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In
the years since Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire in a crowded medical
center, leaving 13 people dead and 32 wounded, survivors have struggled
to obtain medical care, psychiatric treatment, and financial benefits.
"Five years later, we're still fighting," retired Staff Sgt. Shawn
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WITH all the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth by politicians and pundits across the country following the latest mass shooting in the US the one question they will ask and most of them will not honestly answer is why and how. We know why, people with mental illness are able to buy guns because the information on people with mental illness is not being made available to show up on background checks. We know how, because gop / tea-bagger obstructionist and jellyfish (spineless) democrats in congress, controlled by and/or afraid of the nra refused to pass the +Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 which would have outlawed assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. The other part of the how falls directly on the American people who choose to believe the propaganda of the nra and so do not demand their politicians pass reasonable gun control laws. If you are one of the people who supports the nra's opposition to any gun control laws take a look in the mirror to see who shares responsibility for this latest mass shooting and the other mass shootings listed below. From +Mother Jones......
Details about the perpetrator of Wednesday's bloodbath echo those of many mass shooters.
Army Spc. Ivan LopezTexas Department of Public Safety/AP
Details
are still emerging as to exactly how and why Army Specialist Ivan Lopez
shot 3 people to death and injured 16 others in a rampage on Wednesday,
but we already know enough to be certain about one thing: We've seen
this grim story before, and not just literally at Fort Hood, the site of
a previous bloodbath in 2009. As the data from our in-depth investigation of mass shootings in America
shows, Lopez fits a familiar profile for perpetrators of this type of
crime. Here's how his background and actions echo those of many mass
shooters we analyzed from 67 cases over the past three decades: Mental health problems
Lopez had serious mental health issues: He served in Iraq in 2011 and
was being treated for anxiety and depression, and he was under
evaluation for post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the attack.
The majority of the mass shooters we studied had mental health
problems—and at least 38 of them displayed signs of it prior to the killings. (Mental health problems among Iraq and Afghanistan vets are a major problem in and of itself.) Guns obtained legally
Lopez reportedly purchased the gun he used, passing a background check,
in nearby Killeen, Texas. The overwhelming majority of mass shooters in
the scores of cases through 2012 obtained their weapons legally—nearly
80 percent of them. And the mass shooters in all five of the additional
cases last year, from Santa Monica to the Washington Navy Yard, also got their guns legally. Semi-automatic handguns
Lopez used a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson in the attack.
Semi-automatic handguns are the weapon of choice for most mass shooters.
It remains unclear how many shots Lopez fired or what type of
ammunition device he used, but given his military background and the
casualty count, it's more likely than not that he used a high-capacitymagazine.
Age and gender of killers
As our study showed, the vast majority of mass shooters were men,
ranging from young adult to middle-aged. Their average age was 35. Lopez
was 34. Murder-suicide cases
Just as Lopez did on Wednesday at Fort Hood, killers in 36 past cases
ended their attacks by shooting themselves to death. Seven others died
in police shootouts they had little hope of surviving, a.k.a. "suicide
by cop." Lopez's case appears to be at the intersection of these
factors: He shot himself in the head when confronted by a military
police officer. (All five of the mass shooters in 2013 were shot and killed by law enforcement officers responding to the attacks.)
the haunting repeat of such gun
violence at Fort Hood means that in the days ahead there will be intense
scrutiny on security protocols at the sprawling military site,
including what has or hasn't changed since 2009. But in terms of getting
a handle on the perpetrator and the crime, investigators already have a
lot to go on from scores of cases all over the country.
For much more of our reporting on mass shootings, gun violence and gun laws, see our full special reports: America Under the Gun and Newtown: One Year After.
Mark Follman is a senior editor at Mother Jones. Read more of his stories, follow him on Twitter, or contact him with tips or feedback at mfollman (at) motherjones (dot) com. RSS | Twitter
Nearly
a year before the massacre, the bureau intercepted emails between Nidal
Hasan and radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki that officials called "fairly
benign." They are anything but.
Update (4/2/2014):A
gunman went on a rampage at Fort Hood, Texas—the site of a mass
shooting in November 2009—killing 3 people and injuring 16 others before
taking his own life, according to the Associated Press.
It is perhaps too easy to forget how many times this has happened. The horrific mass murder at a movie theater in Colorado in July 2012, another at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that August, another at a manufacturer in Minneapolis that September—and then the unthinkable nightmare at a Connecticut elementary school
that December—were some of the latest in an epidemic of such gun
violence over the last three decades. Since 1982, there have been at
least 67 mass shootings across the country, with the killings unfolding
in 30 states from Massachusetts to Hawaii. Thirty of these mass
shootings have occurred since 2006. Seven of them took place in 2012,
and another five occurred in 2013, including in Santa Monica, California, and at the Washington Navy Yard.
We've gathered detailed data on the cases and mapped them below,
including information on the shooters' profiles, the types of weapons
they used, and the number of victims they injured and killed.*
Weapons: Of the 143 guns possessed by the killers,
more than three quarters were obtained legally. The arsenal included
dozens of assault weapons and semi-automatic handguns with high-capacity magazines.
