Associated Press

 

[hide=Associated Press]FORT HOOD, Texas — An Army officer opened fire Thursday with two handguns at the Fort Hood military base in an attack that left 12 people dead and 31 wounded. Authorities killed the gunman and apprehended two other soldiers in what appears to be the worst mass shooting at a U.S. military base.

 

There was no immediate word on a motive. The shooting began around 1:30 p.m., said Lt. Gen. Bob Cone at Fort Hood. He said all the casualties took place at the base's Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening.

 

"It's a terrible tragedy. It's stunning," Cone said.

 

A law enforcement official identified the shooting suspect as Army Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan. The official said 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.

 

A defense official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hasan was a mental health professional — an Army psychologist or psychiatrist. Officials say it was not clear what Hasan's religion was, but investigators are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name or if he may have changed his name and converted to Islam at some point.

 

A graduation ceremony for soldiers who finished college courses while deployed was going on nearby at the time of the shooting, said Sgt. Rebekah Lampam, a Fort Hood spokeswoman.

 

Greg Schanepp, U.S. Rep. John Carter's regional director in Texas, was representing Carter at the graduation, said John Stone, a spokesman for Carter, whose district includes the Army post.

 

Schanepp was at the ceremony when a soldier who had been shot in the back came running toward him and alerted him of the shooting, Stone said. The soldier told Schanepp not to go in the direction of the shooter, he said.

 

The base was locked down after the shootings. The wounded were dispersed among hospitals in central Texas, Cone said. Nine were taken to Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple. A hospital spokeswoman says all had been shot and are adults. A Fort Hood spokesman said he could not immediately confirm any identities of the injured.

 

Lisa Pfund of Random Lake, Wis., says her daughter, 19-year-old Amber Bahr, was shot in the stomach but was in stable condition. "We know nothing, just that she was shot in the belly," Pfund told The Associated Press. She couldn't provide more details and only spoke with emergency personnel.

 

"I ask that all of you keep these families and these individuals in your prayers today," Texas Gov. Rick Perry said.

 

The shootings on the Texas military base stirred memories of other recent mass shootings in the United States, including 13 dead at a New York immigrant center in March, 10 killed during a gunman's rampage across Alabama in March and 32 killed in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history at Virginia Tech in 2007.

 

Around the country, some bases stepped up security precautions, but no others were locked down.

 

"The bottom line for us is that we are increasing security at our gates because the threat hasn't yet been defined, and we're reminding our Marines to be vigilant in their areas of responsibility," said Capt. Rob Dolan, public affairs officer for the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Ariz.

 

In Washington, President Barack 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."

 

Covering 339 square miles, Fort Hood is the largest active duty armored post in the United States. Home to about 52,000 troops as of earlier this year, the sprawling base is located halfway between Austin and Waco.

 

About a mile from Fort Hood's east gate, Cynthia Thomas, director of Under the Hood Cafe, a coffee house and outreach center, was calling soldiers and friends on the post to make sure they're OK.

 

"It's chaotic," Thomas said, as a SWAT team just drove by. "The phones are jammed. Everybody is calling family members and friends. Soldiers are running around with M-16s."

 

Fort Hood officially opened on Sept. 18, 1942, and was named in honor of Gen. John Bell Hood. It has been continuously used for armored training and is charged with maintaining readiness for combat missions.[/hide]

 

I know a whole bunch of guys at Fort Hood, but the whole base is on lockdown. I'm a little worried.

 

Just thought you guys should know.

RIP to those who have fallen, and may those who were wounded have a speedy recovery.

 

(What are we supposed to discuss here?)

 

Please regard my opening statement seriously and not as just a mere way to lead to my question.

Yeah I heard about this, it is pretty sad.

RIP to those who have fallen, and may those who were wounded have a speedy recovery.

 

(What are we supposed to discuss here?)

 

Please regard my opening statement seriously and not as just a mere way to lead to my question.

Hell if I know, but one of the largest (is it the largest?) military bases in the US coming under attack from one man - its own, in fact - is a big deal. Especially when there are nearly forty casualties.

 

Pretty important news, I reckon.

That's pretty [bleep]ed up...

Eh, why is it that I just don't care about this... maybe because it happens all over the world?

 

Either way, my condolences to their families.

I wonder how this wasn't prevented. <_<

I've been there a few times. It really is huge!

 

RIP to all those killed :(

I wonder how this wasn't prevented. <_<

Because we can't read people's minds?

Eh, why is it that I just don't care about this... maybe because it happens all over the world?

 

Either way, my condolences to their families.

 

Soldiers fire on their fellow soldiers hitting 43 of them before being stopped all over the world?

 

I wonder how this wasn't prevented. <_<

 

It's a military base, they are obviously going to have guns and ammo. There is no way to prevent this if the person was acting alone.

To shed some light:

This guy was my psychiatrist about a year ago. I know you don't believe me, but I am completely serious. Unless there was another Nidal Malik Hasan who was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, it's the same guy.

 

 

They have the guy's cousin on the phone. He said Hasan was always Muslim, not a convert. He was American-born, as were his parent. He was dealing with harassment in the military and was really terrified about being deployed to Iraq. He wanted out of the military and felt like he couldn't get anyone to listen to him.

 

 

There's a thread booming on it here

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3224682&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=16

 

 

E:

Yeah, it is. The cousin said that being deployed to Iraq was Hasan's "worst nightmare". I guess he felt like there was no other way out and that striking back at the military, which was full of people who attacked his Muslim heritage, was just the result of his anger and fear. The cousin said that even though he was American born, because of his ethnic heritage, he still took a ton of crap from other soldiers who called him a raghead and stuff.

