Fort Hood shooting witnesses: Gunman shouted 'Allahu Akbar' before killing 13
By: By DAVE MONTGOMERY, STEVE CAMPBELL and CHRIS VAUGHN
Published: Fri, 11/06 @ 12:01AM
FORT HOOD -- Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar!” — an Arabic phrase for “God is great!” — before opening fire, the base commander said Friday.
Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said officials had not yet confirmed that the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, made the comment before the rampage Thursday. Hasan was among 30 people wounded in the shooting spree and remained hospitalized on a ventilator.
All but two of the injured were still hospitalized, and all were in stable condition. Officials said the one of those killed was a civilian and that the rest were military personnel. The families of roughly 90 percent of those killed have been notified, Army officials said.
To find out about relatives or loved ones at Fort Hood, call the base Hot Line at 866-836-2751 or 254-288-7570.
Military officials were trying to piece together what may have pushed Hasan, an Army psychiatrist trained to help soldiers in distress, to turn on his comrades. Cone said the 39-year-old Hasan was not known to be a threat or risk.
“I’m not aware of any problems here,” said Col. Steve Braverman, the Fort Hood hospital commander. “We had no problems with his job performance.”
An imam from a mosque Hasan regularly attended said Hasan, a lifelong Muslim, was a committed soldier, gave no sign of extremist beliefs and regularly wore his uniform at prayers.
The motive for the shooting wasn’t clear, but Hasan was apparently set to deploy soon and had expressed some anger about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The shooting rampage at this sprawling Central Texas military base was stopped by a female police officer, identified as Sgt. Kimberly Munley of the Fort Hood Police Department, who exchanged shots with Hasan after he opened fire with two handguns on a group of soldiers.
Munley's shots struck the gunman at least four times, said Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, the Fort Hood commander. Munley also was wounded but was in stable condition late Thursday, he said.
"It’s a terrible tragedy. It’s stunning," Cone said.
It was one of the worst mass shootings ever at a U.S. military base.
The general added new details — and corrected others — in a midevening news conference, saying that Hasan, was not slain, as had been reported.
Hasan, an eight-year veteran from Virginia, was described as being in critical condition and was flown off-post by helicopter to an undisclosed location. Authorities had not questioned him by late Thursday.
The death toll was at 13 Friday morning after another of the wounded died overnight. Of the dead, one was a civilian and 12 were soldiers, military officials said early Friday.
Cone praised the heroic efforts of first responders and soldiers, some of whom ripped cloth from their uniforms as makeshift bandages for the wounded.
Cone said he was unable to say whether the shootings were random. There was no indication that the two handguns, one a semiautomatic, were military-issue, he said.
Col. Ben Danner, a base spokesman, said that authorities had detained three people after the shootings but that at least two had been released. Asked whether Hasan is expected to recover, Danner said, "death is not imminent."
Local, state, military and federal law enforcement officials are participating in the investigation.
In Washington, President Barack Obama called the shooting "a horrific outburst of violence." He said it’s a tragedy to lose soldiers 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."
Day of mourning
Fort Hood officials planned a day of mourning today and were making arrangements for grief counseling and toughened security.
There was no official word on the gunman’s a motive, but Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said Hasan was about to deploy overseas. He had recently completed training in treating post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Texas senator said she was told about the upcoming deployment by generals based at Fort Hood. But it was unclear whether he was headed to Iraq or Afghanistan and exactly when he was scheduled to leave.
Hasan was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before being transferred to Fort Hood in July, military officials said.
The officials said he received a poor performance evaluation while at Walter Reed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because military records are confidential.
Hasan is a graduate of Virginia Tech, where he was a member of the ROTC and earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry in 1997. He received his medical degree from the military’s Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001. At Walter Reed, he did his internship, residency and a fellowship.
The shootings began about 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the Soldier Readiness Center, a personnel and medical processing center, Cone said.
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.
No information was released on the identities of the dead or wounded. The wounded were dispersed to hospitals in Central Texas, Cone said.
Amber Bahr, 19, was shot in the stomach but was in stable condition, said her mother, Lisa Pfund of Random Lake, Wis.
"We know nothing, just that she was shot in the belly," Pfund told The Associated Press. She couldn’t provide more details and spoke only with emergency personnel.
'Bursts of shots’
The Rev. Greg Schannep was about to head into the graduation ceremony when a man in uniform approached him, warning that someone had opened fire. Schannep heard three volleys of gunfire and saw people running.
"There was a burst of shots and more bursts of shots and people running everywhere," said Schannep, who works for local U.S. Rep. John Carter.
The uniformed man who had warned him ran to the theater. Schannep said he could see that the man’s back was bloodied from a wound. The man was treated and will be fine, Schannep said.
Staff Sgt. Jacob Dorisca of Dallas said he was off-post at a medical appointment for injuries he suffered in a roadside bombing in Iraq when the shooting occurred.
He received a call from his unit making sure he was OK.
He was shocked to learn the gunman’s rank, he said.
"A major? That’s a high rank," he said. "I would never think of that."
Policy questions
Dorisca wondered whether the slayings would lead Fort Hood’s commanding general to rethink the policy of requiring soldiers to remain unarmed while on post.
Only military police are allowed to carry firearms.
On Thursday afternoon, distraught Fort Hood family members, including parents rushing to pick up their children from day care, gathered at the main gate after the base was locked down.
"When I first heard, I was in tears," said Cynthia Wood, whose son Conner was in day care on the base. "It’s very disheartening not being able to get your child."
As she was talking to reporters, her husband, Army Spc. Joshua Wood, was sending her a frantic text message from Iraq asking for more details.
Parents were allowed to start picking up their children at 6:45 p.m. from nine schools inside the Fort Hood perimeter. Parents had to come individually to get their children, according to Leslie Gilmore, Killeen school district spokeswoman.
'I’m very scared’
At the base’s main gate, Monica Cain brushed back tears as she explained that she was unable to reach her husband, whom she had taken to Fort Hood earlier in the day for medical treatment of a head injury he suffered in combat.
Sgt. Darren Cain had told her that he planned to call at 1 p.m. to pick him up. But by midafternoon, after news of the shooting spread across the region, she had not heard from him and was unable to reach him by cellphone.
"I don’t know what’s going on," she said. "I’m very scared."
Hundreds of personnel are typically in the Soldier Readiness Center throughout the day, base spokesman Steve Moore said. The facility is in a populous part of the western side of the base, near barracks and a fast-food center.
Hutchison, clearly shaken by the tragedy, asked her colleagues on the Senate floor to observe a minute of silence in honor of those killed and wounded at Fort Hood.
Gov. Rick Perry directed the deployment of state resources, including Department of Public Safety troopers, Texas Rangers and helicopters, to provide support at the base.
He also ordered that all Texas flags be lowered to half-staff until Sunday.
Around the country, some military bases stepped up security precautions but no others were locked down.
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