(See charts below.) Just as Jeffrey Weise used a .40-caliber Glock to
slaughter students in Red Lake, Minnesota, in 2005, so too did James
Holmes, along with an AR-15 assault rifle, when blasting away at his victims in a darkened movie theater. In Newtown, Connecticut, Adam Lanza wielded a .223 Bushmaster semi-automatic assault rifle as he massacred 20 school children and six adults. The killers: More than half of the cases involved
school or workplace shootings (12 and 20, respectively); the other 30
cases took place in locations including shopping malls, restaurants, and
religious and government buildings. Forty four of the killers were
white males. Only one of them was a woman. (See Goleta, Calif., in
2006.) The average age of the killers was 35, though the youngest among
them was a mere 11 years old. (See Jonesboro, Ark., in 1998.) A majority
were mentally troubled—and many displayed signs of it before setting out to kill. Explore the map for further details—we do not consider it to be all-inclusive, but based on the criteria we used
we believe that we've produced the most comprehensive rundown available
on this particular type of violence. (Mass shootings represent only a
sliver of America's overall gun violence.) For a timeline listing all
the cases on the map, including photos of the killers, jump to page 2. For the stories of the 151 shooting rampage victims of 2012, click here, and for all of MoJo's year-long investigation into gun laws and mass shootings, click here. Hover over the dots or use the search tool in the top-left corner of the map to
go to a specific location. (Zoom in to see the Aurora shooting, located
close to other massacres in Colorado, and to see other proximate
shootings in Milwaukee, Seattle, and elsewhere.)
Our focus is on public mass shootings in which the
motive appeared to be indiscriminate killing. We used the following
criteria to identify cases:
The shooter took the lives of at least four people. An FBI crime classification report identifies an individual as a mass murderer—versus a spree killer or a serial killer—if he kills four or more people in a single incident (not including himself), typically in a single location.
The killings were carried out by a lone shooter. (Except in the case of the Columbine massacre and the Westside Middle School killings, which involved two shooters.)
The shootings occurred in a public place. (Except
in the case of a party on private property in Crandon, Wisconsin, and
another in Seattle, where crowds of strangers had gathered.) Crimes
primarily related to gang activity, armed robbery, or domestic violence
in homes are not included.
If the shooter died or was hurt from injuries
sustained during the incident, he is included in the total victim count.
(But we have excluded many cases in which there were three fatalities
and the shooter also died, per the above FBI criterion.)
We included a handful of so-called "spree killings"—cases in which the killings occurred in more than one location over a short period of time, that fit the above criteria.
This guide was first
published on July 20, 2012; since then we've updated and expanded it
multiple times with additional research and reporting. The analysis,
map, and charts above cover the data through 2012 (comprising 62 cases);
additional data and analysis on the shooters' weapons are in this story. Information from five additional mass shootings in 2013 is included in our full data set here. For much more of our reporting on mass shootings, gun violence and gun laws, see our special reports: America Under the Gun and Newtown: One Year After. (Return to intro.)
First published: Fri Jul. 20, 2012 7:32 PM PDT.
Interactive production by Tasneem Raja and Jaeah Lee
Image: Clockwise from upper left: Wade Michael Page: Anti-Defamation League; James E. Holmes: Arapahoe County Sheriff's Dept./Zuma; Seung-Hui Cho: Virginia Tech University/Wikimedia; Jared Loughner: Pima County Sheriff's Office/Wikimedia
Here is a timeline of 62 mass shootings in the United States, from 1982 through 2012. For further details and our interactive map locating all of these cases, click here.
Mark Follman is a senior editor at Mother Jones. Read more of his stories, follow him on Twitter, or contact him with tips or feedback at mfollman (at) motherjones (dot) com. RSS | Twitter
Video:
Here are key moments from the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on
Thursday where Secretary of the Army John McHugh and Army Chief of
Staff Ray Odierno testified about Wednesday's shooting at Fort Hood,
Tex.
The soldier who went on a shooting rampage
Wednesday at Fort Hood, Tex., had been undergoing treatment for
depression and had seen a psychiatrist last month, but Army officials
said Thursday they did not consider him a threat before he killed three
fellow soldiers and took his own life.
Army Secretary John M. McHugh said the 34-year-old shooter had
been prescribed “a number of drugs,” including Ambien, a sleep aid.
After giving the soldier a full psychiatric evaluation last month, Army
officials detected no indications “that there was any sign of likely
violence, either to himself or to others,” McHugh told a Senate panel
Thursday.
“The plan forward was to just continue to monitor and treat him as deemed appropriate,” McHugh added.
He
said the investigation was still unfolding and did not comment on a
possible motive. But he echoed other Army leaders in saying there was no
evidence the shooter was “involved with extremists of any kind.”
McHugh did not identify the soldier, but other military officials and law enforcement officials have named him as Army Spec. Ivan A. Lopez,
a military truck driver. He was dressed in his standard-issue
camouflage uniform when he abruptly pulled out a .45 Smith & Wesson
semiautomatic pistol Wednesday afternoon and opened fire in two
different buildings on the vast Army post in central Texas.
The mass shooting immediately prompted flashbacks to another terrible day at Fort Hood. On Nov. 5, 2009, Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan,
a psychiatrist who had been in contact with an al-Qaeda leader
overseas, gunned down soldiers preparing to deploy to Iraq and
Afghanistan, killing 13 people and wounding more than 30.
Ever
since, Defense Department officials have worked to bolster security and
improve screening at bases across the country. Despite those efforts, insider attacks by people working for the military have persisted, frustrating military leaders and lawmakers alike.
In
September, a government contractor who had been hearing phantom voices
carried a shotgun into the Washington Navy Yard and methodically killed
12 people. That shooter, Aaron Alexis, a Navy veteran, had recently
sought treatment for insomnia from Veterans Affairs medical centers.
When
doctors asked Alexis if he had thoughts of harming himself or others,
he said no. He was prescribed medicine for sleeplessness and anxiety,
but, like Lopez, he was not labeled a potential threat. Nineteen days
later, he carried out his attack.
Army officials said they were
still trying to unravel a motive for Lopez’s attack. Investigators were
questioning Lopez’s wife and searching their apartment in Killeen, the
city that abuts the Army post. The couple were both natives of Puerto
Rico, Army officials said.
Lopez grew up in the town of
Guayanilla, on Puerto Rico’s southwestern side. The town’s current
mayor, Edgardo Arlequín, was the director of a local band for school
children when Lopez joined. That was about 1990, the year that Lopez
turned 11.
