One Civilian Among the 13 Dead; Army Psychiatrist Is Suspected and in Stable Condition.
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FORT HOOD,Texas: U.S. Army officials said Friday that the alleged shooter in the military-base massacre that left 13 people dead and dozens wounded had been scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan to counsel soldiers suffering from combat stress.
The suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was in stable condition Friday as investigators interviewed witnesses and tried to piece together details of one of the worst incidents of soldier-on-soldier violence in U.S. history.
Army Col. Steven Braverman said during a morning news briefing that military psychiatrist Maj. Hasan hadn't been a disciplinary issue since recently being transferred to Fort Hood from Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington. Col. Braverman declined to elaborate on the man at the center of the rampage, noting that a detailed probe was ongoing.
"We had no problems with job performance while he was working with us," said Col. Braverman, one of Maj. Hasan's superiors.
Army Col. John Rossi called Thursday's shooting a "tragic incident" and said that investigators had spent the night carefully interviewing witnesses. Officials disclosed that one of the 13 killed in the shooting was a civilian, while the rest were members of the military.
Military officials said the focus now is on the wounded soldiers who continue to need medical care. Half of those hospitalized required surgery and are in stable condition, Col. Braverman said.
At Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, about 30 minutes east of Fort Hood, medical staff were treating 10 victims suffering from gunshot wounds to the head, abdomen, neck and chest. Some had been struck multiple times. Six were in critical condition in the intensive-care unit following surgery, while four others were in the regular inpatient wing with less serious injuries. One patient may be released as early as Friday, hospital officials said.
"Some of them are not out of the woods," W. Roy Smythe, chair of the hospital's surgery department, said of the victims.
Col. Kimberly Kesling, deputy commander of clinical services at Darnall Army Medical Center, the hospital at Fort Hood, said Friday morning Maj. Hasan had appeared to be a dedicated professional. She described him as quiet, respectful and appropriate in attire and demeanor since arriving on base in July.
"To date, he had been performing quite well," Col. Kesling said.
His job as a psychiatrist was intense, she said. Some Army mental-health professionals experience burnout from the burden of hearing so many horror stories from traumatized veterans. But she had seen no sign that Maj. Hasan was under that type of stress.
"It's a shock," she said. "You would hope you never know someone who would have such a demon."
News that the suspected shooter was an Army psychiatrist alarmed Sgt. Howard Appleby, an Iraq veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and had been seeing a military psychiatrist daily since returning from the war last summer.
On Thursday, he was turned away at the hospital door as he walked in for his regular appointment, told that it had been postponed due to an emergency. He drove to the scene and began helping triage victims and load them into ambulances.
Friday morning, Sgt. Appleby said he was not sure he wanted to return to his regular schedule of Army counseling. "They need to evaluate all psychiatrists," he said. "I'm thinking twice about going to a psychiatrist now."
The shooting rampage Thursday was halted by a female civilian police officer who shot him, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the top military commander on the base. Sgt. Kimberly Munley and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfire. She was in stable condition Friday and is expected to recover from wounds sustained in the gun battle. (Read more about Sgt. Munley.)
Maj. Hasan, 39 years old, was hospitalized after the shooting, Lt. Gen. Cone said, and "his death is not imminent." He was on a ventilator and unconscious in a hospital after being shot four times during the shootings at the Army's sprawling Fort Hood, post officials said.
In the early chaos after the shootings, authorities believed they had killed him, only to discover later that he had survived.
Military officials added that they were probing how the alleged shooter may have gotten weapons into the base, where personnel other than civilian police don't typically carry weapons. They noted that security personnel conduct random car checks in search of guns.
President Barack Obama on Friday urged people not to jump to conclusions while law-enforcement officials gather facts about the shootings. The president ordered flags at the White House and other federal agencies to be flown at half-staff until Veterans Day as a tribute to those who lost their lives.
The alleged shooter is originally from Virginia, and had been recently promoted to major before his transfer to Fort Hood. His professional specialties include post-traumatic stress disorder, combat stress and other emotional issues common to the troops implicated in earlier incidents of military fratricide.
Authorities on Friday seized Maj. Hasan's home computer, searched his apartment and took away a dumpster.
Maj. Hasan was slated to serve for the first time in Afghanistan in coming weeks, military officials said. It was originally reported that he was to serve in Iraq. An official at the Pentagon added there were indications that Maj. Hasan was deeply upset about the pending assignment.
Maj. Hasan's cousin, Nader Hasan, told Fox News that his cousin was deeply traumatized about seeing wartime service.
"We've known for the last five years that that was probably his worst nightmare," Nader Hasan said. "He would tell us how he hears horrific things...that was probably affecting him psychologically."
The cousin said Maj. Hasan had joined the military out of high school against the wishes of his parents. He added that Maj. Hasan, a Muslim, hired a military lawyer and had been trying since September to avoid deployment and leave the Army.
The shooting began about 1:30 p.m. local time in two small buildings, adjacent to a processing center where soldiers receive medical checkups as they prepare to deploy overseas, officials said.
Lt. Gen. Cone said the victims, mostly soldiers, were waiting for treatment. Soldiers at the base don't routinely carry weapons and, therefore, would have been unarmed at the time of the attack. Maj. Hasan used two handguns, he said, including a semiautomatic weapon.
The injuries of the wounded varied significantly, he said.
Quick action by base personnel protected about 600 people who were in a nearby theater to attend college-graduation ceremonies for 138 soldiers, Lt. Gen. Cone said.
Thursday's attack was one of the Army's worst single-day losses of life since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
President Barack Obama said in a nationally televised address that the attack on soldiers in the U.S. was particularly unsettling.
"It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas," he said. "It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."
Fort Hood, is the largest U.S. military facility in the world. It houses the 1st Cavalry Division and the First Army Division West, as well as an array of smaller aviation, logistics, and military police units.
More than 45,000 soldiers are assigned to the base, with many deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq at any one time. About 9,000 civilians also work at Fort Hood, and thousands of families live on the base and in nearby Killeen -- about 160 miles southwest of Dallas.
The shooting rattled service members at Fort Hood. "It's heavy on the hearts of soldiers," said Dionte Turner, a 29-year-old military police officer stationed who has been deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Killings "can happen anywhere," he said, "but you don't expect it to happen in your backyard."
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Write to Yochi Dreazen at yochi.dreazen@wsj.com
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