.Fort Hood shooting: inside story of how massacre on military base happened
It may have been the first, small clue that an apparently ordinary week at the world's largest army base was about to become something horrifically different, when neighbours saw Major Nidal Hasan escorting a visitor into his
Other residents at the Casa del Norte apartment complex were surprised to see the mild-mannered army officer accompanied by another man in Islamic dress.
Alice Thompson, 53, who manages the two storey block of simple dwellings with her husband John, told The Sunday Telegraph: "It was very unusual because he had never had anyone round before. His visitor had long black hair and a moustache and a dark complexion. He stayed about five minutes and then left. We'd never seen him before."
Hasan had paid six months money upfront for the flat after being transferred to Fort Hood in July, and insisted to the Thompsons that nobody could enter his apartment, even to do repairs, when he was out.
What his neighbours could not know is that within less than 48 hours, Hasan was to shatter the peace and security of the Fort Hood base by slaughtering 13 people - all but one of them soldiers - and force America to confront some of its deepest fears.
Now investigators are trying frantically to identify Hasan's visitor, as they seek to unravel the hours that led up to his deadly attack.
Wednesday 9.30am
Hasan starts emptying his flat and saying his goodbyes, telling other residents that he would be deploying to Afghanistan on Friday. He knocked on the door of his next door neighbour Patricia Villa, 47. She said: "I opened the door and he was carrying two bags. He looked in and saw my apartment was empty and he said 'You need some furniture.'
"Then he asked me if I wanted some vegetables. There was broccoli and spinach in the bags. He had five or six T-shirts and a suit as well. He said he was going to give them to the Salvation Army but then he said, 'If you want you can have them'."
He also gave her a copy of the Koran. At around the same time, he knocked on the doors of two other neighbours and gave them each a Koran as well. Mrs Thompson said: "That did seem a bit strange. He was friendly but he told them 'Please read it'."
THURSDAY
2.37am: Hasan telephones Willie Bell, 51, who lives next door and whose laptop he sometimes borrowed, to ask him to switch on his wireless internet connection.
5am: He phones Mr Bell again, who recalled: "He said, 'Nice knowing you, friend. I wish you'd plug up your internet system so I could get online. Goodbye good buddy, I'll be moving'." Mr Bell now believes that Hasan had often logged on to his internet service
About 5.30am: He makes his way to the town mosque, the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, where he worshipped for three months, for pre-dawn Fajr prayers with around 10 other worshippers, all but one other civilians. He usually wore regular clothes and sometimes a uniform, but this time is dressed in a white Arab dishdash and skull cap. He is relaxed, engaging in a friendly competition with a fellow officer from Fort Hood - a recent convert to Islam - to see who could first recite the Azan, the call to prayer. At around 6.15am Hasan leaves, as others stay behind to read parts of the Koran. He "appeared relaxed and not in any way troubled or nervous", according to the officer.
6.22am: A creature of habit, he buys his regular breakfast of hash brown potatoes and coffee from his local Seven-11 convenience store, still wearing his Muslim robes rather his usual attire of uniform or hospital scrubs. As he heads out of the store, the CCTV camera captures him smiling and relaxed. The owner, who was also an Arab said he was too busy to chat on Thursday, but Hasan had previously asked him if he attended Friday prayers and apparently jokingly asked if he could find him a bride.
8.30am: Hasan is seen taking some rubbish bags out of his flat and throwing them into a skip at the back of the building. Mrs Thompson said: "It was the first time I'd seen him throw anything away. I saw there was shredded paper in there. The police came later and took the bags away." She said Hasan paid $325 a month rent and had paid six months in advance. Despite telling her he was leaving for Afghanistan he does not ask for any money back, saying the money should go to a deserving cause. He also took around some more items to Mrs Villa, including an air mattress and clothes steamer, and offered her $60 to clean his empty apartment.
"He said he was ready," she recalled. "I figured he's with God. He's ready to fight."