The mayor said that Lopez came from a musical family: his father and brother both played music in the local Catholic church.
“Ivan
was quiet . . . introverted, calm,” Arlequín said in Spanish in a
telephone interview. He said he knew Lopez for several years and had
never seen him show anger with another student. “Never. Never. I never
saw him get in a fight.”
Lopez spent 10 years as a police officer
in Puerto Rico and was still counted as an “inactive” member of the
force while he served in the Army, a spokesman for the Puerto Rican
police service said Thursday.
Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, described the shooter
as “a very experienced soldier” who had served for nine years in the
Puerto Rico National Guard before enlisting in the active-duty Army in
2010.
While with the National Guard, the shooter served a
one-year deployment to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. In 2011, after he
joined the Army full-time, he served four months in Iraq and was one of
the last U.S. troops to come home at the end of the war.
McHugh said there was no record that the shooter had been wounded or injured in Iraq.
Lt. Gen. Mark A. Milley, the commanding general of Fort Hood, told
reporters Wednesday night that the shooter had “self-reported” a
traumatic brain injury from his Iraq deployment and that he was
undergoing evaluation to determine if he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Milley
said the shooter “had behavioral health and mental health issues” and
was taking antidepressants. “We are digging deep into his background,”
he said.
Lopez had been stationed at Fort Hood only for several
weeks. He arrived in February and was assigned to the 13th Sustainment
Command (Expeditionary) as a truck driver.
He had previously been
stationed at another Texas installation, Fort Bliss, for two years as an
infantryman with the 1st Armored Division, 4th Brigade. According to a
person familiar with his military service, he was taking medications
while stationed at Fort Bliss to help with depression and anxiety, but
his behavior did not raise any red flags. Because of privacy
restrictions, his commanders were unaware of the medications he was
receiving.
Lopez had been experiencing some stress in his life;
his mother had passed away in the past year and he had been seeing a
chaplain for counseling on that and other undisclosed issues, according
to the person familiar with his military record. The military monitors
people for stress levels, and Lopez was deemed to be “low risk” at the
time.
He left Fort Bliss in November for several months of
training to become a truck driver, then won an assignment with a
truck-driving unit at Fort Hood, starting in February.
In March,
not long after his arrival at Fort Hood, Lopez legally purchased the
.45-caliber Smith & Wesson from a Killeen gun shop, Guns Galore —
the same store where Hasan bought the weapon he used in the 2009 Fort
Hood rampage, according to two law-enforcement officials who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
About 4 p.m. Wednesday, Lopez began
shooting. Officials, while stressing that they were still trying to
determine the precise sequence of events, said he opened fire inside two
different buildings: one belonging to the 1st Medical Brigade and
another belonging to the 49th Transportation Battalion. In between, he
fired shots from a vehicle he had driven onto the base.
He was
eventually confronted by a female military police officer. He put his
hands up at first, but then pulled out a gun from under his jacket and
shot himself in the head, according to Milley, the Fort Hood commander.
Milley said investigators were looking into reports that the
shooter may have gotten into an argument with another soldier, but he
did not give details.
Doctors at Scott and White Memorial Hospital
in Temple, Tex., said Thursday that they were treating nine patients —
eight men and one woman, all current service members — and that three remain in critical condition.
Matthew
Davis, trauma director at the hospital, told reporters that five others
are in fair condition and the remainder in good condition. He said it
was possible that several victims with minor injuries could be
discharged Thursday.
Davis said the patients in critical condition
have injuries to the neck, abdomen and possibly the spine and that two
of them require further surgery. The patients range in age from 21 to
the mid-40s, he said.
Among the wounded was Maj. Patrick Miller, who had previously served in Iraq.His condition was not known.
Several
of Miller’s Facebook friends posted messages asking for prayers for his
recovery. His mother and wife took to Twitter asking for prayers. His
wife tweeted directly to two football players on the Buffalo Bills, his
favorite team, asking them to pray for her husband.
“I have no
doubt he’ll pull through because of who he is,” Robert Heckler of
Brazoria, Tex., who served in Iraq with Miller from 2004 to 2005, said
in a phone interview. “Man, that guy is one of a kind. Honestly, he’s a
straight dude, he’s a cool dude.”
Like many other soldiers and
Army veterans, Heckler said he was stunned that the Army had been
victimized by another insider attack.
“It happened at our home, at
our house,” he said. “He was shot by another soldier. That’s a lot
different than the Army I was in.”
President Obama directed
officials to “utilize every resource available to fully investigate the
shooting,” the White House said Wednesday night. The president spoke in a
conference call with his national security team, including Defense
Secretary Chuck Hagel, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin
Dempsey and FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano. Speaking during a fundraising trip to Chicago, Obama said he was “heartbroken that something like this might have happened again” and pledged “to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.”
At
Guns Galore, which advertises that it has 3,000 guns in stock and 1,700
on display, general manager Cathy Cheadle said she could not comment
because of the investigation.
But a part-time sales clerk, a
retired police sergeant who gave his name only as Ebert, said, “We are
religiously in compliance with state and federal law — to the point
where we have pissed some people off.” He added: “We have refused gun
sales before. It’s based on the little voice inside your head that says
it’s not a good idea. . . . We have done good things since we’ve been
here. We do whatever needs to be done to keep the community safe.”
On
Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid said Thursday that
Congress should revisit the issue of expanding the federal gun
background check program in response to the latest shooting spree at
Fort Hood.
“As I was told today, this young man bought his gun a
day or two before he killed these people,” Reid told reporters.
“Couldn’t we at least have background checks so that people who are ill
mentally, or who are felons, shouldn’t be able to buy guns? Even NRA
members, a majority of them, support that, so I hope we can bring it
back up.”
