National - Friday, November 6, 2009 15:00 - 1 Comment

Shooting kills 13 at US Army Base in Texas

Thirteen people were killed and 30 wounded yesterday when a military psychiatrist opened fire at a medical center on a US Army base in Fort Hood, Texas.

Details of what exactly happened were initially misreported, but now that the dust has settled it appears the captured shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, is alive and in stable condition despite being shot four times by a female first responder. She suffered injuries during the incident, but also survived. Both had been declared dead in early accounts of the shooting.

The question remains whether Major Hasan acted alone or as a part of a terrorist plot. An army official said they were not ruling out the latter, but noted no evidence has yet been found to support such a claim. Major Hasan had recently voiced his dismay about his looming deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. According to the The New York Times, “Military records indicated that Major Hasan was single, had been born in Virginia, had never served abroad and listed ‘no religious preference’ on his personnel records.”