Ft. Hood Investigators Focus on Motive
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and JACK HEALY NY TIMES
KILLEEN, Tex. — Amid a public outpouring of grief on Friday for those gunned down at the Fort Hood Army base, new details emerged about the chaotic moments of the shooting and the Army psychiatrist suspected of opening fire on dozens of his fellow soldiers.
The gunman, identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was shot four times by a Fort Hood civilian police officer responding to the scene. He remained hospitalized on a ventilator on Friday in stable condition and was expected to live, Army officials said.
As military and law-enforcement investigators waited to interview Major Hasan, neighbors described him as a man who dressed alternately in a military uniform and flowing white robes and gave a copy of the Koran to his next-door neighbor a day before the shooting.
The death toll has risen to 13 people, including 12 soldiers, in what is thought to have been the most lethal shooting on an American military base in history. Another 28 people were wounded.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, said Army officials were trying to determine “if there is something more than just one deranged person involved here.” She said in remarks at the base on Friday that while he was the only one who had fired at the other soldiers, it was still unclear if he had planned this completely alone.
“That is a question still to be asked,” she said. “That is not a question that has been resolved.”
Evidence has emerged that Major Hasan was both a troubled man and a religious Muslim. Reports suggested that soldiers may have heard him shout something like “Allahu Akbar” — Arabic for “God is great!” — just before he fired two automatic handguns. He was shown on a security video tape from a local convenience store wearing religious garb just hours before the shooting. And family members said that he had complained about being harassed expressly because he was a Muslim, and that he had expressed deep concerns about deploying.
Acquaintances said Major Hasan was upset about his future deployment in a war zone, and heatedly opposed United States foreign policy in discussions with fellow soldiers. Earlier this year law-enforcement officers monitoring Islamic Web sites identified Major Hasan as a blogger who posted comments on suicide bombings in which he equated such acts to those by soldiers who use their own bodies to shield fellow soldiers from exploding shrapnel.
But Major Hasan also reportedly required counseling at different times in his life, including for a time as a medical student before United States involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan were issues.
Senator Hutchison said the shooting had prompted Army officials to examine procedures in tracking people who may have problems.
“Was enough done?” she asked. “Should there have been more triggers? I think that’s what we’re trying to learn right now. And I think that it’s a legitimate question and it’s a question the Army is asking itself.”
“I don’t think that anyone would have ever expected a psychiatrist trained to help others mental health would be the one who would go off himself, unless there’s more to it, and that’s what they’re looking for,” she added.
President Obama asked people to avoid “jumping to conclusions” while the investigations continued.
A day after the shooting unfolded in a blur of contradictory reports from officials, many questions continued to burn about not only Major Hasan’s life and his motives but also how he was able to shoot so many people in a relatively short period of time.
It may take some days or more to untangle ballistics evidence to conclude whether a single gunman was able to discharge so many bullets or whether multiple casualties were caused by single bullets. Local radio reports have also raised the possibility that some people were shot in a cross fire between Major Hasan and several military and civilian police officers.
Army officials said Friday that Major Hasan had not caused any problems since transferring to the Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood this year. Col. John Rossi, an Army spokesman, told reporters that investigators were examining whether Major Hasan had registered the two handguns used in the shooting.
Major Hasan is the sole suspect, after three others who were immediately taken in custody were released.
“He could have just brought it onto the installation,” Colonel Rossi said.
Army officials said that about half the people injured in the shooting had undergone surgery, and all were in stable condition.
A joint civilian-military investigation by agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Army criminal investigative division is under way, as government officials discuss how to prosecute Major Hasan. He could face murder charges in federal district court or a military court martial.
A law-enforcement official said high-level discussions between Justice Department and Pentagon officials over that question have been taking place since Thursday evening. The ultimate decision will be made in collaboration between the two agencies, the official said.
One factor that could shape the decision is whether investigators conclude that Major Hasan acted alone — so that it was a purely military-on-military crime — or whether they uncover evidence of any civilian co-conspirators off the base.