When asked whether he would like to bring up a bill to
expand the background check program, Reid said, “I would like to be able
to bring it back up; I need some more votes.”
But Rep. Steve Stockman
(R-Tex.) called on Congress to end a ban on carrying weapons at U.S.
military bases. In a statement, he charged that the latest shooting
occurred “because our trained soldiers aren’t allowed to carry defensive
weapons.,” adding: “Anti-gun activists have turned our military bases
into soft targets for killers.”
Although installations such as
Fort Hood contain large storehouses of armaments, and many of their
inhabitants have spent years at war, military posts are usually among
the most idyllic communities in the country, a throwback to the 1950s,
with manicured lawns, drivers who conscientiously abide by the speed
limit and parents unafraid to allow their children to frolic out of
sight.
Encompassing 340 square miles, Fort Hood is larger than
the five boroughs of New York combined. But most of the area is open
terrain, used for tank and artillery practice. Many of the post’s
facilities are concentrated on its southern perimeter, near its gates to
the city of Killeen. The facilities include the headquarters for III
Corps, which is comprised of two full divisions and support regiments.
More than 40,000 service members work on the post, which has about 6,000
family residences.
In the wake of the Navy Yard shooting, Hagel
ordered a series of security changes at military installations,
including more rigorous screening of personnel and the creation of an
analysis center to examine “insider threats.”
“When we have these
kinds of tragedies on our bases, something’s not working,” he said
Wednesday during a visit to Hawaii. “We will continue to address the
issue. Anytime you lose your people to these kinds of tragedies, it’s an
issue, it’s a problem.” Shelby Sementelli in Killeen, Tex.; Ernesto Londoño in Hawaii; and
Sari Horwitz, David Fahrenthold, Clarence Williams, William Branigin,
Colby Itkowitz, Ed O’Keefe and Julie Tate in Washington contributed to
this report.
'We Do Not Expect Any More Fatalities,' Doctor Says Of Fort Hood Victims
by
Sgt. First Class Erick Rodriguez stood guard
at the entrance to Fort Hood as officials prepared to brief the news
media about Wednesday's attack at the post.
Erich Schlegel /Reuters/Landov
On the day after , in which a gunman killed at least three people, wounded 16 and then reportedly killed himself, there was this welcome news:
"We
do not expect any more fatalities at this point," Dr. Matthew Davis,
head of the trauma unit at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in
Temple, Texas, told reporters Thursday morning. Three of the nine
victims being treated at the hospital remain in critical condition, but
Davis said all three should survive. Scott & White is where those
who still need care are being treated.
The day's other
developments include word that the gunman, who authorities have
identified as Army Spc. Ivan Lopez, was reportedly being treated for
depression but had shown no sign he was likely to do harm to anyone or
to himself.
There was also word Thursday that three of those
who were injured remained in critical condition — but that doctors
expect they will survive their wounds. Officials said the nine people
being treated at Scott & White Memorial Hospital are all members of
the military and range in age from 21 to the mid-40s. Eight of the nine
are men. Several may be discharged later today.
The latest news and our original post, which has much more about the deadly rampage, follow: Update at 11:50 a.m. ET. Three Victims Critical, But Are Expected To Recover:
Three
of the nine patients at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple,
Texas, remain in critical condition, Dr. Matthew Davis just told
reporters at the hospital. He's head of the hospital's trauma unit. But
he added this hopeful note: "We do not expect any more fatalities at
this point."
Of the others, two are in fair condition and the
others are in good condition, Davis said. Several of them may be
discharged later today.
Davis said eight of the patients are
men. All nine are now members of the military, he said. Their ages range
from "21 to the 40s." the news conference at the hospital.
The
doctor also said that the three patients in critical condition have
injuries to different parts of their body — one has "injuries to the
neck," another has a "potential spine injury" from a gunshot wound and
another has an abdominal injury. Update at 10:45 a.m. ET. "Early Evidence: Fort Hood Gunman Showed No Warning Signs":
"He was seen just last month by a psychiatrist," , who was an Army
soldier. "He was fully examined and as of this morning we had no
indication [from] the record of that examination that there was any sign
of likely violence either to himself or to others." Update at 10 a.m. ET. "He Had A Clean Record":
The
gunman "had a clean record" in the military and background checks of
him "show no involvement with extremist organizations of any kind," at
the top of a previously scheduled Senate hearing. McHugh also told the
lawmakers that the soldier had been prescribed multiple prescription
drugs, including a sleep aid. Our original post began with some of the day's headlines and rounded up the news:
We'll start with some of the morning's headlines and links to accounts about what happened Wednesday:
— "Fort Hood Suffers Another Shooting Tragedy." ()
— "Shooting forces victims of 2009 attack to relive the tragedy." ()
— "Fort Hood shooting comes less than 5 years after attack." ()
— "Shootings frustrate U.S. military efforts to secure bases." ()
— "Texans' hearts are once again very heavy." ()
It
was around 4 p.m. local time when the gunman reportedly opened fire in
one building, got in a vehicle and fired more shots from it, then
entered another building where he fired again. Officials say that at
least one MP then confronted the gunman in a parking lot.
,
NPR's Tom Bowman said early reports indicate that the MP "drew her
weapon," and that the gunman then pulled a handgun from under his shirt
and "placed the gun to his head and killed himself."
The local Killeen Daily Herald :
"III
Corps and Fort Hood commander Lt. Gen. Mark Milley said the shooter
used a .45-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun, which he'd purchased
recently. Milley said the soldier, who arrived at Fort Hood in February
from another military installation in Texas, suffered from depression
anxiety and other mental heath issues and was in the process of getting a
diagnosis for post-traumatic stress disorder.
"Fort Hood
officials did not release the name of the gunman Wednesday night pending
notification of next of kin, but a Bell County sheriff's deputy
identified him as 34-year-old Spc. Ivan Lopez.
