Army soldiers shot and killed 12 people and wounded 31 in a rampage at Fort Hood on Thursday, officials said.
A military briefing at 4 p.m. said three soldiers fired shots at the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center, a complex of several buildings.
Most of those killed were also soldiers, according to the briefing by Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the post commander. One shooter was killed and the other two were in custody, he said.
Cone said that local police responded relatively quickly and killed one of the shooters. He said he believed that one Fort Hood civilian police officer was among the dead. Fort Hood has contract and military police, he said.
ABC News identified the dead assailant as Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan of Virginia.
Cone did not speculate about a motive, but the Army released a statement saying it did not believe the shootings were an act of political terrorism.
“Its difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil,” President Barack Obama said at a Tribal Nations conference at the Department of the Interior.
RTFA. Lots of first person tales of what happened. Not a lot of info, clarity, yet.
UPDATE: The CO at Fort Hood is holding a press conference, right now, 7:15 MST. The sole shooter in this event is not dead. He was shot multiple times and survived and is in stable condition in hospital, in custody.
3 soldiers held for questioning have all been released. AFAIK, a single shooter incident.
MORE UPDATE: My hero is Kimberly Munley, a civilian cop who responded within 3 minutes from nearby with her partner. She took down the shooter while being shot herself by Hasan.
#30 Anthony,
No, you shut the f##k up!
This is a religious massacre conducted by a muslim who shot his fellow servicemen in the back like a f##king coward! He betrayed them and the cause for his betrayal was his religious convictions!
Speaking out the truth is not racism. What kills us is political correct c##ts like you!!
:W
Is there anything to say that this was religiously motivated?
Nope. Just his ‘funny’ name.
You ignore what small information is out there which is a statement by his Imman mentioning that the guy who shot those guys “held no extremist views.” You also ignore the fact that if there was any doubts as to his religion being a problem then he would have been arrested etc. in no short order.
I have no explanation for this. I know nothing. So do you. And to jump into racism, i say again, dishonours the memories of the service men (and women?) who have been killed.
…
Oh and btw. Are you admitting you are a racist c##t?
And to add. By reverting to racism you are doing much the same as the terrorists themselves. You are de-humanising the individual people who commit these sorts of atrocities all over the world.
They are people too. And I follow the understanding that if I was in their position and had their life experiences then I would more than likely do the same things they do. Not because it is right at all but because we as human beings are more susceptible to suggestion and coercion and rash belief than we pretend.
The result is, on the whole, there is a good explanation within an individual’s life which causes them to throw away their morals and do something like this.
The one thing which is going to compound and confirm the thinking they develop is racism, hostility and… frankly killing their families. (this is not a critique of the wars)
One of the things that can begin to improve an individuals thinking towards… less deadly actions… is to confront them with trust and acceptance. etc.
Now I know what the response will be to this… So go on surprise me. Try and have an independent well thought out opinion. I don’t even care if its bigoted… Ok, I do. But I just hope there is some better thinking behind it than previous posts.
Anthony,
Listen, this is how it is going to be:
He did the shooting because he doesn’t want to go to Iraq and “kill muslims”. This is because he is a muslim. Then the “I will not go” changed into I am going to martyr myself and take as much “enemies of allah” (servicemen) with me as I can.
You are not being cultural sensitive here. You need to understand the way people from a certain culture think like before you can express an opinion about it. I know the way they think because I live amongst them in the middle east.
I understand that you want to wait for the evidence and that’s fine (it’s a proper due process). But trust me, this is how it will turn out.
#30-Anthony-You respond to the internal killing of soldiers by another soldier by reverting to racism.
So anybody that mentions the guy is a Muslim is racist?
Who could have seen that coming?
What is up with American reporting? How can such monumental errors be made in the reporting of this event, so as to indicate that:
1) The shooter was shot and killed – (oops he wasn’t)
2) One of the victims (a female officer) who was reported as having been killed wasn’t.
Tragic event, but do reporters just make it up as they go along so they can get a good headline?
Dr Dodd # 36
Nope. Only those that imply that because he was Muslim he killed all those people. If you read some of the comments above, anyone would think that all Muslims are out to get ‘us’. The next step in their thinking is on an individual level we should ‘get them first’… I guess mostly by shouting abuse and beating the living daylights out of them.. Oh yes, and hangings, they would be an easy way to sort them out.
Slippery slope argument ftw.
But seriously, the fact that he is Muslim is not the answer that explains what has happened.
Now there are reports that this scum bag was shouting “Allah hu akbar” (God is great – in arabic) when he was shooting. To anyone who doesn’t understand the importance of this shout – it is the “war cry” of muslims. It means that the scum-bag was waging war on those poor, unarmed soldiers. This is a “martyrdom” operation.
