Just caught this terrible news on MSNBC. So far, reports indicate seven dead (7) and possiblly a dozen wounded. Suspects were in US Military uniforms.
FORT HOOD (November 5, 2009)-Army officials have confirmed a violent incident has happened Thursday afternoon on post.
The reports indicate there may be at least twelve and maybe even as many as fifteen victims involved in this incident.
Details have not been released but it is known that ambulances and police are converging on a location in the center of the sprawling military post.
Ambulances from several agencies have been dispatched.
One unconfirmed report indicates an armed gunman has fired several shots and may have hit several people.
Ft. Hood officials report the area is not secure.
http://www.kwtx.com/home/headl…
Will post more as story develops.
Update at 3:20 p.m. ET: MSNBC adds that one gunman is in custody and one is on the loose.
http://content.usatoday.com/co…
The website for Ft. Hood is down:
More info:
7 killed in Fort Hood shooting spree
Posted: Nov 05, 2009 11:48 AM PST——————————————————————————–
Update 2:22 Fort Hood reports 7 people are dead 12 are wounded and one person is in custody.
Update 2:17 Temple ISD Schools Have Been locked down as part of this incident. The district’s spokeswoman tells News Channel 25 Temple Police are placing officers at each TISD campus. The schools will dismiss as usual.
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by Patrick Tolbert
FORT HOOD – Seven people have been killed and 12 seriously injured after a shooter opened fire on Fort Hood Thursday afternoon.
News Channel 25 has learned a shooting has left seven people dead and 12 injured.
The Nolanville Fire Department tells News Channel 25 that they’ve been asked to bring all available EMS and Rescue personnel.
We’ve learned an incident has taken place at the sports dome, now known as the soldier readiness area.
Darnall Army Community Hospital reports they have received numerous victims. The spokeswoman could not confirm what types of injuries the victims were suffering.
Temple ISD Schools Have Been locked down as part of this incident. The district’s spokeswoman tells News Channel 25 Temple Police are placing officers at each TISD campus. The schools will dismiss as usual.
http://www.kxxv.com/global/sto…
Now hearing on TV that a third gunman has opened fire.
Story is all over the place. Some reports indicate one shooter in custody, another barricaded in an on-post building (building #42), engaged in a firefight with SWAT and/or other military personnel.
DEVELOPING: A mass shooting at Ft. Hood military base in Texas has left at least 7 dead and 12 wounded and one suspected gunman is on the loose, officials told Fox News.
A massive manhunt was under way for the suspect at large, Fox News confirmed. One person was in custody. The New York Post said that there were two shooters at the Army base massacre.
The attack apparently happened at the base’s Soldier Readiness Center. Army officials didn’t know whether the victims were civilians or military personnel.
Other media reports said the number of victims remained unclear.
The men were reportedly dressed in Army fatigues, but military officials couldn’t confirm that they were Army personnel.
The base and area schools were on lockdown after the mass shooting, and all those on the Army base were asked to gather for a head count.
The FBI was en route to Ft. Hood to provide assistance.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0…
The Whitehouse is monitoring:
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has been briefed about reports of a shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the president is being kept updated as details about the shooting emerge.
Gibbs said he told Obama about TV news reports that seven people were dead at the Texas military location and others were injured. Gibbs said he informed Obama based on broadcast reports and the president is being kept up to date through the White House Situation Room.
http://www.chron.com/disp/stor…
Local NBC affiliate KCEN reporting that a 500-person strong force has cast a dragnet on base. Also local civilian authorities are responding. Suspect in custody is a 40 year old male, rank of Major.
UPDATE: Military personell confirm 12 dead, 31 wounded currently. Suspects were US Soldiers. One suspect killed on scene, two more have been apprehended.
FINAL UPDATE:
Major Malik Nadal Hasan, now thought to be the lone gunman is alive and in stable condition at a local hospital, contrary to prior reports of his death. Per the New York Times:
Born and reared in Virginia, the son of immigrant parents from a small Palestinian town near Jerusalem, he joined the Army right out of high school, against his parents’ wishes. The Army, in turn, put him through college and then medical school, where he trained to be a psychiatrist.
But Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the 39-year-old man accused of Thursday’s mass shooting at Fort Hood, Tex., started having second thoughts about his military career a few years ago after other soldiers harassed him for being a Muslim, he told relatives in Virginia.
He had also more recently expressed deep concerns about being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. Having counseled scores of returning soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, first at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and more recently at Fort Hood, he knew all too well the terrifying realities of war, said a cousin, Nader Hasan.
“He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy,” Mr. Hasan said. “He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation had earlier become aware of Internet postings by a man who called himself Nidal Hasan, a law enforcement official said. The postings discussed suicide bombing in a favorable light, but the investigators were not clear whether the writer was Major Hasan.
In one posting on the Web site Scribd, a man named Nidal Hasan compared the heroism of a soldier who throws himself on a grenade to protect fellow soldiers to suicide bombers who sacrifice themselves to protect Muslims.
“If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory,” the man wrote. It could not be confirmed, however, that the writer was Major Hasan.
Major Hasan was wounded and taken into custody by the Fort Hood police after the shooting spree, in which 12 people, many of them soldiers, were killed, and at least 31 others were wounded. The shootings occurred at a readiness center where soldiers are put through a series of medical, dental, legal and other paces in preparation for being deployed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11…
Deepest condolences to the families of the fallen, and well wishes for the wounded.
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