Friday, November 06, 2009

Rampage kills 13, wounds 30

SHOOTINGS AT FORT HOOD
Rampage kills 13, wounds 30
SUSPECT IS ARMY PSYCHIATRIST WHO WORKED AT WALTER REED



'Horrific outburst of violence'
An Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire Thursday in a crowded medical building at Fort Hood, Tex., killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens more.
» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY






ashington Post Staff Writer Friday, November 6, 2009; 10:04 AM

The Arlington-born Army psychiatrist suspected of killing 13 people and wounding 30 0thers in a shooting rampage on a military base remains hospitalized and on a ventilator, officials said Friday morning.

Col. John Rossi declined at a news conference to speculate on possible motives for the attack inside a crowded medical building at Fort Hood, Tex., believed to be the largest mass shooting ever to occur on a U.S. military base.

As of 7:30 a.m. Friday, 28 people remain hospitalized, all in stable condition, Army officials said. About half had undergone surgery.

Nidal M. Hasan, 39, a major who had made a career in the military and was trained to treat soldiers under stress, allegedly fired a pair of pistols, one of them semiautomatic, in the soldier readiness facility, authorities said. All around him, soldiers who had been waiting to see doctors scattered or dropped to the floor. Hasan and a civilian policewoman exchanged fire, authorities said. Both were hit. Officials said they have not been able to interrogate Hasan -- a devout Muslim born to Palestinian immigrants and raised in the Arlington and Roanoke areas of Virginia -- because of his medical condition. They have not spoken to his relatives either, Rossi said.
Rossi said the rampage and response lasted about 30 minutes. The soldiers in the building were performing routine administrative tasks and were not armed, he said. Only police officers and the response team had weapons they could use to stop the shooter.

He said an investigation will determine how the shooter brought guns onto the base, where, like at all U.S. military installations, firearms are kept secured unless they are needed for training or security work. Soldiers, like civilians, are allowed to maintain privately owned weapons in accordance with local gun laws, Rossi said. But they must register those weapons on post. He said investigators are still clarifying the origin of the guns used in the shooting.

"Random checks" are performed on vehicles entering the Fort Hood, to check for weapons or other contraband, Rossi said. But, he acknowledged, it is possible that the shooter "could have just brought it onto the base."

Rossi said officials do not believe there were any additional people involved in planning or carrying out the rampage.

The attack erupted shortly after lunchtime on the sprawling complex northeast of Austin that has absorbed more than 500 fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than any other base. When the gunfire stopped, soldiers schooled in battlefield medicine ripped their clothes to make tourniquets and bandages.

Someone hustled to seal off an auditorium in the same building where 138 troops were marking their graduation from college. Sirens typically used to warn of tornados sweeping across the plains alerted residents, schools locked down and the Fort Hood community struggled to comprehend what had just happened.

In the aftermath, a string of unanswered questions remained about the accused shooter's motives, his background and whether the military had evidence that might have shown he posed a risk to his colleagues.

CONTINUED



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