Under either civilian law or the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a murder conviction could carry a penalty of death. But there are some procedural differences between the two systems.
Army officials said they had declared a day of mourning on the base. President Obama said flags at the White House and other federal buildings would fly at half-staff until Veteran’s Day, “as a modest tribute to those who lost their lives.”
In interviews with reporters on Friday, they praised the police officer who shot Major Hasan, Kimberly Munley, saying she and her partner had arrived within three minutes of reports of gunfire and put an end to the rampage. Ms. Munley, 34, was wounded in the exchange, officials said.
In a brief telephone interview, her stepmother, Wanda Barbour, said Ms. Munley had grown up in Carolina Beach, N.C., and described her as an excellent police officer.
“She’s concerned about all the people who’ve lost their lives,” Ms. Barbour said. “We’re just real proud of her and so grateful and thankful to the Lord that she’s going to be O.K.”
By midday on Friday, family members had publicly identified three of those killed as Pvt. 1st Class Michael Pearson, 21, of Bolingbrook, Ill., who was set to be deployed to Iraq; Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22, of Frederick, Okla. who served at Fort Hood; and Sgt. Amy Krueger, a 1998 graduate of Kiel High School in Kiel, Wis.
“Amy was a typical high school student,” said Dario Talerico, the high school’s principal. “She was kind of a tomboy type of kid. I know she was very, very proud of being able to serve in the military. She chose the military very soon after graduating.”
The victims were cut down in clusters as Major Hasan, clad in a military uniform, sprayed bullets inside a crowded medical processing center for soldiers returning from or about to be sent overseas, military officials said.
In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, a base spokesman, was asked about the reports that Major Hasan had yelled “Allahu Akbar.” General Cone said soldiers at the scene had reported “similar” accounts.
Witnesses told military investigators that medics working at the center tore open the clothing of the dead and wounded to get at the wounds and administer first aid.
As the shooting unfolded, military police and civilian officers of the Department of the Army responded and returned the gunman’s fire, officials said .
Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, and John M. McHugh, the Army secretary, were traveling to Fort Hood as a widespread investigation began, led by the Army and involving the F.B.I. and other agencies. The Army also said it was sending chaplains and mental health professionals to the base to help with the emotional aftermath of the shooting.
On Thursday night, F.B.I. agents were interviewing residents of a townhouse complex in the Washington suburb of Kensington, Md., where Major Hasan had lived before moving to Texas, and news footage from here in Killeen showed law-enforcement officers surrounding an apartment complex where Major Hasan had lived.
Military records indicated that Major Hasan was single, had been born in Virginia, had never served abroad and listed “no religious preference” on his personnel records. The office of Representative John Carter, Republican of Texas, said these records were later released, but a Fort Hood spokesman could not confirm that. General Cone said more than 100 people had been questioned during the day.
Fort Hood, near Killeen and about a two hours’ drive south of Dallas-Fort Worth, is the largest active duty military post in the United States, 340 square miles of training and support facilities and homes, a virtual city for more than 50,000 military personnel and some 150,000 family members and civilian support personnel. It has been a major center for troops being deployed to or returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The rampage recalled other mass shootings in the United States, including 13 killed at a center for immigrants in upstate New Yorklast April, the deaths of 10 during a gunman’s rampage in Alabama in March, and 32 people killed at Virginia Tech, the deadliest shooting in modern American history.
The base was open again but under heightened security Friday morning after going into lockdown shortly after the shootings.
As the shootings ended, scores of emergency vehicles rushed to the scene, which is in the center of the fort, and dozens of ambulances carried the shooting victims to hospitals in the region.
Both of the handguns used by Major Hasan were recovered at the scene, officials said. Investigators said the major’s computers, cellphones and papers would be examined, his past investigated and his friends, relatives and military acquaintances would be interviewed in an effort to develop a profile of him and try to learn what had motivated his deadly outburst.
The weapons used in the attack were described as “civilian” handguns. Security experts said the fact that two handguns had been used suggested premeditation, as opposed to a spontaneous act.