I can’t get over the thought of an OFFICER(!!!) shooting his own men. For me, an ex-soldier, it is as low as you can go – shooting your brothers in arms is absolutely rock bottom. 🙁
#38–Anthony==YOU are the only one being a racist on this thread. YOU are the only one claiming “its only because he is a Muslim etc.”
There are 5-6 confirmed “facts” that indicate this guy did it for “His” own motivations which were religious in origin. Change everything to “jewish” and we were going to invade the Diamond District in NYC, or make everything Catholic and we were going to send troops to Vatican City, then have one of the relevant faith true believers post on the internet he was going to commit suicide rather than serve and then yell “Praise God” as he shoots his fellow workers and what we got here is a nutbag acting on his faith.
Its the “bad side” of faith. If you don’t accept that, then faith means nothing===and we all know that ain’t true.
I am a little confused by your argument Bobbo.
I look at things from a totally secular position (I am staunchly atheist, though have completed some catholic theological training, and have been a student of religious studies in a wider sense). I give no weight to faith of any kind, only its results and they are viewed in the same way as any other social/psychological aspect to peoples lives.
Not sure how what I have said above can be seen as racism. My argument was that race is unimportant and that it can be used in a way that is bigoted.
In my mind religion is a shallow motivation that can be easily twisted by… pretty much anyone who as an agenda EXCEPT world peace and harmony and all those good things.
I argue that to talk in the way people have above is playing into the hands of racists, terrorist and those who want to exploit public reactions to such events to perpetuate wars (or whatever) that do nothing but line their own pockets with wealth and power.
#38-Anthony-the fact that he is Muslim is not the answer that explains what has happened.
Just an observation, but I would say this guy got a lot of preferential treatment because he is a Muslim. Most of his education was paid for by US taxpayers.
So when he chose to payback that advantage by becoming a mass murder you can’t all of a sudden sweep aside his entanglement with Islam.
The fact he is a Muslim in a PC society is what kept him in the Army instead of booted out for poor performance.
It also allowed him to murder 13… unlucky for some.
You make three points. All of which are baseless (what evidence?) and if generalised to every Muslim within the US armed forces = racism as far as I know.
You said…
1) He is not a taxpayer.
2) He got preferential treatment.
3) He was a bad soldier.
All of which you use to justify… What? That he as a Muslim within the US was something else. Not a US citizen who was so screwed up that he went and killed his fellow soldiers?
Please don’t get me wrong. I am not defending his actions. But I am a) sure he paid US taxes. b) Did not get any preferential treatment. I have some knowledge of the UK armed forces and have not seen a similar attitude to minorities within the forces.And c) I have no idea if he sucked at his job. Nor do you.
…Why do you want to make it seem as if he was different to you? De-humanise him. To do this avoids the real problems that led to him doing what he did. Solve those and we have no more shootings.
I’m going to shut up now. Take a moment out, just as I do for British Soldiers killed, and reflect. My brother is in the armed forces this sort of thing could happen to him any day.
What I have done wrong, and can be blamed for is starting this level of discussion too early after the event. Sorry.
Last comment.
1) Generalisations based on race = bad.
2) Jumping to conclusions = bad.
3) De-humanising tragedy, INCLUDING the motivations of those that cause a tragedy = bad.
..You guys just wind me up. Damnit.
#41–Anthony=== at #34 you said “By reverting to racism you are doing much the same as the terrorists themselves.”—and I saw no one reverting to racism. Calling someone a Muslim is not racist, its anti-Mulsim. So YOU raised the issue of racism which is what I posted.
Its always more confusing when specific references are not made to what one is commenting about–ie, replying to name and post # often helps a lot. Not always.
It is “rare” for any troop anywhere to open fire on their own side. Have to be mentally ill to do that. Hallucinating, PTSD, or religion. Only thing that appears to be present is religion. That is the most likely relevant fact until others come in later. Common sense. Not Proof. Just the best guess on little info.
#43-Anthony-You guys just wind me up. Damnit.
Just think of it as stimulating conversation.
First I didn’t say that he was not a taxpayer, but that his education was paid for my taxpayers. Not everyone gets this luxury so I would rate this financial windfall as preferential treatment.
Next, he was transferred to Fort Hood because of reports of poor performance which virtually guaranteed no further promotions.
>>De-humanise him?
He did that to himself when he chose to become a murderer.
So you see I am forming my opinion from reported facts.
Good job Kimberly Munley. R.I.P.
Well, as more information comes out it looks like he is a religious nut. I guess that will shut some of you assholes up. I hope they keep this guy alive so they can kill him slowly. Screw taking this nut job to Guantanamo for a sun tan. We should be like the Israelis and kill him, his whole family and raze their home.
Religion is only important when you want to bilk money from gullible people to build condos and a water slide next to the mega-church. Screw this, I’m ready to kick the habit.
Just an observation, but I would say this guy got a lot of preferential treatment because he is a Muslim. Most of his education was paid for by US taxpayers.
