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 The soldier, who was being treated for depression and anxiety,
went to two buildings on the base and opened fire before he was
confronted by military police, Fort Hood commanding officer
Lieutenant General Mark Milley said.
The gunman, whose motive remains unknown, then shot himself in the
head with a .45-caliber pistol, he said.
"At this time there is no indication that this incident is related
to terrorism," Milley told a news conference.
The rampage is the third shooting at a military base in the United
States in about six months that, along with a series of shootings in
public places, such as schools and malls, has sparked a national
debate over gun control regulations.
Security officials said preliminary information identified the
gunman as Ivan Lopez but Milley declined to identify the shooter,
who is married, until his family was notified.
The suspect's wife was cooperating with law enforcement officers, a
Federal Bureau of Investigation official said, according to CNN.
The shooter had served for four months in Iraq in 2011, Milley said,
and was undergoing evaluation for post-traumatic stress disorder. He
arrived in Fort Hood, one of the largest U.S. Army bases, in
February from another military installation.
The Scott & White Hospital in Temple, Texas, where some of the
wounded were taken, said nine patients were in intensive care, three
in critical condition and six in stable condition. Other victims
were taken to Fort Hood's Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center, near
where the shooting took place.
U.S. President Barack Obama said he was "heartbroken" that another
shooting had occurred at the Fort Hood Army base.
"We are going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened," Obama
said. "We're heartbroken that something like this might have
happened again."
The latest shooting at Fort Hood is throwing a spotlight on the U.S.
military's so-far frustrated efforts to secure its bases from
potential shooters, who increasingly appear to see the facilities as
attractive targets.
The shooting started at about 4 p.m. local time (2100 GMT) and put
Fort Hood on immediate lockdown.
Milley said the shooter walked into one of the unit buildings,
opened fire, then got into a vehicle and fired from there. He then
went into another building and opened fire again, until he was
engaged by Fort Hood law enforcement officers.
When confronted by a female military police officer, he shot himself
with his semi-automatic weapon in the parking lot.
"He was approaching her at about 20 feet. He put his hands up, then
reached under his jacket, pulled out the (.45) and she pulled out
her weapon and then she engaged, and he then he put the weapon to
his head," Milley said.
One of the buildings housed medical brigade day-to-day operations
and the other, nearby, served the administration of the
transportation battalion. All the dead and wounded were military
personnel.
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As soon as the shooting broke out, police secured the base
perimeter, emergency vehicles rushed to the scene, helicopters
circled Fort Hood and officers went from building to building
searching for the shooter.
"We're camping out. ... The only guidance we've been given is to
hunker down," a Fort Hood soldier who answered the phone at a
building near the shooting told the Austin American-Statesman.
Central Texas College ordered an immediate evacuation of all
students and staff and canceled classes at its Fort Hood campus.
"It's a terrible tragedy. We know that. We know there are
casualties, both people killed and injured," Defense Secretary Chuck
Hagel said.
VIOLENCE REPEATED
The violence echoed the rampage of 2009, when a former army
psychiatrist shot dead 13 people and wounded 32 others in a shooting
spree at Fort Hood, a base from where soldiers prepare to deploy to
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Major Nidal Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar", Arabic for "God is
greatest", during the attack and later said he wanted to be a
martyr. He was convicted and faces death by lethal injection.
In February, the U.S. military demolished the building where Hasan
went on his shooting spree and plans to plant trees, install a
gazebo and mark the site with a remembrance plaque.
"It was just like a kick in the gut. It made me sad, it made me
angry. It made me want to do something to help," Killeen Mayor
Daniel Corbin told CNN, responding to a question about another burst
of violence on the sprawling base.
In September, a gunman opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard,
killing 12 and wounding four before being killed by police. Last
month, a civilian shot dead a sailor aboard a ship at a U.S. Navy
base in Norfolk, Virginia.
Hagel said the latest incident at Fort Hood showed that there were
problems that still needed to be addressed.
Last month, he ordered steps to improve Pentagon security after
reviews found the Navy Yard shooting could have been averted if the
gunman's mental health had been properly handled.
(Additional reporting by Jana J. Pruet in Dallas, Jeff Mason in
Chicago, David Alexander, Caren Bohan, Mark Hosenball in Washington,
and Phil Stewart in Honolulu; writing by Jon Herskovitz, Dina
Kyriakidou, and Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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