Rifles and assault weapons are conspicuous and not ordinarily seen on the streets of a military post, and medical personnel would have no reason to carry any weapon, they said. Moreover, security experts noted, it took a lot of ammunition to shoot so many people, another indication of premeditation.
It appeared certain that the shootings would generate a new look at questions of security on military posts of all the armed forces in the United States. Expressions of dismay were voiced by public officials across the country.
The Muslim Public Affairs Council, speaking for many American Muslims, condemned the shootings as a “heinous incident” and said, “We share the sentiment of our president.”
The council added, “Our entire organization extends its heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed as well as those wounded and their loved ones.”
General Cone said Fort Hood was “absolutely devastated.”
But already the shooting has been glorified on at least one Jihadist Web site. A nearly four-minute video displayed media clips of the aftermath of the shooting, and declared that Maj. Hasan "did Jihad in that base and killed no less than 13 Crusader foreigners" and "put terror and chaos in the ranks of the enemy."
Fort Hood, opened in September 1942 as America geared up for World War II, was named for Gen. John Bell Hood of the Confederacy. It has been used continuously for armor training and is charged with maintaining readiness for combat missions.
It is a place that feels, on ordinary days, like one of the safest in the world, surrounded by those who protect the nation with their lives. It is home to nine schools — seven elementary schools and two middle schools, for the children of personnel. But on Thursday, the streets were lined with emergency vehicles, their lights flashing and sirens piercing the air as Texas Rangers and state troopers took up posts at the gates to seal the base.
Shortly after 7 p.m., the sirens sounded again and over the loudspeakers a woman’s voice that could be heard all over the base announced in a clipped military fashion: “Declared emergency no longer exists.”
The gates reopened, and a stream of cars and trucks that had been bottled up for hours began to move out.
Michael Brick and Campbell Robinson contributed reporting from Fort Hood, Tex.; Elisabeth Bumiller, Charlie Savage and David Stout from Washington; and Carla Baranauckas, Michael Luo and Liz Robbins from New York.
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and JACK HEALY NY TIMES
KILLEEN, Tex. — Amid a public outpouring of grief on Friday for those gunned down at the Fort Hood Army base, new details emerged about the chaotic moments of the shooting and the Army psychiatrist suspected of opening fire on dozens of his fellow soldiers.
The gunman, identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was shot four times by a Fort Hood civilian police officer responding to the scene. He remained hospitalized on a ventilator on Friday in stable condition and was expected to live, Army officials said.
As military and law-enforcement investigators waited to interview Major Hasan, neighbors described him as a man who dressed alternately in a military uniform and flowing white robes and gave a copy of the Koran to his next-door neighbor a day before the shooting.
The death toll has risen to 13 people, including 12 soldiers, in what is thought to have been the most lethal shooting on an American military base in history. Another 28 people were wounded.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, said Army officials were trying to determine “if there is something more than just one deranged person involved here.” She said in remarks at the base on Friday that while he was the only one who had fired at the other soldiers, it was still unclear if he had planned this completely alone.
“That is a question still to be asked,” she said. “That is not a question that has been resolved.”
Evidence has emerged that Major Hasan was both a troubled man and a religious Muslim. Reports suggested that soldiers may have heard him shout something like “Allahu Akbar” — Arabic for “God is great!” — just before he fired two automatic handguns. He was shown on a security video tape from a local convenience store wearing religious garb just hours before the shooting. And family members said that he had complained about being harassed expressly because he was a Muslim, and that he had expressed deep concerns about deploying.
Acquaintances said Major Hasan was upset about his future deployment in a war zone, and heatedly opposed United States foreign policy in discussions with fellow soldiers. Earlier this year law-enforcement officers monitoring Islamic Web sites identified Major Hasan as a blogger who posted comments on suicide bombings in which he equated such acts to those by soldiers who use their own bodies to shield fellow soldiers from exploding shrapnel.
But Major Hasan also reportedly required counseling at different times in his life, including for a time as a medical student before United States involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan were issues.
