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1 shooter dead, 2 in custody at Fort Hood mass shooting

News 8 Austin

A mass shooting Thursday at Fort Hood, the largest U.S. Army base in the world, has resulted in 12 deaths, including one shooter, and 31 wounded.

Lt. Gen. Robert Cone confirmed that one of the three suspected shooters, a soldier, is dead, and the other two suspects, also soldiers, are in custody.

The suspect that was confirmed dead has been identified at Major Malik Nadal Hasan. Hasan was reportedly shot by authorities.

Officials at Fort Hood said the incident began at 1:30 p.m. when one soldier entered the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center and Howze Theater on Fort Hood and opened fire.

Shots were reported after the initial shooting at Comanche 4 Housing Unit.

Nine of the 11 victims were reportedly from Fort Hood. There is not yet word on the other victims.

A spokeswoman with Scott & White health center confirmed that the hospital is receiving patients from Fort Hood who have gunshot wounds.

News reports indicated the attack could have been a terrorist attack, however, Lt. Gen. Cone said the three shooters involved were soldiers.

President Barack Obama called the incident a "horrific outburst of violence" at a 4 p.m. news conference, following news of the shootings.

"It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil," Obama said. "My immediate thoughts and prayers are with the wounded and the families of the fallen."

Obama said the FBI, the Pentagon and Homeland Security are working together to investigate the incident.

Fort Hood is only allowing the Department of Defense and Texas Rangers to enter the post. Families are being turned away, without information.

According to officer guarding an entrance gate, who did not want to be identified, everyone on base was moved to specific locations or told to stay locked in doors.

There is no traffic moving inside the base, though a line of cars has not moved since the incident took place. All vehicles will have to be searched before being allowed in again, which could take a while.

There are nine schools on the base. The elementary schools on the base were released before the incident, and the remaining schools are on lockdown, but all are confirmed safe.

All Temple Independent School District schools was also put on soft lockdown, authorities said.

Fort hood officials are in the process of accounting for everyone on the base.

The Fort Hood post is still on lockdown, officials said.

The mass shooting is not the first to plague the Killeen-Fort Hood area.

Up until the Virginia Tech Massacre of April 2007, the Luby’s Cafeteria Massacre in Killeen marked the most deadly shooting rampage in U.S. history.

On Oct. 16, 1991, George Jo Hennard drove his pick-up truck into a Luby’s Cafeteria and then shot and killed 23 people, wounding another 20. He then committed suicide by shooting himself.

All 23 victims were from Central Texas.

In response to the massacre, the Texas Legislature passed a “shall-issue” gun law in 1995 which required that all qualifying applicants be issued a concealed handgun license, removing the personal discretion of the issuing authority to deny such licenses.