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Fort Hood Defendant Says ‘I Am the Shooter’ Defendant in Fort Hood Shooting Case Admits Being Gunman
(about 7 hours later)
KILLEEN, Tex. — Nearly four years after going on a deadly shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army base here in 2009, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan told a jury of senior Army officers on Tuesday that “the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter.”KILLEEN, Tex. — Nearly four years after going on a deadly shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army base here in 2009, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan told a jury of senior Army officers on Tuesday that “the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter.”
In an opening statement that took little more than a minute, Major Hasan, seated and speaking quietly, said that there was death and destruction on both sides, but that the evidence presented by the prosecution would show only one side. In an opening statement that took little more than a minute, Major Hasan, seated in a wheelchair and speaking quietly, said that there was death and destruction on both sides, but that the evidence presented by the prosecution would show only one side.
He described himself as being on the wrong side of a war against Islam, and seemed close to offering an apology when he said, “We the mujahedeen are imperfect Muslims.” He added, “I apologize for any mistakes I’ve made in this endeavor.” He said the evidence would show that he fought on the “wrong side,” and then switched sides, and he seemed close to offering an apology for the shooting when he said, “We the mujahedeen are imperfect Muslims” trying to establish a perfect religion. He added, “I apologize for any mistakes I’ve made in this endeavor.” He did not elaborate.
His statement followed an hourlong statement by Col. Steve Hendricks, one of the Army prosecutors, who presented a dramatic retelling of the rampage and how it unfolded. He told the court that Major Hasan methodically went about targeting his victims with a handgun outfitted with two laser sights. In other statements he has apologized to the Islamic fighters known as the mujahedeen for being part of an Army waging what he described as an immoral war against Muslims. His remarks followed an hourlong opening argument by Col. Steve Hendricks, one of the Army prosecutors, who presented a matter-of-fact yet dramatic retelling of the rampage and how it unfolded.
Major Hasan, 42, an Army psychiatrist and an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, is being tried in a courtroom that is just a few miles from the medical processing center that was the scene of the rampage, one of the deadliest mass shootings at an American military base. Major Hasan, 42, an Army psychiatrist and an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, opened fire inside a medical processing complex known as the Soldier Readiness Processing Center on Nov. 5, 2009, shooting unarmed soldiers and commissioned officers as they tried to hide under desks and tables. His assault, one of the deadliest mass shootings at an American military base, left 13 dead and more than 30 others wounded.
Three weeks before he was to deploy to Afghanistan, Major Hasan opened fire inside the Soldier Readiness Processing Center on Nov. 5, 2009, shooting unarmed soldiers and commissioned officers as they tried to hide under desks and tables. His assault left 13 dead and more than 30 others wounded. He wounded at least two by shooting them in the back as they tried to flee the building or take cover. Colonel Hendricks told the jurors that three weeks before the shooting Major Hasan was told by his superior that he would soon be deploying to Afghanistan, and had been upset by the news.
Major Hasan, who has chosen to act as his own lawyer, gave his opening statement to the judge and to the jury of 13 officers as he sat in a wheelchair. He is paralyzed from the waist down after being shot four times by responding police officers. His long-delayed court-martial, which is under tight security, is expected to last several weeks. On Nov. 5, the day his unit was to report to the readiness center for processing, Major Hasan gave away some of his clothes and other belongings to a neighbor in the apartments where he lived, the prosecutor said. He drove to the complex, and walked into the center, taking a seat with other soldiers in a waiting area called Station 13. He had paper towels stuffed in his uniform, to shield the rattle of the ammunition he carried, the prosecutor said.
Major Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. If convicted, he could become the first American soldier in 52 years to be sent to death row and executed at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. The last death sentence was carried out there in April 1961, with the hanging of John A. Bennett, an Army private who was convicted of the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl. Continuing the narrative, Colonel Hendricks said that the defendant had trained for that moment, taking classes to receive a state concealed handgun license and spending much of his time at a nearby shooting range. And after shouting “God is great” in Arabic, he stood and opened fire.
In addressing the court at the opening of his trial, Major Hasan became the only defendant in recent history to represent himself in a military capital-punishment case. He took on this role after deciding to release his court-appointed lawyers from the Army Trial Defense Service, setting up a legal mismatch with the highly trained prosecution. Using an FN Five-seven semiautomatic handgun outfitted with two laser sights, he avoided those in civilian clothes to shoot those in uniform. Two men in civilian attire approached him as he calmly made his way outside, and he let them live, telling one not to worry about it and the other that it was a training exercise.
Major Hasan appeared in camouflage fatigues and the beard he persuaded the court to allow. Although he has a master’s degree in public health, he has no formal legal training. The only civilian he killed, Michael Grant Cahill, 62, was a physician assistant and a retired National Guardsman who had tried to end the attack by trying to hit Major Hasan with a chair.
His adversaries were three clean-shaven Army prosecutors in their dark formal uniforms. They were led by Col. Michael Mulligan, one of the Army’s most aggressive and skillful lawyers. In 2005, he successfully prosecuted Hasan Akbar, an Army sergeant who was convicted and sentenced to death in a grenade attack on his own camp in Kuwait at the start of the Iraq war in 2003. Before joining the Army, Colonel Mulligan played professional hockey in Germany. Major Hasan was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan on Nov. 28 with several Army Reserve units of mental health professionals trained to deal with combat stress. Five of the soldiers he is charged with killing came from those Reserve units.
