Suspected Fort Hood shooter charged with 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder | Updated: 3:37 p.m. 12/02/09

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Army has charged the Fort Hood shooting suspect with 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

These attempted premeditated murder charges are added to the 13 premeditated murder charges filed against Maj. Nidal Hasan in the wake of the Nov. 5 shooting massacre at Fort Hood.

The Army said the attempted murder charges filed Tuesday were related to the 30 soldiers and two civilian police officers injured in the shooting at a soldier processing center on the central Texas post.

Hasan's attorney, John Galligan, said Wednesday the additional charges may not affect Hasan's punishment, if he is convicted, because premeditated murder carries the death penalty. Authorities haven't said whether they plan to seek the death penalty.

-- Associated Press

Suspected Fort Hood shooter charged with 13 counts of murder | Updated: 2:04 p.m. 11/12/09

FORT HOOD, TEXAS — The Army psychiatrist accused in the Fort Hood shootings was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder in the military's legal system, making him eligible for the death penalty if convicted, officials said Thursday.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama ordered a review of all intelligence related to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies.

U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Chris Grey said at a news conference that additional charges may also be filed against Hasan.

"We have a duty and obligation to protect the constitutional rights of everyone involved," Grey said.

Officials told The Associated Press before the news conference that it had not been decided whether to charge Hasan with a 14th count of murder related to the death of the unborn child of a pregnant shooting victim. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the case publicly.

John Galligan, Hasan's civilian attorney, said his military co-counsel told him that charges were being read to Hasan in the hospital without his lawyers present.

"I don't like it. I feel like I'm being left out of the loop," Galligan said. "I guess it's 13 charges, but I don't like to have to guess in this situation."

Months before last week's shootings, doctors and staff overseeing Hasan's training reported viewing him at times as belligerent, defensive and argumentative in his frequent discussions of his Muslim faith, according to a military official familiar with several group discussions about Hasan. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hasan was characterized in meetings as a mediocre student and lazy worker, a matter of concern among the doctors and staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, a military medical school in Bethesda, Maryland, the official said.

The concerns about Hasan's performance and religious views were shared with other military officials considering his assignment after he finished his medical training, and the consensus was to send the 39-year-old psychiatrist to Fort Hood in Texas, the official said.

One of the largest military installations, it was considered the best assignment for Hasan because other doctors could handle the workload if he continued to perform poorly and his superiors could document any continued behavior problems, the official said.

-- Associated Press

Va. Tech advises Army on shooting response | Updated: 9:47 p.m. 11/7/09

BLACKSBURG - Virginia Tech administrators have been advising Pentagon officials on how to respond to the mass shootings at Fort Hood.

University spokesman Mark Owczarski says that Virginia Tech President Charles Steger and about a dozen administrators had a teleconference with Pentagon officials Friday.

He says Pentagon officials asked for guidance on how to respond to the shooting spree at the Texas military base.

The Virginia Tech officials dealt with the worst mass shooting in modern U.S history in April 2007. The campus shootings left 33 dead, including the student gunman, and about two dozen injured.

Owczarski says the questions about Fort Hood ranged from how to help the families of victims to advice on accommodating large numbers of news media.

Army: Shooting suspect taken off ventilator | Updated: 8:29 p.m. 11/7/09

FORT HOOD, Texas - A U.S. Army spokesman says the man authorities say went on a shooting spree at Fort Hood has been taken off a ventilator but still remains in intensive care at a military hospital.

Spokesman Col. John Rossi told reporters on Saturday at Fort Hood that he is not sure if Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is able to communicate.

Hasan was shot during an exchange of gunfire during Thursday's attack. The military moved him on Friday to Brooke Medical Center in San Antonio, about 150 miles southwest of Fort Hood. Army officials have said Hasan is "not able to converse."

High school video of suspected Fort Hood shooter shows him joking with friends in Arabic | Updated: 7:52 p.m. 11/7/09

A late 1980s video recording of Nidal Malik Hasan shows the suspected Fort Hood shooter as a teenager in a Roanoke Valley classroom telling a dirty joke in Arabic to a small group of friends.

Hasan is delivering a profanity-laced tale that, according to various interpretations, is about a young man who commits incest in the process of selling a chicken to earn money for marriage.

This much can be deduced: Hasan, who was born to Palestinian parents in Arlington, was a poor Arabic speaker. And he enjoyed playing with friends, in this case telling an off-color joke to four or five classmates at William Fleming High School, where according to a school spokeswoman he spent his senior year in 1988.

"You have to understand that Hasan was a very weak Arabic speaker," said Ahmad Azzam, a Radford University professor who watched the video at The Roanoke Times' request. "Hasan was trying to tell a dirty Arabic joke. However, his language was so weak that he could not say it right."

