The US Army major who killed 13 people and injured 30 others at a Texas military base is a US Muslim of Palestinian origin who joined the military against his parents' wishes and was about to be deployed to Iraq.
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed at least 12 people in an attack at Fort Hood before being shot and wounded on Thursday, was a military psychiatrist who dealt with troops returning from combat and faced his own imminent deployment, officials said.
He opened fire with two handguns at a processing centre at Fort Hood for troops being deployed on missions to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The killing spree began about 1.30pm on Thursday (6.30am AEDT Friday).
The shooting took place as soldiers were awaiting medical and dental treatment at a processing centre at Fort Hood for troops being deployed on missions to Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
Most of the victims were military personnel, but there were also two civilians involved, officials said.
Further bloodshed was narrowly prevented when the gunman was apparently blocked from reaching a graduation ceremony attended by some 600 people, just metres away from the scene.
"Thanks to the quick reaction of several soldiers, they were able to close off the doors to that auditorium," Cone said.
After interviewing over 100 people at the scene investigators appear to have ruled out the possibility that Hasan acted with an accomplice.
Hasan was shot by a "female civilian officer", thought to be the first responder on the scene.
It was initially reported that Hasan had died but he survived and had emergency surgery.
Fort Hood is a massive US base that is more like a small town housing tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians. It was locked down after the shooting for several hours.
His cousin Nader Hasan says the major had battled harassment based on his "Middle Eastern ethnicity" and was seeking to leave the military.
"He hired a military attorney to try to have the issue resolved, pay back the government, to get out of the military. He was at the end of trying everything," Hasan told Fox News.
"I don't think he's ever been disenchanted with the military," Nader said of his cousin.
"It was the harassment."
Nidal Malik Hasan worked at Washington DC's Walter Reed military hospital before being transferred to Texas, and was headed for Iraq this month.
He "was scheduled to be deployed and was upset about that", Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison told CNN.
But Nader Hasan denied that his cousin was "afraid of deploying to go to war", and said he had not previously exhibited violent tendencies.
"He wasn't somebody who even enjoyed going to the firing range, you know, this wasn't somebody who had that kind of mindset," Nader Hasan said.
The Army major was born in the United States to Palestinian parents who had emigrated from a small town near Jerusalem, his cousin said.
He was raised in Virginia, and attended school in Roanoke before going to Virginia Tech university, scene of another mass shooting in April 2007.
While living in Washington DC, he attended prayers at a local Muslim community centre at least once a day, seven days a week, according to Maryland imam Faizul Khan.
Khan, a former imam at the centre, told The Washington Post that Nidal Malik Hasan was "very devout", and asked him various religious questions.
"But there was nothing extremist in his questions. He never showed any frustration ... He never showed any ... wish for vengeance on anybody," Khan said.
A former colleague of Nidal Malik Hasan's disagreed, saying the Army major had expressed a desire to see Muslims "fight against the aggressor".
"He said, maybe the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor. At first we thought he was talking about how Muslims should stand up and help the armed forces in Iraq and in Afghanistan, but apparently that wasn't the case," Colonel Terry Lee told Fox News.
Fort Hood base commander Lieutenant General Robert Cone said the attack did not seem to be linked to terrorism.
"I couldn't rule that out but I'm telling you that right now, the evidence does not suggest that," he told reporters.
Authorities had said immediately after Thursday's attack that they had killed the suspected shooter but this was later changed.
"There was a single shooter that was shot multiple times at the scene, he was not killed as previously reported," Cone said.
"He is currently in custody and in stable condition."
Cone offered little explanation to reporters at a news conference as to why the suspect was believed dead, saying only there was confusion at the hospital.
Unnamed military officials, with access to Hasan's military record, said he received a poor performance evaluation while at Walter Reed, AP reported.
The 39-year-old soldier was single with no children.
US President Barack Obama, who had been kept informed of the shooting as the drama was tracked in the White House situation room, denounced the attack as "an horrific outburst of violence".
"My immediate thoughts and prayers are with the wounded. And with the families of the fallen," Obama said.
"It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an army base on American soil."
Fort Hood is the headquarters of the Army 3rd Corps, the 4th Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division. All those units have seen extensive duty in Iraq.
Fort Hood has also been working to rehabilitate many soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, local congressman John Carter told MSNBC.
Across the country, some bases stepped up security precautions but no others were locked down.
Front page
RSS Feed