
Sklar/Getty
Sgt. Fanuaee Vea and Pvt. Savannah Green embrace in Killeen, Tex., as they try to take in the devastating news from massacre at Fort Hood.He was supposed to bring them comfort. Instead, he brought death.
An Army shrink who specialized in treating combat stress snapped Thursday and launched a bloody rampage at Fort HoodArmy Base in Texas that killed 12 people and wounded 31, officials said.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist who recently completed training in treating badly wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, was shot and has been hospitalized.
Sen. Kay Bailey Huchison (R-Tex.) said he was angry about being sent to Iraq and targeted specific people as he stalked through a deployment center, two handguns blazing.
"He was not happy about being deployed. He was very upset. I don't think they realized just how much," she said.
Texas TV station KXXV reported the gunman told a civilian as he passed that he was shooting only military men.
The men in the building Hasan shot up were mostly soldiers preparing for deployment.
"It's a terrible tragedy. It's stunning," said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the base commander.
President Obama mourned the "horrific outburst of violence" that killed those who had volunteered to protect the nation.
"It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil," Obama said.
"We will make sure that we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident. We are going to stay on this."
A former co-worker said Hasan wanted Obama to pull the troops out of Iraq andAfghanistan.
"He said maybe the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor," Col.Terry Lee told Fox News Channel.
"At first, we thought he was talking about how Muslims should stand up and help the armed forces in Iraq and in Afghanistan, but apparently that wasn't the case."
Hasan's cousin, Nader Hasan, told Fox News the whole family was stunned.
"I gotta be honest with you, we are shocked," he said. "The guy was born and raised here. He's a good American. We are trying to make sense of this."
Nader Hasan told Fox News his cousin "was dealing with some harassment from his military colleagues."
KXXV reported someone keyed the word "Allah" into Hasan's car last week. He reported it as a hate crime.
Despite initial reports of multiple shooters, officials said only one gunman opened fire at the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center, where troops prepare for deployment.
Hutchinson said most of the victims were collecting their final deployment papers.
Retired Army Col. Greg Schannep, an aide to Rep. John Carter (R-Tex.), said he was heading for a 2 p.m. graduation ceremony on the base when he heard numerous shots and saw a wounded soldier run by.
"Initially, I thought it was a training exercise," he said.
Schannep said he heard three or four volleys of shots with eight to 12 shots in each volley.
"A soldier came running past me and said, 'Sir, there is someone shooting.' As he ran past me, I saw blood on his back. I don't think he even knew he had been shot. He has since been treated and should be okay," he said.
When the shooting began, officials warned the base population of nearly 34,000 to take cover as they hunted for accomplices.
The sprawling military installation, the nation's largest, was on lockdown, with sirens wailing for five hours.
The public address system crackled with urgent calls for blood donations.
Frightened military families huddled behind locked doors – in some cases being comforted by soldiers calling from faraway war zones.
"Here I am in Iraq, worried my wife and son are in danger in their own backyard," blogged Army Spec. Naveed Ali Shah, a public affairs specialist in Iraq.
Early witness accounts of multiple shooters led to general panic and the arrests of two other soldiers who were later released without charges.
FBI agents were assisting the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, which was leading the probe as information about the killer trickled out.
Hasan, who was single, was born in Virginia to parents who emigrated from Jordan.
He was a 1997 graduate of Virginia Tech coincidentally the scene of the nation's last terrible mass murdering rampage in 2007.
He received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University inBethesda, Md., in 2001.
He did his psychiatry internship, residency and fellowship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center before being transferred to the Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood in July.
Military officials with access to Hasan's records told The Associated Press that he had received a poor performance evaluation at Walter Reed.
Hasan was also associated with the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress and was promoted to major by the Army in March.