Twelve dead in Texas army base shooting

Reuters

FORT HOOD: The Texas army base, where a pair of shootings has killed at least nine people, is home to around 50,000 US troops.

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LATEST: An Army officer opened fire with two handguns at a military base in Texas, leaving 12 people dead and 31 wounded.

Authorities at Fort Hood killed the gunman and apprehended two other soldiers, in what appears to be the worst mass shooting at a US military base.

There was no immediate word on a motive. The shooting began around 1.30pm (8.30am Friday NZT), said Lt Gen Bob Cone at Fort Hood. He said all the casualties took place at the base's Soldier Readiness Centre, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening.

"It's a terrible tragedy. It's stunning," Cone said.

A law enforcement official identified the shooting suspect as Army Major Malik Nadal Hasan. The official said Hasan was killed after opening fire at the base.

Military officials say Hasan was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre for six years before being transferred to the Texas base in July.

US senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who represents Texas, says Major Hasan was about to be deployed overseas
to Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Virginia-born soldier was single with no children. He was 39 years old.

Officials say it was not clear what Hasan's religion was, but investigators are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name or if he may have changed his name and converted to Islam at some point.

A graduation ceremony for soldiers who finished college courses while deployed, was going on nearby at the time of the shooting, said Sgt Rebekah Lampam, a Fort Hood spokeswoman.

Greg Schanepp, US Rep John Carter's regional director in Texas, was representing the congressman at the graduation, said John Stone, a spokesman for Carter, whose district includes the Army post.

Schanepp was at the ceremony when a soldier who had been shot in the back came running toward him and alerted him of the shooting, Stone said. The soldier told Schanepp not to go in the direction of the shooter, he said.

The base was locked down after the shootings. The wounded were dispersed among hospitals in central Texas. Nine were taken to Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple.

A hospital spokeswoman says all those shot were adults. A Fort Hood spokesman said he could not immediately confirm any identities of the injured.

Lisa Pfund says her daughter, 19-year-old Amber Bahr, was shot in the stomach, but was in stable condition. "We know nothing, just that she was shot in the belly," said Pfund. 

OTHER SHOOTINGS

The shootings on the Texas military base stirred memories of other recent mass shootings in the United States, including 13 dead at a New York immigrant centre in March, 10 killed during a gunman's rampage across Alabama in March and 32 killed in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history at Virginia Tech in 2007.

Around the country, some bases stepped up security precautions, but no others were locked down.

In Washington, President Barack Obama called the shooting "a horrific outburst of violence". He said it's a tragedy to lose a soldier overseas and even more horrifying when they come under fire at an Army base on American soil.

"We will make sure that we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident," the commander in chief said. "We are going to stay on this."

Covering 339 square miles (878km), Fort Hood is the largest active duty armoured post in the United States. Home to about 52,000 troops as of earlier this year, the sprawling base is located halfway between Austin and Waco.

Fort Hood officially opened on September 18, 1942, and was named in honour of General John Bell Hood. It has been continuously used for armoured training and is charged with maintaining readiness for combat missions.