Later that morning: He changes into his uniform and drives on to the base, smuggling with him two guns, a semi-automatic fn 5.7 millimetre known as a "cop killer", and a revolver. He bought the fn 5.7 in August from the Guns Galore store in Killeen, across the street from the mosque. Investigators are still trying to track down the source of the revolver.
He heads to his office in the Darnell medical centre, home to the Warrior Combat Stress Reset Programme for veterans of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here Maj Hasan counselled returning soldiers, dealing with problems ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to drug and alcohol abuse, as he had done previously at Walter Reed, America's largest hospital for wounded veterans on the edge of Washington DC. He checks his guns, loads the magazines and, perhaps, prays again
1-1.30pm: Makes his way across the world's biggest military base to the Soldier Readiness Centre, one mile away. Inside, an estimated 300 soldiers, some preparing for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, some recently returned, are awaiting vaccinations and eye checks. They are unarmed, in keeping with military rules on the base, which is the size of a small city.
1.30pm: According to eye-witnesses, Hasan - who had at first sat down as if to help soldiers with their paperwork - stands on a desk and shouts "Allahu Akhbar" ("God is great") before opening fire with the fn 5.7 inside the centre, spraying soldiers and civilian workers with bullets from the semi-automatic weapon, a favourite of Mexican drug gangs. Sgt Johnny Kallon, 30, a human resources specialist about to be deployed to Iraq, is among those nearby who hear the gunfire and makes an emergency 911 call from his mobile phone.
1.34-44: As Hasan fires off more than 100 rounds, mostly inside the centre, unarmed soldiers duck for cover, pulling others with them to safety. In a brief lull in the shooting, some believe - mistakenly - that Hasan is out of ammunition and make a break for it from the building. Private Marquest Smith, a 21-year-old father of two who had been completing his medical paperwork, is among them, dragging two wounded soldiers outside.
Then he goes back in, and sees Hasan with his guns. "He had his back turned to me," he told the New York Times. "And when I turned to run, that's when I started hearing rounds going past my body, hitting the wall."
Outside, a friend with a pickup truck yells at the wounded to get in, and drives them to a nearby casualty unit.
Meanwhile two civilian police officers who had been directing traffic on the base respond to the 911 call. Sgt Kim Munley, the mother of a three-year-old girl, and her colleague Sgt Mark Todd arrive as Hasan leaves the building, still firing. The officers chase him around it, exchanging shots. Then Hasan begins to fumble with his gun.
"He's reloading," someone screams. The two officers open fire, downing Hasan with four swift shots - at least two of them from Sgt Munley's 9-millimeter Beretta. She is also felled, by two bullets that struck each thigh and a further one that hits her wrist.
Soldiers tear off strips from their uniforms to treat the injured.
Medics taking part in a graduation ceremony in a nearby hall race to the scene, some still in caps and gowns. They encounter horrific scenes - trails of blood, the injured, the dead and dying.
Altogether, 12 soldiers and one civilian are dead or dying. Another 30 people are injured by gun shots. Soldiers who witnessed the killing spree described Hasan as calm and methodical, and the gunfire as continuous and well-aimed.
An Army officer said that he counted three full magazines of ammunition near Hasan's felled body and five or six empty ones.
Army medic Francisco Delaserna is among those who arrive on the scene where Sgt Munley is drifting in and out of consciousness because of blood loss. He applies a tourniquet and then moves on to treat Hasan, the man he had just seen gunning down his comrades. "He was very calm, pale but breathing steadily. It didn't look like anything was fazing him," he said.
Inside the building, amid slippery pools of blood, those slain include Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago, who was pregnant and preparing to return home. She had recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.
Sgt Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wisconsin, joined the army after the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001 and had arrived at Fort Hood two days earlier, on her way to Afghanistan.
Others killed include Private Michael Pearson, 21, from Chicago, who left his job with a furniture company to join the Army a year ago - and Michael Grant Cahill, a 62-year-old physician assistant, who was just back at work after a heart attack two weeks ago.