Senator Hutchison said the shooting had prompted Army officials to examine procedures in tracking people who may have problems.
“Was enough done?” she asked. “Should there have been more triggers? I think that’s what we’re trying to learn right now. And I think that it’s a legitimate question and it’s a question the Army is asking itself.”
“I don’t think that anyone would have ever expected a psychiatrist trained to help others mental health would be the one who would go off himself, unless there’s more to it, and that’s what they’re looking for,” she added.
President Obama asked people to avoid “jumping to conclusions” while the investigations continued.
A day after the shooting unfolded in a blur of contradictory reports from officials, many questions continued to burn about not only Major Hasan’s life and his motives but also how he was able to shoot so many people in a relatively short period of time.
It may take some days or more to untangle ballistics evidence to conclude whether a single gunman was able to discharge so many bullets or whether multiple casualties were caused by single bullets. Local radio reports have also raised the possibility that some people were shot in a cross fire between Major Hasan and several military and civilian police officers.
Army officials said Friday that Major Hasan had not caused any problems since transferring to the Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood this year. Col. John Rossi, an Army spokesman, told reporters that investigators were examining whether Major Hasan had registered the two handguns used in the shooting.
Major Hasan is the sole suspect, after three others who were immediately taken in custody were released.
“He could have just brought it onto the installation,” Colonel Rossi said.
Army officials said that about half the people injured in the shooting had undergone surgery, and all were in stable condition.
A joint civilian-military investigation by agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Army criminal investigative division is under way, as government officials discuss how to prosecute Major Hasan. He could face murder charges in federal district court or a military court martial.
A law-enforcement official said high-level discussions between Justice Department and Pentagon officials over that question have been taking place since Thursday evening. The ultimate decision will be made in collaboration between the two agencies, the official said.
One factor that could shape the decision is whether investigators conclude that Major Hasan acted alone — so that it was a purely military-on-military crime — or whether they uncover evidence of any civilian co-conspirators off the base.
Under either civilian law or the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a murder conviction could carry a penalty of death. But there are some procedural differences between the two systems.
Army officials said they had declared a day of mourning on the base. President Obama said flags at the White House and other federal buildings would fly at half-staff until Veteran’s Day, “as a modest tribute to those who lost their lives.”
In interviews with reporters on Friday, they praised the police officer who shot Major Hasan, Kimberly Munley, saying she and her partner had arrived within three minutes of reports of gunfire and put an end to the rampage. Ms. Munley, 34, was wounded in the exchange, officials said.
In a brief telephone interview, her stepmother, Wanda Barbour, said Ms. Munley had grown up in Carolina Beach, N.C., and described her as an excellent police officer.
“She’s concerned about all the people who’ve lost their lives,” Ms. Barbour said. “We’re just real proud of her and so grateful and thankful to the Lord that she’s going to be O.K.”
By midday on Friday, family members had publicly identified three of those killed as Pvt. 1st Class Michael Pearson, 21, of Bolingbrook, Ill., who was set to be deployed to Iraq; Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22, of Frederick, Okla. who served at Fort Hood; and Sgt. Amy Krueger, a 1998 graduate of Kiel High School in Kiel, Wis.
“Amy was a typical high school student,” said Dario Talerico, the high school’s principal. “She was kind of a tomboy type of kid. I know she was very, very proud of being able to serve in the military. She chose the military very soon after graduating.”
The victims were cut down in clusters as Major Hasan, clad in a military uniform, sprayed bullets inside a crowded medical processing center for soldiers returning from or about to be sent overseas, military officials said.
In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, a base spokesman, was asked about the reports that Major Hasan had yelled “Allahu Akbar.” General Cone said soldiers at the scene had reported “similar” accounts.
Witnesses told military investigators that medics working at the center tore open the clothing of the dead and wounded to get at the wounds and administer first aid.
As the shooting unfolded, military police and civilian officers of the Department of the Army responded and returned the gunman’s fire, officials said .
Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, and John M. McHugh, the Army secretary, were traveling to Fort Hood as a widespread investigation began, led by the Army and involving the F.B.I. and other agencies. The Army also said it was sending chaplains and mental health professionals to the base to help with the emotional aftermath of the shooting.
On Thursday night, F.B.I. agents were interviewing residents of a townhouse complex in the Washington suburb of Kensington, Md., where Major Hasan had lived before moving to Texas, and news footage from here in Killeen showed law-enforcement officers surrounding an apartment complex where Major Hasan had lived.
Military records indicated that Major Hasan was single, had been born in Virginia, had never served abroad and listed “no religious preference” on his personnel records. The office of Representative John Carter, Republican of Texas, said these records were later released, but a Fort Hood spokesman could not confirm that. General Cone said more than 100 people had been questioned during the day.
Fort Hood, near Killeen and about a two hours’ drive south of Dallas-Fort Worth, is the largest active duty military post in the United States, 340 square miles of training and support facilities and homes, a virtual city for more than 50,000 military personnel and some 150,000 family members and civilian support personnel. It has been a major center for troops being deployed to or returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The rampage recalled other mass shootings in the United States, including 13 killed at a center for immigrants in upstate New Yorklast April, the deaths of 10 during a gunman’s rampage in Alabama in March, and 32 people killed at Virginia Tech, the deadliest shooting in modern American history.
The base was open again but under heightened security Friday morning after going into lockdown shortly after the shootings.
As the shootings ended, scores of emergency vehicles rushed to the scene, which is in the center of the fort, and dozens of ambulances carried the shooting victims to hospitals in the region.
Both of the handguns used by Major Hasan were recovered at the scene, officials said. Investigators said the major’s computers, cellphones and papers would be examined, his past investigated and his friends, relatives and military acquaintances would be interviewed in an effort to develop a profile of him and try to learn what had motivated his deadly outburst.
The weapons used in the attack were described as “civilian” handguns. Security experts said the fact that two handguns had been used suggested premeditation, as opposed to a spontaneous act.
Rifles and assault weapons are conspicuous and not ordinarily seen on the streets of a military post, and medical personnel would have no reason to carry any weapon, they said. Moreover, security experts noted, it took a lot of ammunition to shoot so many people, another indication of premeditation.
It appeared certain that the shootings would generate a new look at questions of security on military posts of all the armed forces in the United States. Expressions of dismay were voiced by public officials across the country.
The Muslim Public Affairs Council, speaking for many American Muslims, condemned the shootings as a “heinous incident” and said, “We share the sentiment of our president.”
The council added, “Our entire organization extends its heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed as well as those wounded and their loved ones.”
General Cone said Fort Hood was “absolutely devastated.”
But already the shooting has been glorified on at least one Jihadist Web site. A nearly four-minute video displayed media clips of the aftermath of the shooting, and declared that Maj. Hasan "did Jihad in that base and killed no less than 13 Crusader foreigners" and "put terror and chaos in the ranks of the enemy."
Fort Hood, opened in September 1942 as America geared up for World War II, was named for Gen. John Bell Hood of the Confederacy. It has been used continuously for armor training and is charged with maintaining readiness for combat missions.
It is a place that feels, on ordinary days, like one of the safest in the world, surrounded by those who protect the nation with their lives. It is home to nine schools — seven elementary schools and two middle schools, for the children of personnel. But on Thursday, the streets were lined with emergency vehicles, their lights flashing and sirens piercing the air as Texas Rangers and state troopers took up posts at the gates to seal the base.
Shortly after 7 p.m., the sirens sounded again and over the loudspeakers a woman’s voice that could be heard all over the base announced in a clipped military fashion: “Declared emergency no longer exists.”
The gates reopened, and a stream of cars and trucks that had been bottled up for hours began to move out.
Michael Brick and Campbell Robinson contributed reporting from Fort Hood, Tex.; Elisabeth Bumiller, Charlie Savage and David Stout from Washington; and Carla Baranauckas, Michael Luo and Liz Robbins from New York.
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