The suspect in Thursday's deadly shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, is
in stable condition, the hospital commander at the base said Friday.
Maj.
Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist practicing at Darnall Army Medical
Center at Fort Hood, was shot multiple times and was taken into
custody, ending the shooting rampage Thursday afternoon.
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| Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan accused of opening fire at a military processing center, killing 13 |
The
gunman opened fire at a military processing center at Fort Hood,
killing one civilian and 12 soldiers, said Col. John Rossi, deputy
commanding general at Fort Hood.
Twenty-eight people are still
hospitalized and in stable condition, Rossi said at a news conference
Friday morning. Hasan is the sole suspect in the shootings, Rossi said.
Authorities
are investigating whether any of the killed or wounded were struck
accidentally by someone trying to shoot the gunman, Rossi said.
Hasan
was reported to have been wearing his uniform when he opened fire, said
Col. Steven Braverman, hospital commander at Fort Hood.
Earlier
Friday, officers raided Hasan's apartment, searching for clues as to
what caused him to allegedly gun down soldiers he had taken an oath to
help, a police spokeswoman said.
The alleged gunman, identified
as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, opened fire at a military processing center
at Fort Hood, killing 13 and wounding 30 others, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone
said.
Hasan, a psychiatrist practicing at Darnall Army Medical
Center at Fort Hood, was shot multiple times and was taken into
custody, ending the shooting rampage Thursday afternoon, Cone said.
In
the nearby town of Killeen, a SWAT team and FBI agents were searching
Hasan's apartment to help determine what caused the shooting, which
military experts called the worst mass shooting at an American military
base, Carol Smith, a Killeen police spokeswoman, said early Friday.
As investigators gathered evidence, details began to emerge about the alleged shooter.
Hasan,
39, is a graduate of Virginia Tech and a psychiatrist licensed in
Virginia. He previously worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
A
federal official said Hasan is a U.S. citizen of Jordanian descent.
Military documents show Hasan was born in Virginia and has never
deployed outside the United States.
An owner of a 7-Eleven
convenience store in Fort Hood said Hasan, whom he knows as "Major
Nidal," came in for coffee and hash browns most mornings, including the
morning of the shootings.
Surveillance video from the store
obtained by CNN shows a man, who according to the store owner is Hasan,
at the cashier's counter at about 6:20 a.m. Thursday carrying a
beverage and dressed in traditional Arab garb. That was about seven
hours before the mass shooting.
"He looked normal, came in, had his hash browns and coffee as you see in the surveillance video," the owner told CNN.
Other surveillance footage from Tuesday showed him wearing hospital scrubs.
Hasan's
first cousin, Nader Hasan, issued a statement late Thursday on behalf
of their family, saying they are "shocked and saddened" by the
shootings.
"We are filled with grief for the families of today's
victims," the statement says. "Our family loves America. We are proud
of our country and saddened by today's tragedy. Because this situation
is still unfolding, we have nothing else that we are able to share with
you at this time."
The shooting occurred in a building called
the readiness center, one of the last stops before soldiers deploy and
one of the first places soldiers go upon returning to the United States.
Some of the victims were headed to Iraq or Afghanistan, said Col. Benton Danner.
At a news conference earlier in the day, Cone said the shooter had two handguns, one of them a semi-automatic.
"All
the casualties took place at the initial incident, that took place at
13:30, at the soldier readiness facility," Cone said, referring in
military time to 1:30 p.m.
A witness in a building adjacent to
where the shooting happened said soldiers were cutting up their
uniforms into homemade bandages as the wounded were brought into the
building.
"It was total chaos," the witness said.
Cone noted that a graduation ceremony was being held in an auditorium about 50 yards away from where the shooting took place.
"Thanks
to the quick reaction of several soldiers, they were able to close off
the doors to that auditorium where there were some 600 people inside,"
he said.
President Obama called the shootings "tragic" and "a horrific outburst of violence."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry ordered that all flags in the state be lowered to half-staff until Sunday as a tribute to the victims.
"We are deeply saddened by today's events but resolve to continue supporting our troops and protecting our citizens," he said.
In
the aftermath of the incident, Scott & White Memorial Hospital in
Temple, Texas, posted an online appeal for blood as it began receiving
victims.
"Due to the recent events on Fort Hood, we are in URGENT need of ALL blood types," it said.
Fort Hood
is the Army's largest U.S. post, with about 40,000 troops stationed
there. It is home to the Army's 1st Cavalry Division and elements of
the 4th Infantry Division, as well as the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
and the 13th Corps Support Command. It is near Killeen, Texas. The
Headquarters Unit and three brigades of the 1st Cavalry are deployed in
Iraq.
The fort is home to the Warrior Combat Stress Reset
Program, which helps soldiers returning from war with combat stress and
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
In June, Fort Hood's commander, Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, told CNN that he was trying to ease the kind of stresses soldiers face.
He
has pushed for soldiers working a day schedule to return home for
dinner by 6 p.m. and required his personal authorization for anyone
working weekends. At the time, two soldiers stationed there had
committed suicide in 2009 -- a rate well below those of other posts.
Nearby
Killeen was the scene of one of the most deadly shootings in American
history 18 years ago when George Hennard crashed his truck into a
Luby's cafeteria and then began shooting, killing 23 people and
wounding 20.
Hennard's spree lasted 14 minutes. He eventually took his own life.