Sources indicate gunman’s instability, as his motive remains uncertain
By Dylan Mooney
Thursday’s mass shooting at Fort Hood Army base in Texas leaves 13 people dead and 31 injured. Accused gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, remains unconscious at Darnall Army Medical Center, Ft. Hood’s hospital. Civilian Army police officer, Kimberly Munley shot Hasan multiple times after responding quickly to a tense radio call: Shots fired. Officer down.
The FBI continues to investigate whether or not Hasan acted alone and what his motive was. During a press briefing, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, said that the “Army officials are trying to determine if there is something more than just one deranged person involved here.”
Soldiers reported that they heard Hasan shout “Allahu Akbar,” which in Arabic means “God is great!” Family members claim that he had suffered harassment because he was a Muslim, expressed anxiety over his recent deployment to Afghanistan, and strongly opposed U.S. foreign policy.
In addition to extremist political and religious views, which may have instigated Hasan to commit this brutal act, it is reported that he required counseling several times prior to his involvement with the U.S. military.
A U.S. counter-terrorism official reported Thursday that Hasan, on Islamic Web sites, equated suicide bombers to heroic soldiers in several blogs. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the FBI investigation is ongoing, said that “the authorities would examine Hasan’s actions in the months leading up to the rampage in part to determine whether authorities had missed warning signs.”
As a result of the incident at Fort Hood, army reserves, such as the Milwaukee Army Reserve and others are on an elevated state of security.
Sen. Hutchison further states that this shooting has “prompted Army officials to examine procedures in tracking people who may have problems.”
“We don’t know all the answers yet and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we know all the facts,” warns President Obama after having consulted with FBI Director Robert Muller. “What is known, is that the nation is grieving over one of the worst mass shootings at a U.S. military instalation,” the president adds.
Ft. Hood, sprawling across 339 square miles of Central Texas Hill Country is in fact the worlds largest military installation, supporting two full armored divisions, and housing nearly 70,000 people.
The Army is being investigated thoroughly to determine whether or not Hasan exhibited warning signs that they could have observed prior to the tragedy. In a complex as large as Ft. Hood, it may be easy for the psychiatric issues of a combatant to worsen, especially when they remain unidentified for an extended period of time.
