Murder at Fort Hood: shooter alive, is an Army psychiatrist
The suspect in the murder of 12 and wounding of 31 others at Fort Drum, Nadir Hasan, 31, was an Army psychologist.
An Army psychiatrist set to be shipped overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post Thursday, authorities said, a rampage that killed 12 people and left 31 wounded in the worst mass shooting ever at a military base in the United States.
The gunman, first said to have been killed, was wounded but alive and in stable condition under military guard, said Lt. Gen. Bob Cone at Fort Hood. “I would say his death is not imminent,” Cone said. Col. Ben Danner said the suspect was shot at least four times.
The man was identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old, eight-year veteran from Virginia.
More on Hasan:
There was no official word on motive. Hasan had transferred to Fort Hood in July from Walter Reed Medical Center, where he received a poor performance evaluation, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said generals at Fort Hood told her that Hasan was about to deploy overseas. Retired Col. Terry Lee, who said he had worked with Hasan, told Fox News he was being sent to Afghanistan.
Lee said Hasan had hoped Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq and got into frequent arguments with others in the military who supported the wars.
Hasan’s cousin has also spoken out, including in an interview with the New York Times, which added additional biographical details about the gunman:
Born and reared in Virginia, the son of immigrant parents from a small Palestinian town near Jerusalem, he joined the Army right out of high school, against his parents’ wishes. The Army, in turn, put him through college and then medical school, where he trained to be a psychiatrist.
But Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the 39-year-old man accused of Thursday’s mass shooting at Fort Hood, Tex., started having second thoughts about his military career a few years ago after other soldiers harassed him for being a Muslim, he told relatives in Virginia.
He had also more recently expressed deep concerns about being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. Having counseled scores of returning soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, first at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and more recently at Fort Hood, he knew all too well the terrifying realities of war, said a cousin, Nader Hasan.
“He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy,” Mr. Hasan said. “He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there.”
The Times then goes into some serious speculation about Internet postings by someone with the same name, without verifying that those were from THIS Hasan. Beyond that:
Nader Hasan said his cousin never mentioned in recent phone calls to Virginia that he was going to be deployed, and he said the family was shocked when it heard the news on television on Thursday afternoon.
“He was doing everything he could to avoid that,” Mr. Hasan said. “He wanted to do whatever he could within the rules to make sure he wouldn’t go over.”
Several years ago, that included retaining a lawyer and making inquiries about whether he could get out of the Army before his contract was up, because of the harassment he had received as a Muslim. But Nader Hasan said the lawyer had told his cousin that even if he paid the Army back for his education, it would not allow him to leave before his commitment was up.
“I think he gave up that fight and was just doing his time,” Mr. Hasan said.
ORIGINAL POST:
The shooting of 42 people — of whom 12 have now died and 31 still in the hospital — at Fort Hood in Texas this afternoon, has shaken the entire country today. MSNBC is reporting, with the help of Kay Bailey Hutchinson, that there appears to be one main shooter, possibly two other people in custody, and a possible motive: an imminent deployment to Iraq. The NBC affiliate in Dallas has an even more shocking revelation: the shooter (who was killed by authorities) was a mental health professional.
The Associated Press identified the deceased gunman as Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan. A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hasan was a mental health professional — an Army psychologist or psychiatrist. It was not known whether he was treating people at the base.
A law enforcement official revealed to the Associated Press that 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 said investigators are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name, or if he changed his name and converted to the Islamic faith at some point in his life.
Authorities have not yet identified a possible motive for the rampage, though Lt. Col. Nathan Banks said early into the investigation that it was too soon to tell whether there might be any link to battle stress or repeated deployments.
And the AP reports that:
The Army is suffering a record high suicide rate and other signs of stress from fighting two wars, the Associated Press reported.
The shooting apparently took place in two stages, one at a facility where soldiers were getting vaccinated and doing other preparations prior to deployment, and another in a theater, where a graduation ceremony for troops who had completed college courses was taking place.
The president issued this statement:
blockquote>”My immediate 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 courage decision to risk, and at times, give their lives to protect the rest of us on a daily basis.”
Eerily, the shooter was also a graduate of Virginia Tech, where not too long ago, another horrific mass shooting took place…
UPDATE 2: Vice President Biden’s statement:
“Jill and I join the President and Michelle in expressing our sympathies to the families of the brave soldiers who fell today. We are all praying for those who were wounded and hoping for their full and speedy recovery. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the entire Fort Hood community as they deal with this senseless tragedy.”
UPDATE 3: The WaPo reports on Fort Drum, the nation’s largest military base, with 53,000 soldiers, and which leads the military in suicides, though that’s partly a function of the base’s size.
UPDATE 4: Hasan’s cousin issued the following statement late Thursday on behalf of the family:
“We are shocked and saddened by the terrible events at Fort Hood today. We send the families of the victims our most heartfelt sympathies. Nidal was an American citizen. He was born in Arlington, Va., and raised here in America. … Our family loves America. We are proud of our country, and saddened by today’s tragedy.”
Comments
Leave a Reply
Connect
Book deals
Links
Finalist: Best Liberal Blog
Poll
Loading ...
