How the day of deadly drama unfolded in and around Fort Hood

From staff and wire reports

KILLEEN — Early Thursday morning, first at 2:37 and again at 5, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan called neighbor and friend Willie Bell.

Bell could normally hear Hasan’s morning prayers through the thin apartment walls, but Hasan skipped the ritual Thursday.

Bell didn’t pick up either time, but Hasan left a message.

"Nice knowing you, old friend," Hasan said. "I’m going to miss you."

"We thought it was a nice message," said Jacqueline Harris, Bell’s girlfriend.

Hasan then went to worship at the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen at 6 a.m., leaving about 15 minutes later.

Like any other day

About 6:20 a.m., surveillance cameras at a 7-Eleven across from Fort Hood captured images of a smiling Hasan, dressed in a long white garment and white kufi prayer cap, buying his usual breakfast — coffee and a hash brown.

Hasan returned to the Casa del Norte apartments, and at about 11 a.m., next-door neighbor Patricia Villa took Hasan two tamales filled with pineapple and sugar. Villa said she normally didn’t see Hasan during the day, but she offered the tamales as thanks for the furniture and food he had given her the day before.

Villa said Hasan asked whether the tamales had meat because he did not eat meat.

She said no. "They’re sweet tamales."

At Fort Hood, it was business as usual at the sprawling 100,000-acre installation just outside Killeen.

At the Soldier Readiness Center on the southern edge of the post, soldiers returning from overseas mingled with colleagues filling out forms and undergoing medical tests in preparation for deployment.

A graduation ceremony was taking place next door at the Howze Theater for soldiers who had completed their college course work while deployed.

Then, about 1:30 p.m., all hell broke loose.

A terrifying 10 minutes

Witnesses say a man later identified as Hasan jumped on a desk in the processing center and shouted "Allahu akbar!" — Arabic for "God is great!" He was armed with two pistols, one a semiautomatic capable of firing up to 20 rounds without reloading. He fired more than 100 shots.

Packed into cubicles with 5-foot-high dividers, 300 unarmed soldiers were sitting ducks for Hasan. Those who weren’t hit by direct fire were struck by rounds ricocheting off desks and the tile floor.

Pfc. Marquest Smith of Fort Worth, who joined the Army just over a year ago, was in one of those cubicles. A bullet tore through the cubicle wall and lodged in the heel of his boot.

As the shooter reloaded, Smith, 21, rushed through the chaos to pull four wounded victims to safety and help take them to the hospital. The gunman fired toward him from across the room as Smith fled. Twice, Smith returned to help the wounded.

About three minutes after the shooting began, police Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who had been directing traffic nearby, rushed to the scene.

She "saw some injured and scared people trying to move out of the area" and "received information that the suspect was between a set of buildings," said Chuck Medley, director of emergency services at Fort Hood.

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