KILLEEN, Texas — As the nation grieved for the 13 people killed in Thursday’s attack at Fort Hood, there was a glimmer of encouragement Saturday as some of the people wounded in the shooting were able to leave one hospital near the Army base.
Authorities say that a gunman, identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old psychiatrist, fired more than 100 bullets inside Fort Hood’s medical processing building Thursday, killing 13 people and wounding 30 others. Hasan was shot four times by a police officer and is in serious condition at Brooke Medical Center in San Antonio, said investigators, who have yet to speak to him.
Four of the 10 shooting victims who were taken to Scott and White Hospital in Temple, Texas, were released Saturday. Two people were still in intensive care but were no longer on ventilators, said the chairman of surgery at the hospital, Dr. W. Roy Smythe.
“Some are out of the woods,” Smythe said at a press conference, “but some of them, again, their injuries are so severe, only time will tell how they will do in the long run.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has visited with wounded victims.
Perry said at a Saturday press conference that the soldiers he visited told him it is an honor to serve their country and they are committed to returning to service. He praised the care they were receiving and described his conversations with the soldiers as “humbling.”
Perry said people from across the state have responded to the tragedy, and in some cases people lined up for hours to give blood to help the wounded.
He said he told the wounded soldiers that the entire state is behind them and that “there’s 24 million Texans praying for them and wishing them well.”
President Barack Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to celebrate the diversity of the armed forces.
“They are Americans of every race, faith and station,” Obama said. “They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers. They reflect the diversity that makes this America.”
In tribute to those killed, Obama has ordered flags at government buildings to fly at half-staff until Veterans Day, and the White House announced Saturday that he and the first lady, Michelle Obama, would attend a memorial service Tuesday at Fort Hood.
Obama has made it a goal of his presidency to try to repair relations with Muslims around the world; in a major speech in Cairo this year, he called for a “new beginning” with the Muslim world. The shootings at Fort Hood, however, pose a different problem for the president by shining a spotlight on the tensions Muslims can feel inside the United States.
In a Rose Garden appearance Friday, Obama urged Americans not to “jump to conclusions” about the motives behind the shooting, a theme he echoed Saturday.
“We cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing,” he said in the Saturday address. “But what we do know is our thoughts are with every single one of the men and women who were injured at Fort Hood. Our thoughts are with all the families who’ve lost a loved one in this national tragedy.”
