This profile will be updated as details emerge.
His name is being reported as both Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan and Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan with minor spelling variations in both formats so some clarification is needed in this area. Cassy Fiano has a screen grab of the shooter’s photo from a CNN broadcast on her blog.
Fox News conducted a phone interview with a man claiming to be the alleged shooter’s cousin. He painted a picture of a “good American” who was upset about an upcoming deployment to Iraq, mistreatment from fellow soldiers, and current mission of our military. His family seems to think that he just snapped. Comments from others who claim to have known him paint an even more disturbing picture. We should know more soon if the alleged shooter left behind, or stated, some sort of justification for the massacre.
Note: Initial reports indicated that Hasan was killed in a shootout with police but he is in fact alive and in stable condition.
Developing background:
NPR:
A source tells NPR’s Joseph Shapiro that Hasan was put on probation early in his postgraduate work at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He was disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues, according to the source, who worked with him at the time.
Various outlets are attributing this comment, related to a .pdf document about martyrdom, to the alleged shooter:
There was a grenade thrown amongs a group of American soldiers. One of the soldiers, feeling that it was to late for everyone to flee jumped on the grave with the intention of saving his comrades. Indeed he saved them. He inentionally took his life (suicide) for a noble cause i.e. saving the lives of his soldier. To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause. Scholars have paralled this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers. If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory. Their intention is not to die because of some despair. The same can be said for the Kamikazees in Japan. They died (via crashing their planes into ships) to kill the enemies for the homeland. You can call them crazy i you want but their act was not one of suicide that is despised by Islam. So the scholars main point is that “IT SEEMS AS THOUGH YOUR INTENTION IS THE MAIN ISSUE” and Allah (SWT) knows best.
CBS News Denver:
AP sources: Fort Hood suspect drew attention of authorites 6 mos. ago for Internet posts.
More from the AP via Brietbart:
The officials say the postings appeared to have been made by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was killed during the shooting incident that left least 11 others dead and 31 wounded. The officials say they are still trying to confirm that he was the author. They say an official investigation was not opened.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
One of the Web postings that authorities reviewed is a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades.
CNN:
The slain gunman was identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, a law enforcement source told CNN. Licensed in Virginia, Hasan was a psychiatrist who previously worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center but more recently was practicing at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, according to professional records.
A military source was quoted by the Air Force Times as saying Hasan had recently been reassigned to Fort Hood from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. In 2009, sources tell ABC News, he completed a fellowship in Disaster and Preventative Psychiatry at the Center for Traumatic Stress there.
The AP said that officials are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name, or if he converted to the Islamic faith at some point in his life.
A source tells the CBS News investigates team that Hasan is a licensed psychiatrist in Bethesda, Md. He is a drug and rehab specialist who got his Virginia psychiatry license July 12, 2005.
Jeff Sadosky, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, said the senator had been told that Malik Nadal Hasan, who has been identified as a the shooting suspect at Fort Hood, was upset about his upcoming deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan.
AP via StarTribune.com:
Suspected Fort Hood shooter got poor performance evaluation for Army hospital work.
The Galveston County Daily News:
“Everybody started running and shouting, and he saw the wounded come out,” Tom Hunt said. “He didn’t hear the shooting, but he said it was ‘a bloody mess.’”
Hunt said his son told him he loaded up many of the wounded and drove them to the hospital. The wounded relayed what they saw inside when the shooting happened.
“They were telling him that one guy was shouting something in Arabic while he was shooting,” Tom Hunt said. “He couldn’t say much more than that.”
Relevant Links
Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center
Fort Hood Homepage
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