12 killed, 31 hurt in Fort Hood shooting

Staff and wire reports

FORT HOOD — An Army major opened fire with two handguns Thursday on a group of soldiers at a U.S. Army base in central Texas, killing 12 and wounding 31. The soldiers were making their final preparations for deployment to Iraq, Fort Hood's base commander said.

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.

Hasan was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before being transferred to Fort Hood in July, military officials told The Associated Press.

The officials had access to Hasan's military record. They said he received a poor performance evaluation while at Walter Reed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because military records are confidential.

The Virginia-born soldier is single with no children. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech University, 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.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said Hasan was about to deploy overseas. The Texas senator says she was told about the upcoming deployment by generals based at Fort Hood.

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 President Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq and got into frequent arguments with others in the military who supported the wars.

In Washington, 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."

Cone, the commander of III Corps, said initially three people were held, and all have been interviewed. Authorities believe, however, that there was a single shooter.

"It's a terrible tragedy. It's stunning," Cone said in a news conference earlier in the afternoon.

The shooting began about 1:30 p.m. Thursday at a personnel and medical processing center at Fort Hood, Cone said. A second incident took place at a theater on the base. Cone said Hasan used two handguns during the attack.

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.

Looking for comments?