you can see on the screen right there we are awaiting a press conference on the scene from the commanding general of ft. hood, texas to get more information. it is a situation very much in flux with many developments happening throughout the evening. wolf blitzer picks up or our breaking news conference right now. john, thanks very much. the news another horrible shooting at america's largest army base, ft. hood, texas. a soldier on soldier shooting ace as it has been describe. the post once again a major crime scene, scene of multiple fatalities including the gunman and many people wounded. >> we were first notified shortly after 5:00 this evening that there was a shooting incident that occurred over on the fort. and we opened up our command center at that time in anticipation. over the next couple of hours we have received now a total of four patients who have been transferred to our facility. two more are en route, i understand, right now, and we're

preparing to take those immediately to the operating room because they have some very, very severe injuries. so that's kind of where we are with this. >> [ inaudible ] conditions at this point? >> the conditions range everywhere from quite stable to critically injured. >> critically injured, he said. multiple fatalities at the same time and other casualties. we're expecting to hear shortly from the base commander. we'll have live coverage. president obama spoke about the incident tonight. >> hello, everybody. i just got off the phone with vice-chairman of the joint chiefs of staff to get the latest report on the situation in ft. hood. obviously we're following it closely. the situation is fluid right now. but my national security team is in close contact with not just the defense department but the f fbi. they are working with folks on the ground to determine exactly

what happened to make sure that everybody is secure. and i want to just assure all of us that we are going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. >> this is the second such incident in ft. hood since 2009. for the second time within five years, this is the chilling way so many people on post learn that something once again was terribly wrong. >> seek shelter immediately. >> that's what residents heard on the base. this is what one eyewitness saw. >> they are actually escorting a group of soldiers out of a building now at gunpoint. everyone is coming out with their hands in the air, required to drop down to their knees. >> and a group of soldiers like five, ten? >> no, mass soldiers.

men, women and children. there are children present with this at this time. there are civilian in civilian clothes. they are asked at this time to get down on their hands and knees face down at gunpoint. the support operations building is the building they're being escorted out of. the police are going in and s.w.a.t. is going in. they are still being held at gunpoint at this time face down. >> on the ground? >> yes, ma'am on the ground. there's children present as well as civilians. and a lot of soldiers at this point. >> once again there's certainly a lot in flux right now. this is a fast-moving development. let's get the very latest from our pentagon correspondent barbara starr and our justice correspondent pamela brown. michelle kosinski our white house correspondent is standing by. first to the pentagon, what do we know? what's the latest information, barbara, we're getting from the military over at the pentagon and elsewhere where you are? >> reporter: wolf, what we know

tonight is yes, indeed, multiple fatalities, multiple injured personnel. we have no identities on these people. i want to point out, ft. hood is a base where there are many civilians, family, children who come and go with their families on ft. hood. so we do not know at this hour whether all of the wounded including those who have been received for treatment at local hospitals are in fact military personnel, some of them may in fact be civilians. we are awaiting a press conference from lieutenant general mark milly, commander of third corps, the most senior official on ft. hood tonight. he is expected to come out shortly and talk about all of this. defense secretary chuck hagel has been informed. the joint chiefs have been informed and have issued a statement of sympathy about all of this. what we know is security measures went into effect

rapidly by all accounts. people were told they were in lock down, to stay in their homes and offices, shut their doors, stay away from windows. and security personnel moved in to start a sweep and go through these areas and try and determine what exactly had transpired. the shooter is dead, but at this hour we do not know if it is by the shooter's own hand or he was killed. wolf? >> do we know anything specific about the shooter, barbara? >> reporter: wolf, by all accounts this was a soldier. this is believed to have started as a soldier on soldier incident. and at ft. hood, that brings up an awful lot of difficult memories of 2009, as you said, when army mainly nidal hasan, an army serving officer, went into a facility at ft. hood and began shooting, killing 13 people, attempting to murder some three dozen more. he was convicted of all of those

