Filed by KOSU News in US News.
November 5, 2009

Gunfire erupted Thursday afternoon at Fort Hood, Texas, leaving at least 12 people dead and 31 wounded.

Earlier, Fort Hood spokeswoman Sgt. Rebekah Lampan told The Associated Press that authorities believe at least two gunmen were involved in the attack and one is in custody. She says it is not known whether the shooters were soldiers or civilians.

According to a news release from Fort Hood, “more than one shooter fired shots into the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center and Howze Theater on Fort Hood,” starting about 1:30 p.m. local time. A graduation was scheduled for 2 p.m. at the theater, the FBI says.

FBI sources tell NPR that one of the shooting suspects was wounded and military authorities are now questioning him. He’s in his late 30s and he was in military uniform, NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston reports, but it’s not confirmed that he is a soldier.

Agents are trying to determine who he is and who the other shooter or shooters are.

The installation is on lockdown and police are on the scene.

Fort Hood, adjacent to Killeen, Texas, is the home base of more than 45,000 troops, including two active Army divisions, the 4th Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division. It covers 335 square miles.

On Oct. 16, 1991, Killeen was the site of one the nation’s worst mass shootings when a gunman opened fire at a Luby’s Cafeteria. The death toll was 24, including the gunman, with 20 wounded.

Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, more than 30,000 Army Reserve and National Guard troops have been “mobilized, trained, equipped, and deployed from Fort Hood,” according to the post’s Web site.

At the end of 2006, more than 85 percent of Fort Hood’s units had served at least a one-year combat tour in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Web site says. Roughly half of Fort Hood’s soldiers were serving in Iraq or Afghanistan as of August 2009, according to a Fort Hood fact sheet.

President Obama has been briefed, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. Copyright 2009 National Public Radio