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Military doctor kills 13 in US Fort Hood rampage
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-11-06 10:55 Soldiers don't carry weapons with them unless they're doing training exercises, said Spc. Jerry Richard, 27, who works at the building where the shooting happened — though he was not on post at the time. "Overseas you are ready for it. But here you can't even defend yourself," he said. Video from the scene showed police patrolling the area with handguns and rifles, ducking behind buildings for cover. Sirens could be heard wailing while a woman's voice on a public-address system urged people to take cover.
The wounded were dispersed among hospitals in central Texas, Cone said. Lisa Pfund of Random Lake, Wis., 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," Pfund told The Associated Press. She couldn't provide more details and only spoke with emergency personnel. Pfund said Bahr joined the reserves when she was 17 to earn money for school and loved being in the military even though none of her friends were interested in joining the Army. A Fort Hood spokesman said he could not immediately confirm any identities of the injured. "I ask that all of you keep these families and these individuals in your prayers today," Texas Gov. Rick Perry said. 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 center in April, 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. The attack happened just down the road from one of the worst mass shootings in US history. On Oct. 16, 1991, George Hennard smashed his pickup truck through a Luby's Cafeteria window in Killeen, Texas, and fired on the lunchtime crowd with a high-powered pistol, killing 22 people and wounding at least 20 others. No other shooting at a military base in the US has been anywhere near as deadly as Thursday's. In 1993, a gunman at Fort Knox shot five civilian co-workers, killing three, and then fatally shot himself. Around the country, some bases stepped up security precautions, but no others were locked down. Covering 339 square miles, Fort Hood is the largest active duty armored post in the United States. Home to about 52,000 troops as of earlier this year, it is located halfway between Austin and Waco. |