Uh, take a deep breath there sport. The military pays for med school for people, who then serve in the military to pay that off.
He was a mental health professional. I’ve known quite a few of them (was married to one) and let me tell you — therapists become therapists because most of them NEED therapy themselves. So right off, he was probably a bit unstable to begin with. Then add the pressure of being deployed to a war where you basically wait around to get blown up by IEDs. Several soldiers have gone postal this way.
So add an unstable personality with the strain of being deployed and it’s not surprising he’d crack. Regardless of his ethnicity or religion.
So I lean toward nutcase who happens to be Muslim, rather than sane person who kills people in the name of Islam.
Lotta hate here.
I see it only took til 6:15 last night for this to be tied in to the last Presidential election. All a reasonable person can say to that is- boy, is that stoopid.
Sister Mary- kill his whole family? Really? I understand the heat of the moment, but you should really reflect on this a little more. I know *I* don’t want to be held responsible for the actions of my siblings and/or parents and/or children and/or cousins and/or aunts and/or uncles (not sure how far you want to go with this ‘kill the whole family’ schtick).
What bullshit!!! So far I have read NOTHING indicating what his religion is. Nor was there any report that he yelled anything while he was firing. Don’t let that stop you. Typical tea baggers bullshit.
The attempt to smear all Muslims by assuming
1) he is a Muslim, and
2) he did it for religious reasons
only go the racist roots of the posters And these are the same asshole that hate all blacks, Muslims, Latinos, etc.
That this happened is truly sad. Why will take a lot longer to understand.
As SN pointed out above, he had been under surveillance by the FBI for at least six months. That nothing had been done to evaluate his mental status or divert his deployment to somewhere else shows complete stupidity on someone’s part. Total incompetence. There will be a lot of CYA over this.
#47,
Why thank you! You see?! who says that the strategic link between the US and Israel is not worth it! The Americans are learning fast! 😉
And Kudos for the name “Sister Mary Hand Grenade of Quiet Reflection” – brilliant stuff 😀
#48,
You are right but only partially. It is clear that the scum-bag was mental – no argument here. However, what makes the difference is what the mental person does with it and when your religion teaches you to blame all other religions and people for your own faults and then instructs you to wage a jihad against them, the person goes and does what this scum-bag did. So it does make a big difference in this particular case that the he is a muslim.
Shabat Shalom.
#51 Uh, Jopa, there have been plenty of Christian wackos who have gone postal. You need some facts to back up that hypothesis.
#52,
You are 100% right, but the question is this: was christianity the motive for their rampage?
I don’t think so. I can’t say the same with regards to Islam.
#53, jopa,
So how many times should a person be discriminated against before he is allowed to get angry? Oh wait, bad question when it is the assholes like you bandying around the words “Camel Jockey”
Let’s see, the murderer yells Allahu Akbar as he opens fire, says more moslems need to strap on bombs and walk into Times Square and people can’t figure out that he’s a jihadist?
Even Helen Keller could see this one clearly.
#48-Phydeau-So I lean toward nutcase who happens to be Muslim, rather than sane person who kills people in the name of Islam.
Yeah, maybe we should overlook all those seminars the good Major gave preaching the infidel should convert to Islam.
Pretty obvious where his allegiance is.
>>add an unstable personality with the strain of being deployed and it’s not surprising he’d crack.<<
I find it odd that you feel the need to jump to his aid by going so far as making up excuses for him. The jihadist is always the victim, right?
Good Grief!
#53 If that is indeed what he shouted, and he did write those things, then I would be inclined to agree with you: he’s either (a) a mentally unstable man who cracked and acted on one of the nastier beliefs of Islam, or (b) is a perfectly sane Jihadist who for some reason took this opportunity to sacrifice himself.
Time will tell. Why don’t we let the dust settle and the police interview the survivors and not jump to conclusions.
#55 You wingnuts never have understood the difference between explaining and excusing a crime. Figuring out why he did it is not the same as saying it’s OK that he did it. Capice?
Yeah, maybe we should overlook all those seminars the good Major gave preaching the infidel should convert to Islam.
Uh, I don’t know how to break this to you, but Christians are just as bad in that department, always with the “you gotta be saved!” BS.
But I’m sure the wingnut Christians are saying “It’s OK when we do it, because ours is the one true religion!”. Riiiiiiiight.
Sorry #54, not #53.
#56-Phydeau-Christians are just as bad…
Oh really? So Mr Muslim goes on a killing spree for Allah, but it’s OK because Christians are just as bad?
Thanks for making that clear.
#53, jopa
So how many times should a person be discriminated against before he is allowed to get angry? Oh wait, bad question when it is the assholes like you bandying around the words “Camel Jockey”
#53, jopa
So how many times should a person be discriminated against before he is allowed to get angry? Oh wait, bad question when it is the assholes like you bandying around the words “Camel Jockey”