View the video

-- Jorge Valencia and Jordan Fifer

Muslim leader says he had troubling talks with suspect | Updated: 1:35 p.m. 11/7/09

FORT HOOD, Texas - An Army psychiatrist who authorities say went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood was so conflicted over what to tell fellow soldiers about fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan that a local Islamic leader said Saturday he was deeply troubled by it.

Osman Danquah, co-founder of the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, said he was disturbed by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's persistent questioning and recommended the mosque reject Hasan's request to become a lay Muslim leader at the sprawling Army post.

Danquah said Hasan never expressed anger toward the Army or indicated any plans for violence, but during the second of two conversations they had over the summer, Hasan seemed almost incoherent, he said.

"But what if a person gets in and feels that it's just not right?" Danquah recalled Hasan asking him.

"I told him, 'There's something wrong with you,'" Danquah told The Associated Press during an interview at Fort Hood on Saturday. "I didn't get the feeling he was talking for himself, but something just didn't seem right."

The military has said Hasan was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan, but family members suggested he was trying avoid serving overseas.

Hasan's relatives who live in the Palestinian territories have said they had heard from family members that Hasan felt mistreated in the Army as a Muslim.

"He told (them) that as a Muslim committed to his prayers he was discriminated against and not treated as is fitting for an officer and American," said Mohammed Malik Hasan, 24, a cousin, told the AP from his home on the outskirts of Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the West Bank. "He hired a lawyer to get him a discharge."

The Army major also had previously questioned the U.S. war on terror.

A former classmate has said Hasan was a "vociferous opponent of the war" and "viewed the war against terror" as a "war against Islam." Dr. Val Finnell, who attended a master's in public health program in 2007-2008 at Uniformed Services University with Hasan, said he told classmates he was "a Muslim first and an American second."

"In retrospect, I'm not surprised he did it," Finnell said. "I had real questions about what his priorities were, what his beliefs were."

-- Associated Press

Hasan was on Washington security task force | Updated: 5:23 p.m. 11/6/09

Hasan was a participant in a Washington think tank's presidential transition task force formed in April 2008. George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI), a nonpartisan group that includes representatives from business, government, military and academic sectors, included Hasan, according to the institute's roster of participants.

Frank Cilluffo, director of the university's Homeland Security Policy Institute, says Hasan was never affiliated with the school. He attended sessions as a disaster and preventive psychiatry fellow at the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine.

Cilluffo says he remembers Hasan wore Army fatigues to conferences, which seemed odd at the time. Cilluffo says he remembers cutting Hasan off once for rambling, though he doesn't remember the subject.

Read the report issued by the task force

- The Roanoke Times and Associated Press

Shooter used "cop killer" pistol in attack | Posted: 4:35 p.m. 11/6/09

WASHINGTON — A 5.7-millimeter pistol used in the Fort Hood shooting was purchased legally by suspect Nidal Malik Hasan at a Texas gun shop, law enforcement officials said Friday.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

Records indicate Hasan bought the FN 5.7 at store called "Guns Galore" in Killeen, Texas, well before the attack that left 13 people dead, one of the officials said. The pistol has been dubbed a "cop killer" by those who have tried to stop its use.

The most powerful type of ammunition for the gun is available only to law enforcement and military personnel. Gun control advocates call it a "cop killer" weapon because that ammo can pierce bulletproof vests, and its use by Mexican drug cartels worries police.

It is not clear what kind of ammunition was used in the Fort Hood attack. One official said the store records do not indicate Hasan purchased any ammo when he bought the gun.

Professor remembers Hasan | Updated: 4:17 p.m. 11/6/09

Tom Sitz, a biochemistry professor at Tech since 1982, vaugely remembered meeting Nidal Malik Hasan in 1993. Sitz said Hasan was a transfer student, who settled in well to his classes at Tech.

"He was not the kind of student who made a big splash either positive or negative. He was a solid student," Sitz said.

As a longtime professor, Sitz said he has taught students who exhibited disturbed behaviors. But Hasan was not one of those.

Virginia Tech officials have said Hasan graduated in 1995 with honors. Honors students typically have grade point averages of 3.5 or above.

"He got into medical school. You have to have some credentials to do that," Sitz said.

-- Tonia Moxley

Suspected Fort Hood shooter was William Fleming graduate | Updated: 1:57 p.m. 11/6/09

Nidal Hasan graduated from William Fleming High School in 1988, the only year he attended the school, according to Tiffany Woods, Roanoke City Schools spokeswoman.

