An Army psychiatrist set to be shipped overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post Thursday, U.S. authorities said, killing 12 people and leaving 31 wounded in the biggest military base of the United States.
The gunman was hurt 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, according to the AP. Col. Ben Danner said the suspect was shot four times and was in critical condition.
The man was identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old from Virginia. Hasan had transferred to Fort Hood in July.
Retired Col. Terry Lee, who said he had worked with Hasan, told Fox News he was being sent to Afghanistan. Lee added Hasan had hoped Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq and got into frequent arguments with others in the military who supported the wars.
Faizul Khan, a former imam at a mosque Hasan attended, said he spoke often with Hasan about how Hasan wanted to find a wife. Hasan was a lifelong Muslim and attended prayers regularly, often in his Army uniform, Khan said.
The shooter used two pistols, one of them semiautomatic. Neither were military-issued, Danner said.
Hasan, whose family said he was born in suburban Washington, is single with no children. He graduated from Virginia Tech, where he was a member of the ROTC and earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry in 1997. He received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001.
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