"About 9:30
p.m., Milley said there was no indication the shooting was related to
terrorism, but the investigation would leave nothing 'off the table.'
" 'We are not ruling anything out at this time,' he said."
NPR's
Bowman adds that Lopez served in Iraq in 2011 and that there is "no
indication he was wounded in combat," but that the soldier had
apparently "self-reported a traumatic brain injury."
Our colleagues at KUT in Austin :
"The
region's only Level 1 trauma center, the Scott and White Memorial
Hospital in Temple, Texas, has absorbed several of the Fort Hood
casualties. The hospital has issued the following statement:
"
'We have accepted 9 patients, 8 are currently here and 1 will be
arriving shortly at Scott & White Memorial Hospital. We currently
have 7 male patients and 1 female patient that we continue to monitor.
All patients are in the ICU, 3 are critical condition and 5 are in
serious condition.' "
Wednesday brought back awful memories, of course. In November 2009, Army when he opened fire on the post. Hasan has been convicted and sentenced to death. Note:
As often happens when stories such as this are breaking, details about
what occurred will likely change. We'll focus on reports from officials
in a position to know about the investigation and news outlets with
reliable sources. We'll update as warranted.
ALERT: All personnel on Fort Hood should shelter in place immediately, close doors and stay away from windows.
Update at 7:34 p.m. ET. Injured Personnel Are Being Transported:
, Fort Hood says injured personnel are being transported to local hospitals.
The
statement adds that the base's "Directorate of Emergency Services has
an initial report that a shooter is dead but this is unconfirmed." Update at 7:52 p.m. ET. 'Heartbroken':
"We're heartbroken something like this might have happened again," President Obama said this evening.
Obama talked to pool reporters in Chicago. He stood in front of large black curtain with an Americans flag.
"We're
following it closely," Obama said. "The situation is fluid right now
... I want to just assure all of us we are going to get to the bottom of
exactly what happened." Update at 7:47 p.m. ET. 1 Dead, 14 Wounded:
NPR's Tom Bowman tells us a U.S. official tells him one person is dead and 14 are wounded. Update at 7:46 p.m. ET. President To Issue Statement:
NPR's Tamara Keith tells us President Obama will make a statement about the situation in Fort Hood to the pool "shortly."
Update at 7:26 p.m. ET. President Informed:
In a statement, The White House said President Obama has been informed of the situation in Fort Hood.
"He'll continue to receive updates on the situation throughout the evening," spokesman Josh Earnest said. Update at 7:09 p.m. ET. Reports Of Active Shooter:
the Bell's County Sheriff's Office, which is responding with deputies
and troopers, says there are reports of an "active shooter."
Waco Police also reporting an "active shooter." Update at 7:05 p.m. ET. Clearing Buildings:
A
soldier on the base tells KCEN-TV that police seem to be clearing
buildings, escorting civilians and service men and women out with their
hands in the air. Update at 6:45 p.m. ET. Shooting On Base:
:
"There
has been a shooting at Fort Hood and injuries are reported. Emergency
crews are on the scene. No further details are known at this time."
Update at 6:41 p.m. ET. Lots Of Police Activity:
During
its live broadcast, KCEN-TV showed police vehicles streaming into the
base. An eyewitness told the station that a helicopter was flying over
the base and he had counted tens of ambulances and police vehicles as
well as a SWAT team.
Fort Hood is under a shelter-in-place order after a shooting at the Texas Army base.
that there had been a shooting that resulted in injuries.
"Emergency crews are on the scene," the base said. "No further details are know at this time."
The 1st Cavalry Division that personnel "should shelter in place immediately, close doors and stay away from windows."
The AP reports that Fort Hood confirmed there had been a shooting on the base and a number of injuries.
Fort Hood was the scene of a mass shooting in 2009, where thirteen people were killed and more than 30 were wounded. it was "the deadliest attack on a domestic military installation in history."
This
is a breaking news story. We'll update once we know more. And like we
always tell you when stories such as this are developing, information
may come in that later turns out to have been incorrect. We'll do our
best to sort through what's out there and reliable and update as need. Update at 6:45 p.m. ET. Shooting On Base:
:
"There
has been a shooting at Fort Hood and injuries are reported. Emergency
crews are on the scene. No further details are know at this time."
Update at 6:41 p.m. ET. Lots Of Police Activity:
During
its live broadcast, KCEN-TV showed police vehicles streaming into the
base. An eyewitness told the station that a helicopter was flying over
the base and he had counted tens of ambulances and police vehicles as
well as a Swat team.
(KCEN) -- We have reports of an active shooter on Fort Hood.
There are reports of several injuries from this shooting. There is at least one patient being transported to the hospital.
We are also getting reports of victims in the Battle Simulation Center on 65th and Warehouse.
The suspect is still at large. The shooter was said to be in building 33026 which is the Medical Brigade Building.
Reports have said that he was driving a gray Toyota, described as a
white male in an Army Combat Uniform, and carrying a .45 handgun.
Fort Hood has been put on lockdown.
Central Texas College has been evacuated only as a precaution.
Posted:
Apr 02, 2014 5:32 PM EST
Updated:
Apr 02, 2014 5:58 PM EST
(KCEN) -- We have reports of an active shooter on Fort Hood.
We have reports that there are several injuries from this
shooting. There is at least one patient being transported to the
hospital.
We are also getting reports of victims in the Battle Simulation Center on 65th and Warehouse.
The suspect is still at large. The shooter was said to be in building 33026 which is the Medical Brigade Building.
Fort Hood has been put on lockdown.
These are all preliminary reports.
Fort Hood Goes On Lockdown After Reports Of Shooting
by Eyder Peralta
Fort Hood is under a shelter-in-place order after a shooting at the Texas Army base.
that there had been a shooting that resulted in injuries.
