded, according to Army mental health surveys.

Vicarious experience of symptoms
Those who treat the mentally wounded, including doctors such as Hasan, are not immune from the symptoms. It is not uncommon for therapists who treat patients for post-traumatic stress disorder to experience some symptoms vicariously after hearing account after account of the horrors of the battlefield.

Hasan was a psychiatry intern at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from June 2003 to July 2009, Army officials said. In that position, he probably treated soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Violent outbursts such as shootings by soldiers at Army bases have occurred in recent years, including at Fort Hood, where several killings were reported over the past two years.

Historically, one of the worst shooting incidents involving soldiers took place Oct. 27, 1995, at Towle Stadium at Fort Bragg, N.C., when a soldier opened fire on paratroopers in a formation, killing one Army officer and wounding 18 others.




And this cunt was apparently shouting "Allah Akbar" as he killed people.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/06/fort-hood-shooting-suspect-alive

A US army psychiatrist about to be deployed to Afghanistan allegedly shouted "Allahu Akbar", or "God is greatest", as he opened fire at a military base in Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 28.

The gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, shouted the Arabic phrase just before he began his shooting spree at Fort Hood military installation yesterday, according to the base commander, Lieutenant General Robert Cone.

Hasan's family said he had been dreading deployment to Afghanistan.

Cone praised a civilian police officer for stopping the rampage. Sergeant Kimberly Munley and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfire. Cone said Munley shot the gunman four times despite being shot herself. "It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer," he said.

Twelve of those killed were soldiers; one was a civilian. All of the wounded were in a stable condition, officials said at a press conference today. Among them are Hasan himself and Munley.

Contrary to initial reports, Hasan is alive but has not yet been interviewed by investigators as he is on a ventilator. "He is in a stable condition," an army medical spokesman said.

Commander Colonel Steven Braverman, who was a colleague of Hasan at the Darnall army medical centre on Fort Hood, said Hasan performed well in his job and had showed no obvious signs of trouble. "We are not aware of any problems that he had while he was here at Darnall," said Braverman, adding: "We had no problems with his job performance while he was working with us." Braverman confirmed Hasan had received orders to deploy to Afghanistan.

One of Hasan's cousins, Nader Hasan, told reporters he had been dreading going to war, having counselled scores of returning soldiers for post-traumatic stress disorder. "He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy," the cousin said. "He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there."

Family and fellow officers said Hasan had complained of harassment by other troops about his Middle Eastern ethnicity and Muslim faith.

The FBI was last night going through Hasan's phone and computer records to see if a motive could be identified. Agents were checking back on website postings by a man who identified himself as Nidal Hasan that appeared sympathetic to suicide bombings.

At about 1.30pm yesterday, Virginia-born Hasan is said to have opened fire with two handguns at the base's soldier readiness centre where troops were having equipment checks, dental treatment and undergoing other preparations before being flown to Iraq or as they returned from combat. Neither of the guns are believed to have been military issue.

Ford Hood's deputy base commander, Colonel John G Rossi, said about 500 soldiers were in the area when Hasan entered the centre wearing military uniform. He shot some victims at close range and others were injured as the bullets ricocheted, Rossi said.

Troops are not allowed to carry firearms on the base and armed military police quickly swarmed to the scene.

Soldiers tore up their uniforms to bandage the injured. Troops at a graduation ceremony nearby, attended by 600, have been praised for quickly blocking the doors when the firing began.

The base went into lockdown for several hours amid fears other gunmen were involved. Greg Schanepp, who was representing a local congressman at the graduation, told how a soldier who had been shot in the back came running towards him and alerted him to the shooting, telling him not to go in the direction of the killer.

The base commander, Cone, said only military police on the base carried guns. He did not speculate on a motive. Two other people were questioned and then released.

Federal law enforcement officials told Associated Press that Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of his web postings, which discussed suicide bombings and other threats.

One of the web posts that authorities reviewed was a blog that equated suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades. "To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. It's more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause," said the post. "Scholars have paralled [sic] this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers."

The officials said Hasan appeared to have made the postings but it was still being checked.

The wounded were taken to hospitals in the central Texas region. Lisa Pfund said her daughter Amber Bahr, 19, was shot in the stomach and was in a stable condition.

Barack Obama, interrupting a speech in Washington, said the incident was a "horrific outburst of violence".

The gunman showed no signs of worry or stress when he stopped at a convenience store for his daily breakfast of hash browns, said Jeannie Strickland, manager of a local 7-Eleven. "He came in [Thursday] morning just like normal," she told the Houston Chronicle, "nothing weird, nothing out of the ordinary."

Video footage was shown on CNN last night apparently of Hasan in a shop in the morning ‑ about six to seven hours before the shooting ‑ looking relaxed as he bought some goods.



My heart goes out to the victims families and friends and fellow soldiers. And since this is Texas cunt is probably going to get the death penalty.

[Suicune]

Sad, very tragic, deepest condolences to the families effected.