In the chaos, Hasan is initially reported to have been killed - as is the as-yet unnamed police officer (Sgt Munley) who heroically halted his rampage. In the end both he and Sgt Munley survive, after being treated at the scene by the same medic - Specialist Delaserna .
Hasan and three of his badly injured victims are swiftly evacuated by helicopter to a civilian hospital in the town of Temple.
Other victims are loaded into cars and rushed to the nearby Darnell medical centre, where Hasan worked, for treatment. "It was just like being back in Iraq," said Sgt Howard Appleby, who was at the centre being treated for post-traumatic stress.
Some injured called their loved ones on mobile phones to let them know they were wounded but alive.
For most of the afternoon, the world's largest military base - home to about 70,000 troops, relatives and support staff - remains in lockdown as helicopters buzz overhead.
3.30pm: FBI officers arrive at Hasan's apartment, remove his few remaining possessions and question neighbours. They have already retrieved his handguns from the scene of the massacre and his car from its parking space.
Shortly after 7pm: the sirens sound again. "Declared emergency no longer exists" says a woman's voice over loudspeakers across the base. The lockdown is over.
10pm: Base commander Lt Gen Robert Cone reveals that Hasan and Sgt Munley are both alive after all. Hasan is on a ventilator under military guard in a nearby hospital.
FRIDAY
9am: Investigators return to Hasan's apartment, take his neighbour Mr Bell in for questioning and remove the laptop that Hasan sometimes borrowed. They also take away the rubbish skip outside.
3pm: Still in a coma, Hasan is removed to the Brooke Army Medical Centre in San Antonio. Around the same time, the 13 flag-draped coffins of the dead are loaded, in a solemn military ceremony in front of hundreds of comrades, some the walking wounded, onto a plane for the trip to Delaware's Dover Air Force Base.
SATURDAY
President Barack Obama uses his weekly radio address to attempt to rally the nation. "Thursday's shooting was one of the most devastating ever committed on an American military base," he says. "And yet, even as we saw the worst of human nature on full display, we also saw the best of America."
Doctors say they are still fighting to save the injured Sgt Munley from a lifetime in a wheelchair. Flags across the nation are flying at half mast.
Telegraph
Other residents at the Casa del Norte apartment complex were surprised to see the mild-mannered army officer accompanied by another man in Islamic dress.
Alice Thompson, 53, who manages the two storey block of simple dwellings with her husband John, told The Sunday Telegraph: "It was very unusual because he had never had anyone round before. His visitor had long black hair and a moustache and a dark complexion. He stayed about five minutes and then left. We'd never seen him before."
Hasan had paid six months money upfront for the flat after being transferred to Fort Hood in July, and insisted to the Thompsons that nobody could enter his apartment, even to do repairs, when he was out.
What his neighbours could not know is that within less than 48 hours, Hasan was to shatter the peace and security of the Fort Hood base by slaughtering 13 people - all but one of them soldiers - and force America to confront some of its deepest fears.
Now investigators are trying frantically to identify Hasan's visitor, as they seek to unravel the hours that led up to his deadly attack.
Wednesday 9.30am
Hasan starts emptying his flat and saying his goodbyes, telling other residents that he would be deploying to Afghanistan on Friday. He knocked on the door of his next door neighbour Patricia Villa, 47. She said: "I opened the door and he was carrying two bags. He looked in and saw my apartment was empty and he said 'You need some furniture.'
"Then he asked me if I wanted some vegetables. There was broccoli and spinach in the bags. He had five or six T-shirts and a suit as well. He said he was going to give them to the Salvation Army but then he said, 'If you want you can have them'."
He also gave her a copy of the Koran. At around the same time, he knocked on the doors of two other neighbours and gave them each a Koran as well. Mrs Thompson said: "That did seem a bit strange. He was friendly but he told them 'Please read it'."
THURSDAY
2.37am: Hasan telephones Willie Bell, 51, who lives next door and whose laptop he sometimes borrowed, to ask him to switch on his wireless internet connection.