Major Hasan has acknowledged being the gunman, and for months has suggested in statements inside and outside the courtroom that he saw himself as a suicide bomber striking an enemy that he believed was waging an illegal and immoral war on Islam. He told the judge previously that he carried out the attack to protect Taliban leaders from American soldiers deploying to Afghanistan. Despite the evidence of Major Hasan’s self-radicalization, prosecutors do not have to prove that he was a homegrown terrorist. He faces not terrorism but murder charges, and prosecutors have to prove only that he acted with intent and premeditation.
In a 2011 jailhouse statement given to Al Jazeera, a satellite broadcasting network based in Qatar, he pledged allegiance to the Islamic fighters known as mujahedeen and thanked them for “serving as role models on how Muslims should stand up against tyranny and aggression.” In addition, he exchanged e-mails before the attack with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric who supported violent jihad and who was killed in 2011 in a C.I.A. drone strike in Yemen. Prosecutors could have incorporated federal terrorism charges into the case, but chose not to. Experts in military law said such a move would have unnecessarily complicated the case because no American soldier has been prosecuted for terrorism offenses, creating an appellate issue should Major Hasan appeal a conviction.
Despite the evidence of Major Hasan’s self-radicalization, Army prosecutors do not have to prove that he was a homegrown terrorist. He faces not terrorism but murder charges, and prosecutors have to prove only that he acted with intent and premeditation. Colonel Hendricks addressed Major Hasan’s motive briefly, telling the jury that he did not want to deploy, and was inspired by what he saw as a duty to perform a jihad on Nov. 5, 2009. In the days and hours before the attack, investigators found, he performed Internet searches on suicide bombings and jihad.
Prosecutors could have incorporated federal terrorism charges into the case, but chose not to. Experts in military law said such a move would have unnecessarily complicated the case, because no American soldier has been prosecuted for terrorism offenses. “He came to believe he possessed a jihad duty to kill as many soldiers as possible,” Colonel Hendricks said.
In a letter sent in May to members of Congress who have been critical of the Army’s characterization of the attack, a top Army official wrote that the available evidence indicated that the shooting was “the alleged criminal act of a single individual” and not an act of international terrorism. As he spoke, the jury of nine colonels, three lieutenant colonels and one major sat, their faces stern, many occasionally taking notes. The relatives of several of Major Hasan’s victims sat about 20 feet away from him behind the prosecution’s table.
Those injured in the shooting have complained that because of the Pentagon’s depiction of the attack, they have been denied combat-related benefits and Purple Hearts. They have criticized how the Army has treated them in the years since the attack, saying in a lawsuit filed against Pentagon officials that many wounded soldiers have been given inadequate medical care. Major Hasan, who has chosen to act as his own lawyer, was quiet and calm in court. Some of the witnesses he questioned asked him to repeat himself because they could not hear him. After the gripping testimony of one of his victims — Staff Sgt. Alonzo M. Lunsford Jr., a health care specialist whom he shot seven times — the judge asked Major Hasan if he had any questions on cross-examination.
Nothing about Major Hasan’s case has been ordinary. “I have no questions,” Major Hasan told the judge, Col. Tara A. Osborn.
It has been delayed for months and even years, in part because of his decision to represent himself but also because of his efforts to keep his beard, which he said he grew out of devotion to his Muslim faith but which violates Army grooming rules. Major Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. If convicted, he could become the first American soldier in 52 years to be sent to death row and executed at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. The last military death sentence was carried out there in April 1961, with the hanging of John A. Bennett, an Army private who was convicted of the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl.
The previous judge handling the case, Col. Gregory Gross, called Major Hasan’s beard a disruption and ordered him to be forcibly shaved before the start of the trial. But a military appeals court vacated Colonel Gross’s order and removed the colonel from the case, citing an appearance of bias. Major Hasan, who appeared in camouflage fatigues and the beard that his former Army defense lawyers fought for his right to wear, became the only defendant in recent history to represent himself in a military capital-punishment case. He took on this role after deciding to release his court-appointed lawyers from the Army Trial Defense Service. He is a medical doctor with a master’s degree in public health, but he has no formal legal training.
The delays, which have frustrated the victims of the shooting and their families, have been unusual, even for high-profile cases. Sergeant Akbar was convicted in a court-martial just two years after he attacked his camp. In Major Hasan’s case, three years and nine months have elapsed since the shooting. The prosecution was led by Col. Michael Mulligan, one of the Army’s most aggressive and skillful lawyers. In 2005, he successfully prosecuted Hasan Akbar, an Army sergeant who was convicted and sentenced to death in a grenade attack on his own camp in Kuwait in 2003, though that case remains on appeal.
In addition to the delays, Major Hasan has been put in an odd role as a defendant. He has offered to plead guilty, both to Army prosecutors and to the judge. His offers were declined. When it came time to submit a plea to the charges, he declined to enter one, so the judge entered a plea of not guilty for him. Major Hasan’s decision to represent himself created unusual moments on Tuesday. He submitted one piece of evidence — his officer evaluation report that showed he had performed his duties in a superb manner — and also handled the semiautomatic weapon used in the attack.
Military law prohibits defendants in capital-punishment cases from pleading guilty. Army prosecutors turned down his offer because it would have taken the death penalty off the table, and the judge said she declined it because of the military law prohibiting guilty pleas to capital-punishment charges. He had asked to see it. After holding it in his hands, he told the judge: “Your honor, I’d like to submit for the record that this is my weapon.”