"Emergency crews are on the scene," the base said. "No further details are know at this time."
The 1st Cavalry Division that personnel "should shelter in place immediately, close doors and stay away from windows."
The AP reports that Fort Hood confirmed there had been a shooting on the base and a number of injuries.
Fort Hood was the scene of a mass shooting in 2009, where thirteen people were killed and more than 30 were wounded. it was "the deadliest attack on a domestic military installation in history."
This
is a breaking news story. We'll update once we know more. And like we
always tell you when stories such as this are developing, information
may come in that later turns out to have been incorrect. We'll do our
best to sort through what's out there and reliable and update as need. Update at 6:45 p.m. ET. Shooting On Base:
:
"There
has been a shooting at Fort Hood and injuries are reported. Emergency
crews are on the scene. No further details are know at this time."
Update at 6:41 p.m. ET. Lots Of Police Activity:
During
its live broadcast, KCEN-TV showed police vehicles streaming into the
base. An eyewitness told the station that a helicopter was flying over
the base and he had counted tens of ambulances and police vehicles as
well as a Swat team.
Fort Hood is under a shelter-in-place order after reports of a shooting at the Texas Army base.
The 1st Cavalry Division that personnel "should shelter in place immediately, close doors and stay away from windows."
Fort Hood was
This is a breaking news story. We'll update once we know more.
Fort Hood: “Shelter in place” order after shooting
The Fort Hood military installation in Texas is locked down after a
shooting that left at least four people dead and injured an unknown
number, according to authorities.
Four people were killed, according to government officials. It’s
unclear at this moment if the four dead includes the shooter, who
officials have confirmed was killed, but that number is believed to
include the shooter.
Fort Hood, which remained locked down at 8 p.m., reported that there
were multiple injuries after the shooting. However, Fort Hood officials
said the number of people injured had not been confirmed.
There are believed to be 14 people injured in the shooting, according to law enforcement officials. David Ross, a Fort Hood official, said the site is fully locked down and “completely sealed” as they search every building.
“There is a confirmed shooting that occurred,” Ross said. “We’re still trying to identify what we have.”
A Fort Hood soldier briefed on the shooting said it reportedly took place at or near a medical facility on post.
Fort Hood’s Web site is urging people to shelter in place immediately, something followed up by this tweet.
The base was the site of a shooting in 2009 that ultimately killed 13 people and wounded another 32, the worst mass murder at a military installation in U.S. history. Nidal Hasan was sentenced to death last year for the shooting after being found guilty of premeditated and attempted premeditated murder.
Speaking in Chicago, President Obama said his administration was following the shooting closely.
“I want to just assure all of us we are going to get to the bottom of
exactly what happened,” he said, according to the pool report. “We’re
heartbroken something like this might have happened again.” This post has been updated. First posted: 6:12 p.m. Ernesto Londoño, Philip Rucker, Adam Goldman and Sari Horwitz contributed to this report.
kcentv.com – KCEN HD – Waco, Temple, and Killeen
The Fort Hood military base in Texas is locked down after a confirmed shooting at the installation.
Multiple people are injured at Fort Hood after a shooting, but it’s
unclear how many people were injured, said Marcine Folsom, a public
service officer with the Bell County Sheriff’s Department.
“The person, as far as we know, is still at large,” Folsom said.
Fort Hood’s Web site is urging people to shelter in place immediately, something followed up by this tweet.
The base was the site of a shooting in 2009 that ultimately killed 13 people and wounded another 32, the worst mass murder at a military installation in U.S. history.
HERE is another example of a spectacular failure of the fbi to use the tools they have developed to stop an act of terrorism. Before I go any further I will state again I am against the government spying and surveillance program exposed by Edward Snowden as it has been administered. The fbi and nsa and other agencies have violated the extremely lax rules governing the patriot act which allows the government to monitor American citizens. But the fbi could have gone to the fisa courts with the concerns they had to get a court order allowing surveillance and monitoring of these two cases, giving them at least the appearance of legality. The first case concerns the Boston Marathon bombing on 15APR13. The Russian government had warned the fbi about the radical Islamic beliefs of tamerlan tsarnaev but there was no followup. Now we find out, the week US Army Major nidal hasan was sentenced to death for the murder of 13 at a Ft Hood, TX medical center on 5NOV09. Again, the fbi had reason to monitor the e mails of nidal hasan, he was, after all, in the US Army but e mailing known terrorist anwar al-awlaki, with hasan's e mails expressing increasingly violent radical Islamic beliefs. Yet the fbi failed to pursue leads that may have prevented this tragedy. The preventable loss of life makes one angry, the fact that the fbi knew, and did nothing makes one furious. Repiglicans and tea-baggers deride the alleged waste, fraud and abuse of social safety net programs as reason to cut their funding to force the agencies to tighten up and administer the programs properly. The recently released report on the federal budget for the "intelligence community" ( U.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives detailed in ‘black budget’ summary 29AUG13 http://bucknacktssordidtawdryblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/us-spy-networks-successes-failures-and.html ) exposes the tens of billions allocated to these agencies, including the fbi. With these tragic intelligence failures one has to wonder if the repiglicans and tea-baggers will call for cuts in the "black budget" to force them to tighten up and administer the programs properly? NAH, that would threaten the profit margins of the military-industrial complex, and we can't have that, can we? This from Mother Jones.....
Nearly a year before the massacre, the bureau intercepted emails between Nidal Hasan and radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki that officials called "fairly benign." They are anything but.
Last Thursday, as the jury in the trial of Nidal Hasan was deliberating, outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller appeared on CBS News and discussed a string of emails between the Fort Hood shooter and Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Islamic cleric with ties to the 9/11 hijackers. The FBI had intercepted the messages starting almost a year before Hasan's 2009 shooting rampage, and Mueller was asked whether "the bureau dropped the ball" by failing to act on this information. He didn't flinch: "No, I think, given the context of the discussions and the situation that the agents and the analysts were looking at, they took appropriate steps."
