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Death toll rises to 13 in Ft. Hood shootings

Army officials confirmed that the alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was due to be deployed overseas. Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was shot by a police officer and is hospitalized.

By Robin Abcarian, Ashley Powers and Josh Meyer / Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Ft. Hood, Texas, Washington and Los Angeles -- As the death toll in Thursday's shooting rampage at Fort Hood rose to 13, new details emerged today about the attack and its aftermath.

Sgt. Andrew Hagerman, a military police officer, was one of those who responded to the scene just minutes after the shooting occurred. Hagerman recalled this morning how he was patrolling a residential area at the Army base in Texas when, at about 1:30 p.m., he heard a terse call over the radio: Shots fired. Officer down.

Lights on and sirens blaring, he sped to the Soldier Readiness Center, where Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, had allegedly opened fire just minutes before.

People were running, bleeding, screaming for medics, said Hagerman, 27. Gunshot victims were splayed on the ground. Some soldiers had torn up their shirts and uniforms and used them as tourniquets to slow the victims' bleeding. Others broke tables so they could be used as stretchers.

Hasan, wearing his military uniform, lay sprawled on the ground -- his weapons nearby -- apparently unconscious.

The shooting had lasted about 10 minutes, the Army said, and left 13 people dead and 31 people injured. Twenty-eight people remained hospitalized today.

Some of the soldiers who were at the readiness center, where troops receive medical and dental exams before deployment, reported that Hasan, who is Muslim, had shouted "Allahu Akbar" -- an Arabic phrase for "God is great" -- before opening fire, although the Army said it had not confirmed the remark.

The bloodshed ended, the Army said, when a civilian Army police officer, who has been identified as Kimberly Munley, shot Hasan multiple times.

Munley, who was wounded during the firefight with Hasan, is hospitalized and in stable condition.

Hassan is also in the hospital, base commander Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said at a news conference today, and is unconscious and on a ventilator. Cone said he had not spoken with investigators. Although three other soldiers were briefly taken into custody, Cone said he believed that the gunman acted alone.Hasan worked at the Darnall Army Medical Center, Ft. Hood's hospital. The facility has an extensive program to help soldiers deal with the stress of returning from war. Hasan, a Virginia native, had worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before his transfer to the Texas base in July.

Army officials with access to Hasan's records told the Associated Press that he had received a poor performance evaluation at Walter Reed.

A senior U.S. counter-terrorism official said Thursday night that the Army and FBI were looking into whether Hasan had previously come to the attention of federal law enforcement officials as the suspected author of inflammatory Internet comments likening suicide bombers to heroic soldiers who give their lives to save others.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing, said that authorities would examine Hasan's actions in the months leading up to the rampage in part to determine whether authorities had missed warning signs. "This is going to be a long and convoluted and messy investigation," the official said.

Cone said today Hasan had been deployed to Afghanistan, not Iraq as officials initially said. Hasan's cousin, Nadar Hasan, a lawyer in northern Virginia, told Fox News that deployment was his cousin's "worst nightmare.

Another of the first people to deal with the aftermath of the shooting was Maj. Steve Beckwith, 33, the EMS director at Darnall Medical Center, where many victims were taken.

When gunshot victims started arriving on Thursday afternoon, Beck jumped in and started assessing them.

In a news conference today, Beckwith said he had been touched by the displays of selflessness at the hospital. Some drivers had slung shirts together to carry their friends to cars. At the hospital, soldiers with wounds to their legs and arms told him to take care of the patients with greater wounds first.

The dozen or so emergency room beds filled up quickly. So did a half-dozen operating rooms. Some victims needed to be airlifted out, including the suspected gunman. Most gunshot wounds were in the chest or lower, which in the context of the situation, was a blessing, said Col. Kimberly Kesling, 46, the deputy commander of clinical services at Darnall Medical Center.

Capt. Reis Ritz, 30, an emergency room physician, was finishing some paperwork on his day off. He heard an announcement that trauma victims were coming in. Curious, he went over to the emergency room. A colleague said they needed help.

His first patient, a female soldier, had suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen. "Who shot you?" he asked. "I don't know," she said.

Rumors were racing around the hospital: There were four gunmen. There were five gunmen. They were all loose on the base. So after they finished treating the barrage of patients, the staff scrubbed down everything and got ready for another wave that, thankfully, never came.

President Obama, speaking at the White House Rose Garden today, said he had consulted with FBI Director Robert Muller and others about the investigation into the tragedy.

"We don't know all the answers yet and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we know all the facts," Obama said.

What is known, the president said, is that the nation is grieving over one of the worst mass shootings at a U.S. military installation. He ordered that flags be flown at half-staff, a "modest tribute" to those who died and military personnel who serve the nation.

Texas Sen. Kay Baily Hutchinson, speaking at Fort Hood today, said investigators had confiscated Hasan's computer. She called the shootings shocking. "Our soldiers prepare to lose their lives in a mission . . . they are never prepared to be cut down by one of their own," she said.

Under a directive from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Department of Defense personnel throughout the world observed a moment of silence at 1:34 p.m. EST.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced that the Department of Defense observeda moment of silence throughout the world at 1:34 p.m. EST.

It was also announced today that victims of Thursday's shooting at Ft. Hood are expected to be taken to Dover Air Force Base.

Officials said that the Delaware base had the counseling, mortuary and forensic teams in place to assist with the investigation and aid families.

Ft. Hood, which sprawls across 339 square miles of Central Texas Hill Country, is the world's largest military installation. Halfway between Waco and Austin, it supports two full armored divisions: the storied 1st Cavalry Division and the 4th Infantry Division.

With vast green lawns and squat beige buildings, Ft. Hood resembles a suburban community - except the streets have names like Tank Destroyer Boulevard. Sedans zip down streets while military helicopters whir overhead.The base, home to nearly 70,000 people, was locked down for about six hours Thursday. Immediately after the shooting, base residents were told to lock their doors and windows and stay inside.

Families used to being separated during long deployments were separated again in a situation that to many seemed surreal.

"My friend's husband called her from Iraq and said, 'Isn't it sad that I am safer over here in Iraq than you are at home?' " said Jessica Sullens, 28, a substitute teacher who had spent hours in a nearby Walmart parking lot, where she had dashed on an errand.

Her husband, Cpl. Thomas Sullens of the 404th Aviation Support Battalion, and their 1- and 2-year old daughters were locked down on the base -- he with his motor pool and the children with a neighbor.

"This is unreal to me," Sullens said. Her husband, she said, described the shooting as "a firefight."