Virginia Western Community College confirms Hasan's enrollment | Updated: 1:37 p.m. 11/6/09

Hasan attended Virginia Western Community College from 1990 to 1992. He graduated summa cum laude with an associate in science degree in 1992, according to college spokeswoman Margaret Boyes.

An associate in science degree is often obtained by students interested in transferring to a four-year college.

-- Laurence Hammack | The Roanoke Times

Former Vinton neighborhood of suspected shooter seeing heavier traffic than usual | Updated: 1:22 p.m. 11/6/09

In the quiet Vinton neighborhood of brick ranch and split-level homes where Hasan grew up, traffic was heavier than normal this morning.

Motorists were driving by to catch a glimpse of the house on Ramada Road where the family lived about a decade ago, said Alma Jerkovic, who now lives in the former Hasan home.

Jerkovic and her husband bought the home from the Hasans, but never met the family, she said. An immigrant from Croatia, Jerkovic was a little apprehensive of all the attention her home was receiving.

"I am concerned, she said. "We are also from somewhere else that people don’t know. You never know. It’s just a very uncomfortable feeling."

-- Laurence Hammack | The Roanoke Times

House of Representatives honors Fort Hood victims | Updated: 12:25 p.m. 11/6/09

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives will adopt House Resolution 895, a resolution honoring Fort Hood soldiers and their families in the wake of Thursday's tragic shooting.

At the request of Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, who is the lead sponsor of the resolution and has traveled to Fort Hood today, Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, will lead the House proceedings. Edwards represented Fort Hood through three combat deployments from 1991 to 2004.

Secretary of the Army John McHugh and Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey, Jr. will hold a press conference on Fort Hood at 1:30 p.m. today. The press event will be proceeded by an Army-wide moment of silence in honor of the Fort Hood victims, family members and loved ones.

Status and text of H.R. 895

-- Killeen (Texas) Daily Herald

Roanoke County registrar confirms Hasan's voter registration in Vinton | Updated: 12:11 p.m. 11/6/09

General Registrar Judy Stokes said Hasan twice registered to vote in Roanoke County using his family's address on Ramada Road in Vinton. He was purged from the voter rolls in 1993 because he hadn't voted in the two previous federal elections. He registered again in 1996 but was purged again in 2003. Stokes was unable to provide any information about whether Hasan ever voted in the county.

-- Amanda Codispoti | The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech confirms Hasan's enrollment | Updated: 9:55 a.m. 11/6/09

Virginia Tech this morning confirmed that Fort Hood shooting suspect Nadal Malik Hasan graduated from the university in 1995.

Here's the full news release.

Virginia Tech has confirmed with the United States Army Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va., that the alleged shooter at Fort Hood, Texas, once attended Virginia Tech.

According to Virginia Tech records, Nidal Malik Hasan first enrolled at Virginia Tech for Summer Session II in 1992, and completed coursework in Spring Semester 1995. He received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in biochemistry from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He minored in biology and chemistry.

Prior to enrolling at Virginia Tech, Hasan was a student and completed coursework at Barstow Community College in Barstow, Calif., and at Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke, Va.

Hasan was not a member of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets, nor was he a member of any ROTC program at Virginia Tech.

-- The Roanoke Times

Casualty count at Fort Hood rises | Updated: 7:54 a.m. 11/6/09

Story: Shooter once lived in Vinton

FORT HOOD, Texas — A military official says one more person has died after being injured during a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas.

Post spokesman Tyler Broadway said early Friday that the toll now stands at 13 dead and 30 wounded. Late Thursday, officials said 12 people had been killed and 31 wounded in the afternoon attack.

The victims' identities haven't been released.

The suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was on a ventilator and unconscious in a hospital late Thursday.

The Army psychiatrist was shot four times after the rampage began around 1:30 p.m.

The motive for the shootings isn't clear. Military officials say they are still piecing together what may have pushed Hasan, an Army psychiatrist trained to help soldiers in distress, to turn on his comrades.

The base commander at Fort Hood says soldiers who witnessed the shooting reported that Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar!" before opening fire at the Texas post.

Lt. Gen. Robert Cone told NBC's "Today" show Friday that Hasan made the comment, which is Arabic for "God is great!" before the rampage Thursday that also left 30 people wounded.

Cone says Hasan was not known to be a threat or risk.

On CBS's "The Early Show," Cone said Hasan carried out his gunfire in "a very calm and measured approach."

He said authorities have not yet been able to talk to Hasan.

Some 300 soldiers were lined up to get shots and eye-testing at a Soldier Readiness Center when the shots rang out, according to Cone. Cone said one soldier who had been shot told him, 'I made the mistake of moving and I was shot again.' " The general said survivors told him that during the rampage, soldiers "would scramble to the ground and help each other out."

-- Associated Press