 

I've also been hearing people starting to question whether any of the people who harassed Hasan were on the base at the time he started shooting-- like, was he trying to take out specific people or was this just indiscriminate.

 

Very sad. Just saw on MSNBC.com that the death toll has ticked up a notch to 13.

 

e: Hmmm. Senator Hutchenson said she had it confirmed by Fort Hood that Hasan was indeed targeting specific people.

 

Apparently Hutchenson isn't the most reliable person though, so I guess we'll have to wait and see what the story is

Hot damn, he killed a dozen people and injured thirty before getting killed. That's quite impressive. And kind of troublesome to think he could manage to kill that many in a [bleep]ing military base, goes to show they must have been totally unprepared, or he just hit the barracks or something.

Hot damn, he killed a dozen people and injured thirty before getting killed. That's quite impressive. And kind of troublesome to think he could manage to kill that many in a [bleep]ing military base, goes to show they must have been totally unprepared, or he just hit the barracks or something.

 

From what I've heard from military people, they never carry guns in the bases unless it's for the shooting range or some security detail

Hot damn, he killed a dozen people and injured thirty before getting killed. That's quite impressive. And kind of troublesome to think he could manage to kill that many in a [bleep]ing military base, goes to show they must have been totally unprepared, or he just hit the barracks or something.

That's what I was thinking. I'm honestly surprised that this many were killed/injured.

Thats awful. I never understand why people do these kind of things especially to our soldiers.

Hot damn, he killed a dozen people and injured thirty before getting killed. That's quite impressive. And kind of troublesome to think he could manage to kill that many in a [bleep]ing military base, goes to show they must have been totally unprepared, or he just hit the barracks or something.

 

From what I've heard from military people, they never carry guns in the bases unless it's for the shooting range or some security detail

Some troops will keep something on them, but many troops at Fort Hood only have rifles period, and they're a real [bleep] to carry around all day.

 

It seems strange that he was terrified of being deployed - he was an officer. Then again, that might give you more reason to be worried of your safety. More of a target.

My uncle lives there, but i'm not sure if he's in the army still. I hope he's okay.

Figures it was a psychiatrist too, they must hear a lot of bad [cabbage]

Most of the guys I know have been confirmed as alright. A friend's brother was actually involved in the firefight with Major Hasan. It's a relief that the people I know are okay.

 

EDIT: Wait, I talked to the guy again, and Hasan has been confirmed as alive and in custody, not dead. I don't know if he was wounded, but there was a firefight before he was captured.

Eh, why is it that I just don't care about this... maybe because it happens all over the world?

 

Either way, my condolences to their families.

 

Soldiers fire on their fellow soldiers hitting 43 of them before being stopped all over the world?

 

I wonder how this wasn't prevented. <_<

 

It's a military base, they are obviously going to have guns and ammo. There is no way to prevent this if the person was acting alone.

 

I wasn't meaning that in a literal sense, just that these things happen all the time(Read: getting shot to death). I'm just so tired of reading in the news or wherever that people are shot to death.

If you generalize it so widely, why should anything be newsworthy? Sorta wierd. I mean, think about it like this: So what if the President was killed. Presidents die. So what if a nuke went off. They have before.

I won't say terribly much beyond this, unless you really want to get into a debate about how much human lives are really worth. It could go that way really fast.

Nah, I just hate such pessimism. Pointless speculation about "what life is worth" isn't worth anything to me. I've already decided life is worth a lot. And I was particularly confused that you were posting that - you never seemed a pessimist.

In the end, it doesn't matter. There's really nothing that can be done about what's happened at Hood except to put more security measures in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. Unfortunate, yes, but I'd just say it was more or less the fact no one expected this to happen. And the fact it was one person operating alone just made it harder to stop. What's happened is done, and I sympathize for those who were injured or lost someone to the whole massacre.

 

And as to me being a pessimist, I have my reasons.

Hot damn, he killed a dozen people and injured thirty before getting killed. That's quite impressive. And kind of troublesome to think he could manage to kill that many in a [bleep]ing military base, goes to show they must have been totally unprepared, or he just hit the barracks or something.

 

From what I've heard from military people, they never carry guns in the bases unless it's for the shooting range or some security detail

 

You are correct. Unless on a training exercise, deploying, or at the range all weapons military AND civilian will be locked in the base armory. Another note to point out is, this guy was a Major. Meaning an officer of commanding status. He can do a lot more on a base then anyone enlisted. He shot these people as they prepared to deploy.

 

Its quite easy to get on military bases, even these days. The government has tasked the security over to civilian contractors and the MPs just assist. So most of your security is going to be civilians, especially on Army and Navy bases.

 

Its terrible what happened, but this just irks me the wrong way. Being in the military i understand how stressful it can be, but at the same time you have ample people there to help you with ANYTHING. He had to put in double digit years of service to become a Major...all of that time spent in and he snaps now? A Major being someone the enlisted men should respect and look up to and here this guy is afraid to go to Iraq? All he would do as a Major is sit on a base in an office somewhere with AC, Cable, and internet MY GOD! Sure he worked hearing the horror stories, but read the news, get some outside info OUTSIDE of the hospital...its very very calm over here now. I find it hard to believe he made it 12 years without being deployed at least once.

 

If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen, but don't take your crap and unloaded onto someone else. Thats a problem these days, kids join the military looking for money and benefits without thinking about what they might be made to do or told where to go. Freakin boot officers man...and these are the ones trying to lead us. I'm an E-3 and have just as many ribbons as him AND on my 2nd tour to Iraq.

 

Pvt Nidal Malik Hasan's days are over. Let this fool rot in the brig. This guy won't see the light of day ever again. UCMJ Artcle 118 - MURDER. Good thing he didn't step foot off base, or he would be tried in Texas law as well.