5am: He phones Mr Bell again, who recalled: "He said, 'Nice knowing you, friend. I wish you'd plug up your internet system so I could get online. Goodbye good buddy, I'll be moving'." Mr Bell now believes that Hasan had often logged on to his internet service
About 5.30am: He makes his way to the town mosque, the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, where he worshipped for three months, for pre-dawn Fajr prayers with around 10 other worshippers, all but one other civilians. He usually wore regular clothes and sometimes a uniform, but this time is dressed in a white Arab dishdash and skull cap. He is relaxed, engaging in a friendly competition with a fellow officer from Fort Hood - a recent convert to Islam - to see who could first recite the Azan, the call to prayer. At around 6.15am Hasan leaves, as others stay behind to read parts of the Koran. He "appeared relaxed and not in any way troubled or nervous", according to the officer.
6.22am: A creature of habit, he buys his regular breakfast of hash brown potatoes and coffee from his local Seven-11 convenience store, still wearing his Muslim robes rather his usual attire of uniform or hospital scrubs. As he heads out of the store, the CCTV camera captures him smiling and relaxed. The owner, who was also an Arab said he was too busy to chat on Thursday, but Hasan had previously asked him if he attended Friday prayers and apparently jokingly asked if he could find him a bride.
8.30am: Hasan is seen taking some rubbish bags out of his flat and throwing them into a skip at the back of the building. Mrs Thompson said: "It was the first time I'd seen him throw anything away. I saw there was shredded paper in there. The police came later and took the bags away." She said Hasan paid $325 a month rent and had paid six months in advance. Despite telling her he was leaving for Afghanistan he does not ask for any money back, saying the money should go to a deserving cause. He also took around some more items to Mrs Villa, including an air mattress and clothes steamer, and offered her $60 to clean his empty apartment.
"He said he was ready," she recalled. "I figured he's with God. He's ready to fight."
Later that morning: He changes into his uniform and drives on to the base, smuggling with him two guns, a semi-automatic fn 5.7 millimetre known as a "cop killer", and a revolver. He bought the fn 5.7 in August from the Guns Galore store in Killeen, across the street from the mosque. Investigators are still trying to track down the source of the revolver.
He heads to his office in the Darnell medical centre, home to the Warrior Combat Stress Reset Programme for veterans of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here Maj Hasan counselled returning soldiers, dealing with problems ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to drug and alcohol abuse, as he had done previously at Walter Reed, America's largest hospital for wounded veterans on the edge of Washington DC. He checks his guns, loads the magazines and, perhaps, prays again
1-1.30pm: Makes his way across the world's biggest military base to the Soldier Readiness Centre, one mile away. Inside, an estimated 300 soldiers, some preparing for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, some recently returned, are awaiting vaccinations and eye checks. They are unarmed, in keeping with military rules on the base, which is the size of a small city.
1.30pm: According to eye-witnesses, Hasan - who had at first sat down as if to help soldiers with their paperwork - stands on a desk and shouts "Allahu Akhbar" ("God is great") before opening fire with the fn 5.7 inside the centre, spraying soldiers and civilian workers with bullets from the semi-automatic weapon, a favourite of Mexican drug gangs. Sgt Johnny Kallon, 30, a human resources specialist about to be deployed to Iraq, is among those nearby who hear the gunfire and makes an emergency 911 call from his mobile phone.
1.34-44: As Hasan fires off more than 100 rounds, mostly inside the centre, unarmed soldiers duck for cover, pulling others with them to safety. In a brief lull in the shooting, some believe - mistakenly - that Hasan is out of ammunition and make a break for it from the building. Private Marquest Smith, a 21-year-old father of two who had been completing his medical paperwork, is among them, dragging two wounded soldiers outside.
Then he goes back in, and sees Hasan with his guns. "He had his back turned to me," he told the New York Times. "And when I turned to run, that's when I started hearing rounds going past my body, hitting the wall."
Outside, a friend with a pickup truck yells at the wounded to get in, and drives them to a nearby casualty unit.
