FORT HOOD, Texas — An Army psychiatrist set to be shipped overseas opened fire at a Fort Hood facility Thursday, authorities said, a rampage that killed 12 people and left 31 wounded in the worst mass shooting ever at a military base in the United States.
The gunman, first said to have been killed, was wounded but alive and in stable condition under military guard, said Lt. Gen. Bob Cone at Fort Hood.
“I would say his death is not imminent,” Cone said.
Col. Ben Danner said the suspect was shot at least four times and was in critical condition.
The man was identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old eight-year veteran from Virginia.
President Barack Obama called the shooting at the Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening, “a horrific outburst of violence.”
There was no official word on motive. Hasan had transferred to Fort Hood in July from Walter Reed Medical Center, where he received a poor performance evaluation, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said generals at Fort Hood told her that Hasan was about to deploy overseas. Retired Col. Terry Lee, who said he had once worked with Hasan, told Fox News he was being sent to Afghanistan.
Video from the scene showed military police patrolling the area with handguns and rifles, ducking behind buildings for cover. Sirens could be heard wailing while a woman’s voice on a public-address system urged people to take cover.
“I was confused and just shocked,” said Spec. Jerry Richard, 27, who works at the center but was not on duty during the shooting. “Overseas you are ready for it. But here you can’t even defend yourself.”
Soldiers were unarmed
Soldiers at Fort Hood don’t carry weapons unless they are undergoing training exercises.
The Rev. Greg Schannep was about to head into a graduation ceremony when a man in uniform approached him, warning him that someone had opened fire. Schannep heard three volleys of gunfire and saw people running.
“There was a burst of shots and more bursts of shots and people running everywhere,” said Schannep, who works for local U.S. Rep. John Carter.
The uniformed man who had warned him ran to the theater.
Schannep said he could see that the man’s back was bloodied from a wound. The man survived, was treated and will recover, Schannep said.
Cone said three people initially were held, and all have been interviewed. Authorities believe, however, that there was a single shooter.
The Soldier Readiness Center holds hundreds of people and is one of the most populated parts of the base, said Steve Moore, a spokesman for III Corps at Fort Hood. Nearby there are barracks and a food center that includes fast-food chains.
The wounded were dispersed among hospitals in central Texas, Cone said. Their identities, and the identities of the dead, were not immediately released.
Amber Bahr, 19, was shot in the stomach and was in stable condition, said her mother, Lisa Pfund of Random Lake, Wis.
Deadliest base shooting
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told reporters after a briefing on the shootings that Hasan was born in Virginia to parents who immigrated from Jordan. The congressman said that Hasan “took a lot of advanced training in shooting.”
The major was polite and respectful, according to 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside, who was treated by Hasan at Walter Reed while recovering from a gunshot wound suffered in Iraq.
The attack happened just down the road from one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. On Oct. 16, 1991, George Hennard smashed his pickup truck through a Luby’s Cafeteria window in Killeen, Texas, and fired on the lunchtime crowd with a high-powered pistol, killing 22 people and wounding at least 20 others.
No other shooting at a military base in the U.S. has been anywhere near as deadly as Thursday’s. In 1993, a gunman at Fort Knox shot five civilian co-workers, killing three, and then fatally shot himself.
Around the country, some bases stepped up security precautions, but no others were locked down.
