Major Nadal Malik Hasan, a military psychiatrist, opened fire at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday at a Fort Hood military processing center, wounding 30 and killing 13, according to Lt. Gen Robert Cone. Some of the victims at the readiness center were headed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
The shooter, a U.S. citizen of Jordanian descent, practices psychiatry at the Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood. The post is the Army’s largest in the U.S., with 40,000 troops stationed there.
Dr. Hasan, 30, a graduate of Virginia Tech, had two handguns, one of them a semi-automatic. He was shot multiple times before being taken into custody. He remains under military guard at an area hospital, unconscious and on a ventilator. When asked of his chances of survival, Cone responded, “I would say his death is not imminent.”
The hero of the day was Killeen police sergeant Kimberly Munley, who exchanged gunfire with the suspect and disabled him. She was injured during the exchange of bullets and remains in stable condition in a local community hospital. See photos and video here.
He was transferred from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in July, after receiving a poor review. There is some speculation that he feared an impending war deployment, and he was known to openly discuss his opposition to the war. He reportedly gave away all of his furniture to a neighbor in the days leading up to the shooting.
View video reporting following a raid at the suspect’s home below.