Meanwhile two civilian police officers who had been directing traffic on the base respond to the 911 call. Sgt Kim Munley, the mother of a three-year-old girl, and her colleague Sgt Mark Todd arrive as Hasan leaves the building, still firing. The officers chase him around it, exchanging shots. Then Hasan begins to fumble with his gun.
"He's reloading," someone screams. The two officers open fire, downing Hasan with four swift shots - at least two of them from Sgt Munley's 9-millimeter Beretta. She is also felled, by two bullets that struck each thigh and a further one that hits her wrist.
Soldiers tear off strips from their uniforms to treat the injured.
Medics taking part in a graduation ceremony in a nearby hall race to the scene, some still in caps and gowns. They encounter horrific scenes - trails of blood, the injured, the dead and dying.
Altogether, 12 soldiers and one civilian are dead or dying. Another 30 people are injured by gun shots. Soldiers who witnessed the killing spree described Hasan as calm and methodical, and the gunfire as continuous and well-aimed.
An Army officer said that he counted three full magazines of ammunition near Hasan's felled body and five or six empty ones.
Army medic Francisco Delaserna is among those who arrive on the scene where Sgt Munley is drifting in and out of consciousness because of blood loss. He applies a tourniquet and then moves on to treat Hasan, the man he had just seen gunning down his comrades. "He was very calm, pale but breathing steadily. It didn't look like anything was fazing him," he said.
Inside the building, amid slippery pools of blood, those slain include Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago, who was pregnant and preparing to return home. She had recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.
Sgt Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wisconsin, joined the army after the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001 and had arrived at Fort Hood two days earlier, on her way to Afghanistan.
Others killed include Private Michael Pearson, 21, from Chicago, who left his job with a furniture company to join the Army a year ago - and Michael Grant Cahill, a 62-year-old physician assistant, who was just back at work after a heart attack two weeks ago.
In the chaos, Hasan is initially reported to have been killed - as is the as-yet unnamed police officer (Sgt Munley) who heroically halted his rampage. In the end both he and Sgt Munley survive, after being treated at the scene by the same medic - Specialist Delaserna .
Hasan and three of his badly injured victims are swiftly evacuated by helicopter to a civilian hospital in the town of Temple.
Other victims are loaded into cars and rushed to the nearby Darnell medical centre, where Hasan worked, for treatment. "It was just like being back in Iraq," said Sgt Howard Appleby, who was at the centre being treated for post-traumatic stress.
Some injured called their loved ones on mobile phones to let them know they were wounded but alive.
For most of the afternoon, the world's largest military base - home to about 70,000 troops, relatives and support staff - remains in lockdown as helicopters buzz overhead.
3.30pm: FBI officers arrive at Hasan's apartment, remove his few remaining possessions and question neighbours. They have already retrieved his handguns from the scene of the massacre and his car from its parking space.
Shortly after 7pm: the sirens sound again. "Declared emergency no longer exists" says a woman's voice over loudspeakers across the base. The lockdown is over.
10pm: Base commander Lt Gen Robert Cone reveals that Hasan and Sgt Munley are both alive after all. Hasan is on a ventilator under military guard in a nearby hospital.
FRIDAY
9am: Investigators return to Hasan's apartment, take his neighbour Mr Bell in for questioning and remove the laptop that Hasan sometimes borrowed. They also take away the rubbish skip outside.
3pm: Still in a coma, Hasan is removed to the Brooke Army Medical Centre in San Antonio. Around the same time, the 13 flag-draped coffins of the dead are loaded, in a solemn military ceremony in front of hundreds of comrades, some the walking wounded, onto a plane for the trip to Delaware's Dover Air Force Base.
SATURDAY
President Barack Obama uses his weekly radio address to attempt to rally the nation. "Thursday's shooting was one of the most devastating ever committed on an American military base," he says. "And yet, even as we saw the worst of human nature on full display, we also saw the best of America."
Doctors say they are still fighting to save the injured Sgt Munley from a lifetime in a wheelchair. Flags across the nation are flying at half mast.
Telegraph
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