In the wake of the Fort Hood attacks, the exchanges between Awlaki and Hasan—who was convicted of murder on Friday—were the subject of intense speculation. But the public was given little information about these messages. While officials claimed that they were "fairly benign," the FBI blocked then-Sen. Joseph Lieberman's efforts to make them public as part of a two-year congressional investigation into Fort Hood. The military judge in the Hasan case also barred the prosecutor from presenting them, saying they would cause "unfair prejudice" and "undue delay."
As it turns out, the FBI quietly released the emails in an unclassified report on the shooting, which was produced by an investigative commission headed by former FBI director William H. Webster last year. And, far from being "benign," they offer a chilling glimpse into the psyche of an Islamic radical. The report also shows how badly the FBI bungled its Hasan investigation and suggests that the Army psychiatrist's deadly rampage could have been prevented.
Hasan first appeared on the bureau's radar in December of 2008—nearly a year before the Fort Hood massacre—when he emailed Awlaki to ask him whether serving in the US military was compatible with the Muslim faith. He also asked whether Awlaki considered those who died attacking their fellow soldiers "shaheeds," or martyrs.
At the time, Awlaki, who was killed by a US drone strike in 2011, was emerging as Al Qaeda's chief English-speaking propagandist. He was also known to have ties to several of the 9/11 hijackers, two of whom attended his mosque in San Diego.
The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in San Diego, which was tracking Awlaki, intercepted Hasan's December email, along with another sent in January. A search of the Pentagon's personnel database turned up a man named Nidal Hasan who was on active military duty and was listed as a "Comm Officer" at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC.
Hasan first appeared on the FBI’s radar when he emailed Anwar al-Awlaki to ask if he considered US servicemen who died attacking fellow soldiers "shaheeds," or martyrs.
Normally, when the FBI unearths this kind of raw intelligence, it issues an Intelligence Information Report (IIR), which is shared with law enforcement agencies and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. (This system was designed to prevent the kind of information bottlenecks that allowed the 9/11 plot to go undetected.) But the San Diego agents misinterpreted the "Comm Officer" label in Hasan's file to mean"communications officer" (in fact, it meant "commissioned officer") and believed that a person in this role might have access to IIRs. To avoid tipping him off, they skipped the report and sent a detailed memo requesting an investigation directly to the Washington, DC, Joint Terrorism Task Force, a multiagency team overseen by the FBI that investigates terrorism cases in the capital. The message noted that Hasan's "contact with [Awlaki] would be of concern if the writer is actually the individual identified above."
The file languished for nearly two months before it was assigned to an agent for the Defense Criminal Investigative Services, who was on the task force. According to a 2011 report on the Fort Hood shootings by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, DCIS—a law enforcement agency within the Pentagon, which normally deals with fraud and cybercrime among military personnel and contractors—was ill-equipped to tackle a counterterrorism investigation.
Meanwhile, Hasan kept writing Awlaki. Between January and May 2009, he sent the radical cleric more than a dozen emails, and received two relatively benign responses. In one message, ostensibly about Palestinians firing unguided rockets into Israel, Hasan asked Awlaki whether "indiscriminately killing civilians" was acceptable. Two days later, he sent another message answering his own question: "Hamas and the Muslims hate to hurt the innocent but they have no choice if their going to have a chance to survive, flourish, and deter the zionist enemy. The recompense for an evil is an evil." (Hasan's emails contained a number of typos.)
The San Diego field office intercepted these missives, too. But the database where the FBI stored intercepted emails didn't automatically link messages from the same sender, so the staff didn't realize that Hasan's early 2009 emails were from the person who had set off alarms the previous December. Meanwhile, the Washington-based DCIS agent assigned to investigate Hasan put off his inquiry for another 90 days, the maximum allowed under joint task force rules, before conducting a cursory investigation. Over the course of four hours on May 27, 2009, he ran Hasan's name through several databases to see if the psychiatrist had been targeted in previous counterterrorism probes. He also reviewed Hasan's Pentagon personnel file. Hasan's officer evaluations were mostly positive, and the chair of psychiatry at Walter Reed had written that Hasan's research on Islamic beliefs regarding military service had "extraordinary potential to inform national policy and military strategy."
Soldiers mourn before a memorial for Fort Hood victims. San Antonio Express-News/ZUMApress.com
The Senate investigation later found these reports "bore no resemblance to the real Hasan, a barely competent psychiatrist whose radicalization toward violent Islamist extremism alarmed his colleagues and his superiors." Nevertheless, the DCIS investigator concluded, based on Hasan's file, that the Army psychiatrist had contacted Awlaki in connection with his academic research and "was not involved in terrorist activity." The DCIS investigator and a supervisory agent in the Washington field office debated interviewing Hasan or his superiors. They ultimately decided doing so could jeopardize the Awlaki investigation or harm Hasan's career.
Advocates for Fort Hood victims find this decision puzzling. "A US Army major is writing to this imam and essentially asking for religious sanction to kill American soldiers," said attorney Reed Rubinstein, who represents a group of victims who are suing the federal government. "And the FBI's Washington field office doesn't even interview the man or make a phone call to his superiors. It's utterly incomprehensible."
In May 2009, around the time the Washington field office wrapped up its Hasan investigation, Hasan's emails to Awlaki took an ominous turn. In one message, he said he had "heard a speaker defending suicide bombings as permissible" and laid out the speaker's rationale:
For example, he reported a recent incident were an American Soldier jumped on a grenade that was thrown at a group of soldiers. In doing so he saved 7 soldiers but killed himself…So, he says this proves that suicide is permissible in this example because he is a hero. Then he compares this to a soldier who sneaks into an enemy camp during dinner and detonates his suicide vest to prevent an attack that is know to be planned the following day.
