National News

Shooting suspect said goodbyes

11/7/2009 7:05:02 AM

Associated Press 

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 killing spree that left 13 people dead, including a Minnesota soldier.

The dead included Pfc. Kham Xiong, 23, of St. Paul, a married father of three young children, who was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. The family moved to Texas in July.

Earlier in the day, 13 flag-draped coffins departed for Dover Air Force Base and the military's mortuary based in Delaware, said Army Col. John Rossi, deputy commander at Fort Hood.

Investigators examined Hasan's computer, his home and his garbage Friday to learn what motivated the suspect, who lay hospitalized in a coma, shot four times in the frantic bloodletting that unfolded at a center where some 300 unarmed soldiers were lined up for vaccines and eye tests. Authorities said some of the wounds of the injured were serious enough that they might still die.

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 fellow 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. A recent classmate said Hasan once gave a jarring presentation to students in which he argued the war on terrorism was a war against Islam, and "made himself a lightning rod for things" when he felt his religious beliefs were challenged.

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 Muslim soldiers serving dutifully in uniform.

Hasan's family said in a statement Friday that his alleged actions were deplorable and don't reflect how the family was reared.

Rossi said that the assailant fired more than 100 rounds and that his weapons were not military arms, but "privately owned weapons ... purchased locally."

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