05:58 PM Friday, November 20, 2009
Military Doctor Kills 13 at Fort Hood Army Base
Date: Friday, November 06, 2009, 6:04 am
By: April Castro and Devlin Barrett, Associated Press
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — Military officials were starting Friday to piece together what may have pushed an Army psychiatrist trained to help soldiers in distress to turn on his comrades in a shooting rampage that killed 13 people and wounded 30 in Texas.
The suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was on a ventilator and unconscious in a hospital after being shot four times during the shootings at the Army's sprawling Fort Hood, post officials said. In the early chaos after the shootings, authorities believed they had killed him, only to discover later that he had survived.
In Washington, a senior U.S. official said authorities at Fort Hood initially thought one of the victims who had been shot and killed was the shooter. The mistake resulted in a delay of several hours in identifying Hasan as the alleged assailant.
Authorities have not ruled out that Hasan was acting on behalf of some unidentified radical group, the official said. He would not say whether any evidence had come to light to support that theory.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters that were under investigation.
Officials are not ruling out the possibility that some of the casualties may have been victims of "friendly fire," that in the mayhem and confusion at the shooting scene some of the responding military officials may have shot some of the victims.
The gunfire broke out around 1:30 p.m. at the Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening. Nearby, some soldiers were readying to head into a graduation ceremony for troops and families who had recently earned degrees.
Pastor Greg Schannep had just parked his car along the side of the theater and was about to head into the ceremony when a man in uniform approached him.
"Sir, they are opening fire over there!" the man told him. At first, he thought it was a training exercise — then heard three volleys and saw people running. As the man who warned him about the shots ran away, he could see the man's back was bloodied from a wound.
Schannep said police and medical and other emergency personnel were on the scene in an instant, telling people to get inside the theater. The post went into lockdown while a search began for a suspect and emergency workers began trying to treat the wounded. Some soldiers rushed to treat their injured colleagues by ripping their uniforms into makeshift bandages to treat their wounds.
Fort Hood Lt. Gen. Bob Cone praised the soldiers for their quick reaction.
"God bless these soldiers," Cone said. "As horrible as this was it could have been worse."
Video from the scene showed police patrolling the area with handguns and rifles, ducking behind buildings for cover. Sirens could be heard wailing while a woman's voice on a public-address system urged people to take cover. Schools on the base went into lockdown, and family members trying to find out what was happening inside found cell phone lines jammed or busy.
"I was confused and just shocked," said Spc. Jerry Richard, 27, who works at the center but was not on duty during the shooting. "Overseas you are ready for it. But here you can't even defend yourself."
The wounded were dispersed among hospitals in central Texas, Cone said. Their identities and the identities of the dead were not immediately released.
The bodies of the victims would be taken to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for autopsies and forensic tests, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters that were under investigation.
There will also be a ceremony at the air .....
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The only way things are going to get better for the country, is when we start looking to JESUS to fix our problems no one in the gov can figure out what is going on BE NOT BLIND AMERICA WE NEED THE LORD IN EVERYTHING WE DO. With that said I was at the SRP site when this man started shooting. IT was and still is HELL, I am alive only by the grace of GOD. I SAW HELL!!!!!!!
by
Lamonjac
November 9, 2009, 2:20 pm
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NEWSFLASH: MORE SHOT-UP PEOPLE,DOWNTOWN-ORLANDO FLORIDA!!!!!
by
Rubinisk
November 6, 2009, 11:43 am
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America is fulled with loonies and the terrorist cells have already been here. I guess this is the time to be the home of the brave or the home of the cowards. Who cares what they blog on..KKK and its ilks blog and plot openly too and nothing done about it..So irregardless if the USA is not going after them that Arab should be afforded the same rights and KKK and who are nothing but domestic terrorists. So even if they sent all terrorist back home, what about the ones here after my black azz.
by
Broughtwaprice
November 6, 2009, 11:40 am
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There SHOULD BE a TASK FORCE hired just for surveillience(sp) of those HOME-GROWN--terrorists-AS WELL--those 'LITTLE' groups,or individuals whom BLOG ON THE internet about FUTURE HARM TO Americans,and any other human beings!!! With the advent of gun sales--this SHOULD BE IMPLEMENTED............
by
Rubinisk
November 6, 2009, 11:21 am
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This man was LITERALLY SCREAMING for help on the internet!!!! This SMACKS of GROSS NEGLIGENCE on the SIDE of the authorities---and to THINK Hasan blogged about some craziness and the FBI didn't intervene!!! I though after 9-11,that blogged-terrorist threats were to be considered INTOLERABLE,and SUBJECTED TO HIGH SCRUTINY,from the authorities!!!! I HOPE more TERRORIST or KRAZY____ remarks, BLOGGED on the internet is taken as FACE VALUE, in the NEAR FUTURE,because this CARNAGE could HAVE BEEN PREVENTED!!!!!
by
Rubinisk
November 6, 2009, 10:54 am
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The suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was on a ventilator, unconscious in a hospital after being shot four times. (AP)
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