Just Sad…Fort Hood

As reported by The Wall Street Journal:

FORT HOOD, Texas — A morning news conference Friday provided more information on the military-base shooting that left 13 people dead and dozens wounded in one of the worst incidents of soldier-on-soldier violence in U.S. military history.

U.S. Army Col. John Rossi called it a “tragic incident.” Of the 13 dead, one was a civilian. Col. Rossi said the investigation is ongoing and witnesses are still being interviewed.

Military officials said the focus Friday is on the wounded soldiers who continue to need medical care. Half of those hospitalized required surgery and are in stable condition, Col. Steven Braverman said at the news conference.

The shooting rampage, allegedly carried out by Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan, was halted by a female civilian police officer who shot him, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the top military commander on the base. The woman is in stable condition and expected to recover from wounds sustained in the gun battle, he said.

Maj. Hasan, 39 years old, also was hospitalized after the shooting, Lt. Gen. Cone said, and “his death is not imminent.” He is on a ventilator and in stable condition in a hospital after being shot four times during the shootings at the Army’s sprawling Fort Hood, officials said.

In the early chaos after the shootings, authorities believed they had killed him, only to discover later that he had survived.

The alleged shooter is a psychiatrist, originally from Virginia, who had been recently promoted to major and transferred to Fort Hood from the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington. His professional specialties include post-traumatic stress disorder, combat stress and other emotional issues common to the troops implicated in earlier incidents of military fratricide.

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