Hasan made the case that the second act was as heroic as the first. He then delved into the question of "'collateral damage' where a decision is made to allow the killing of innocents for a valuable target."
"I would assume that suicide bomber whose aim is to kill enemy soldiers or their helpers but also kill innocents in the process is acceptable," he wrote.
An FBI agent in the San Diego field office, whom the Webster report identifies as "SD-Agent," reviewed this email, but again failed to link it to the Hasan case. He ultimately determined it was "Not a Product of Interest." On June 11, the same agent read the Washington task force's report on the Hasan investigation. While he still didn't connect the dots with the message he read, the agent was dismayed that the investigation hadn't gone deeper and considered the justification for not interviewing Hasan "weak excuses." His colleagues in San Diego agreed. In fact, according to the Webster Commission, one of them believed Hasan must have been a confidential source—why else would the Washington office conduct such a perfunctory investigation?
At this point, SD-Agent asked the DCIS investigator on his team to press his Washington counterpart to dig deeper, after which the San Diego DCIS agent sent Washington an email asking why the investigation was so "slim." In a follow-up phone call, he explained that San Diego would have at least interviewed Hasan. According to the Webster Commission, the Washington DCIS agent dismissed these concerns, saying the Washington field office "doesn't go out and interview every Muslim guy who visits extremist websites" and stressing that the subject was "politically sensitive." (The Webster report notes that the quotes are not verbatim).
The chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee faulted the FBI and the Pentagon for failing to act on information that "with the clarity of hindsight just shouts out, 'Stop this guy before he kills somebody!'"
According to the FBI's policy for resolving interoffice investigative disputes, at this point the San Diego field office should have communicated its concerns up the chain of command. But that didn't happen. What's more, none of the FBI agents involved thought to query the bureau's database of intercepted electronic communications. Had they done so, the Webster Commission found, they would have uncovered other emails that "undermined the assumption" that Hasan had contacted Awlaki "simply to research Islam."
Within days of the mid-June confrontation between San Diego and Washington, Hasan was transferred to Fort Hood, Texas, where he counseled soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. He also bought a FN Herstal Five-seveN semiautomatic pistol and 5.7x28 mm bullets, a combination know for its armor-piercing capabilities.* That October, he received word that he would be deploying to Afghanistan, but that never happened. On November 5, Hasan marched into a deployment processing center at Fort Hood and opened fire, killing 13 people—including a pregnant soldier, who curled up on the floor and pled, "My baby! My baby!"—before the Army psychiatrist was shot and paralyzed. According to the congressional investigation, SD-Agent immediately pegged Hasan as the culprit. "You know who that is?" he asked one of his analysts. "That's our boy."
Reports of Hasan's contact with Awlaki quickly surfaced in the media, but the contents of the emails were not made public. On November 8, 2009, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee launched its investigation. According to a former Senate staffer who was involved in the inquiry, the committee struggled to get information from the FBI, which was reluctant to hand over the Awlaki emails and refused to let congressional investigators interview the agents involved. "The FBI insisted that it would have a chilling effect on the people making front-line decisions if they had to worry constantly about Congress calling them in to explain their actions," the staffer said.
The bureau eventually agreed to let congressional investigators review the emails, but only inside a secure facility. They weren't allowed to copy the messages or write about them on computers that were connected to the internet, much less discuss them in their final report. Nevertheless, when he presented the committee's findings in February 2011, then-Sen. Lieberman faulted the FBI and the Pentagon for failing to act on information that, "with the clarity of hindsight just shouts out, 'Stop this guy before he kills somebody!'"
In July 2012, the Webster Commission released its report, but the document went largely unnoticed. Besides describing the FBI's missteps in the Hasan case, the report delved into the underlying institutional problems—including shortcomings in the bureau's training, information-sharing, and intelligence-gathering policies—and proposed a series of reform recommendations. The FBI declined to comment for this story, but it issued a statement saying that it "concurs with the principles underlying all the recommendations and has already taken action to implement them."
Many of the issues in the Hasan case—particularly the breakdown in interagency communication—are reminiscent of the intelligence failures prior to the 9/11 attacks. One member of the Webster Commission told Mother Jones that the problems with information sharing have actually grown worse since 9/11 because of "the information explosion."
"Every year the amount of data is doubling," he said. "The sheer amount of information that might result from legitimate surveillance—or, in a criminal context, a legitimate wiretap—is mind boggling compared to what it was 10 years ago." He added that the FBI in particular has struggled to manage the surge in intelligence data, as its focus has shifted to counterterrorism, which wasn't central to its mission before 9/11.
On Friday, a panel of senior military officers found Hasan guilty of 13 counts of murder. This week, they'll decide whether to give him death or a life sentence. But the final verdict on the FBI's actions has yet to be delivered. A group of more than 100 Fort Hood victims and victims' relatives has filed suit claiming that the government's "gross negligence" and "reckless disregard" for the lives of Fort Hood residents and staff paved the way for the tragedy. "The attack should not have happened," says Lisa Bahr Pfund, whose daughter, a Fort Hood victim and a plaintiff in the case, took a bullet to the back and suffers from pain so severe that she can't sit for more than a half hour at a stretch. "It would not have happened if that information was handled properly."
The damning paper trail laid out in the Webster report should give the plaintiffs ample ammunition.
Clarification: An earlier version of this article referred to Hasan purchasing an "armor-piercing pistol." He in fact bought a pistol and ammunition that are armor piercing when used in combination.
Reporter
Mariah Blake is a reporter in Mother Jones' DC bureau. Got a tip? E-mail her at mblake [at] motherjones [dot] com. She's also on Twitter. RSS | TWITTER
1st Cavalry Division
