Posted on Sat, Nov. 7, 2009
By Mike Baker and Brett J. Blackledge
FORT HOOD, Texas - As if going off to war, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan cleaned out his apartment, gave leftover frozen broccoli to one neighbor, and called another to thank him for his friendship - common courtesies and routines of the departing soldier. Instead, authorities say, he went on the rampage that left 13 people dead and 31 injured.
Investigators examined Hasan's computer, his home, and his garbage yesterday to learn what motivated the suspect, who lay in a coma, shot four times in the frantic bloodletting at Fort Hood. Hospital officials said that some of the wounded had extremely serious injuries and might not survive.
The 39-year-old Army psychiatrist emerged as a study in contradictions: a polite man who stewed with discontent, a counselor who needed to be counseled himself, a professional healer now suspected of cutting down the soldiers he was sworn to help.
Relatives said he felt harassed because of his Muslim faith but did not embrace extremism. Others were not so sure.
Investigators were trying to piece together how and why Hasan allegedly gunned down his comrades in the worst case of violence on a military base in the United States. The rampage unfolded at a center where about 300 unarmed soldiers were waiting for vaccines and eye tests.
Soldiers reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu akbar!" - an Arabic phrase for "God is great!" - before opening fire Thursday, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the post commander. He said officials had not confirmed that Hasan made the comment.
At a news conference late yesterday, Army Col. John Rossi, deputy commander at Fort Hood, said 23 people remained hospitalized, about half still in intensive care.
Rossi said that the assailant fired more than 100 rounds and that his weapons were not military arms but "privately owned weapons . . . purchased locally."
Law-enforcement sources in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said records indicated Hasan in recent months bought the FN 5.7 pistol at a store called Guns Galore in Killeen, Texas.
Hasan's family said in a statement yesterday that his alleged actions were deplorable and did not reflect how the family was reared.
"Our family is filled with grief for the victims and their families involved in yesterday's tragedy," said Nader Hasan, a cousin in Virginia.
Army Chief of Staff George Casey said he asked bases around the country to assess their security. He also said he was worried about a backlash against the thousands of Muslims serving in uniform.
Marwan Kreidie, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Arab-American Development Corp., said his organization, as well as the Al-Aqsa mosque in North Philadelphia, anticipated no local backlash and was taking no special precautions.
"People here" in Philadelphia "are much too sophisticated to blame the Arab community," said Kreidie, whose offices are at Al-Aqsa, the city's largest mosque and whose membership is largely Arabic.
Linda Hauber, office manager at the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects in West Philadelphia, said she and her Arab-born husband "cringed" Thursday when they heard the shooter was identified as Muslim, but said "most people don't buy into a blame mentality." The West Philadelphia mosque was taking no special security arrangements and yesterday's jumu'ah, or Friday prayer service, was without incident. "We are not concerned" about hostility, Hauber said.
Hasan was to be deployed to Afghanistan to help soldiers with combat stress, a task he had done stateside with returning soldiers, the Army said. An Army spokeswoman, Col. Cathy Abbott, was uncertain when Hasan was to leave, but he was in the preparation stage of deployment.
In any event, the major was saying goodbyes and dispensing belongings to neighbors.
Jose Padilla, the owner of Hasan's apartment complex in Killeen, said Hasan gave him notice two weeks ago.
Earlier this week, Hasan asked Padilla his native language. When Padilla said it was Spanish, Hasan immediately went up to his apartment to get him a Spanish-language Quran. Padilla said Hasan also refused to reclaim his deposit and last month's rent, surrendering $400 that the major said should go to someone who needed it.
Neighbor Patricia Villa said that Hasan came to her apartment the day of the shooting, and before, to give her vegetables, an air mattress, T-shirts, a Quran, and to offer her $60 to clean his apartment.
According to a Killeen police report in August, an Army employee was charged with scratching Hasan's car, causing $1,000 in damage. Apartment manager John Thompson said the man charged was a soldier back from Iraq, who objected to Hasan's faith and ripped a bumper sticker off the major's car that said: "Allah is Love."
Kim Rosenthal, another neighbor, said Hasan did not seem too upset, even though the car was damaged so badly that he got a new one. "He said it was Ramadan and that he had to forgive people," Rosenthal said. "He forgave him and moved on."
Hasan appeared less forgiving to Val Finnell when they were classmates in a 2007-08 master's public-health program at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.
He said that at a class presentation by public-health students, at which topics like dry-cleaning chemicals and house mold were discussed, Hasan talked about U.S. military actions as a war on Islam. Hasan made clear he was a "vociferous opponent" of U.S. wars in Muslim countries, Finnell said.
"He made himself a lightning rod for things," Finnell said. "No one picked on him because he was a Muslim."
Law-enforcement officials said they are trying to confirm if Hasan wrote Internet postings that include his name about suicide bombings and other threats, equating suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the life of fellow soldiers.
Hasan is the Arlington, Va.-born son of Palestinian parents.
His relatives in the West Bank 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. "He hired a lawyer to get him a discharge."
Inquirer staff writer David O'Reilly contributed to this article.
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