murder and attempted murder charges, but ft. hood is a base where there has been an awful lot of tragedy about all of this. and this is a base where the soldiers and their families have paid the price of combat over the last 13 years. many troops just coming home a few weeks ago from their latest tour in afghanistan. wolf? >> that's why what's happening now is so painful. major nidal hasan as you point out, he was convicted last year, august 23 rd, 2013. 13 counts of murder, 32 counts of attempted murder. he admitted targeting fellow u.s. soldiers who were set to deploy to afghanistan. he said he wanted to protect the taliban from the u.s. military, the taliban and its leadership. barbara, stand by. pamela brown's our justice correspondent. what are you hearing from your law enforcement sources, pamela? >> reporter: i can tell you, wolf, according to my sources that at this hour there is still a multipronged effort under way by federal law enforcement agencies such as atf and fbi as

well as local law enforcement and state law enforcement as well to clear the scene. that has not happened yet. they are still going building to building, wolf, clearing the scene. that is why of course it is still on lock down, why people are being told to stay in their buildings and stay away from the windows. and until they clear the scene, we're not going to be able to confirm certain information such as whether there could have been more than one suspect. what we have learned, wolf, as barbara starr reported, we've learned from sources that there are multiple deaths, one of which is believed to be the suspect in this case. and also, wolf, we're hearing from sources that it's believed that this started as a soldier on soldier incident. we don't have any information from there because this is all still very early on as we said they're still clearing the scene. everything is preliminary. >> and we're awaiting this news conference you see there setting up. lieutenant general mark milly, the commander general at ft. hood. we're going to go there live once he starts briefing all of us. you're looking at live pictures coming out of ft. hood right now. it's still a very active

investigation, clearly, pamela, even though it's soldier on soldier as it's been described, they're not necessarily ruling out terrorism, are they? >> reporter: no they're not at this point. it's still very early on, wolf. but at this point we're hearing from sources they don't believe that terrorism was a factor here. but again they're still trying to sort of investigate, identify who this person was. i was talking to sources, wolf, oftentimes in a situation like this when you have a shooting, the person is mentally unstable. there are pre-event indicators. so are going to be scouring this person's social media commentary, that kind of thing, to see if there were any signs. so again it's still very early, too early to jump to conclusions. it's all under investigation. but at this early preliminary stage, sources telling us that it doesn't appear to be terrorism but of course that's not being ruled out as a possibility. >> this investigation only just beginning. they certainly will check all those social media sites as they did with major nidal hasan.

he was certainly certainly had a political motivation for the murders that he committed on that base. michelle kosinski is our white house correspondent. michelle, the president clearly is deeply deeply concerned. he was obviously very moved in that statement he made. he's been traveling today, but he wants to be fully briefed on what's going on. this is really an awful awful situation. >> reporter: at the time he said he didn't know many of the facts. he was getting briefings from the department of defense and the fbi while he was traveling. but he described the shooting today as heart-breaking, saying that any shooting is troubling but that this reopened the pain of what happened at ft. hood five years ago. he said that we need to get to the bottom of it, that we need to do everything we can to make sure this community of soldiers and their families has everything they need to deal with what happened as well as the aftermath. he talked about those soldiers, saying that some of them served with valor multiple tours in iraq and afghanistan, and that at home on their home base they

need to feel safe. this is a community that the president knows well, that he saw up close after the tragedy five years ago. remember, president obama delivered the eulogy for those 13 soldiers who were killed by major nidal hasan. and at the time he said, these americans were not killed on a foreign field of battle, they were killed on american soil. and that fact makes the tragedy even more painful, even more incomprehensible. he said that they couldn't escape the horrors of war even in the comfort of home. and he also talked about the community then. he said that in the face of danger, while bullets were flying during that tragedy five years ago, and these soldiers who are trained in war, they were risking their own lives, many of them, to get to their wounded fellow soldiers and bring them to safety. he described one young woman who was so intent on saving lives, the president said, that she didn't even realize for a time that she herself had been shot in the back. so this is the community and the

pain that the president referred to in his remarks today. obviously sharing the shock that many americans feel to hear that something like this has happened again in the same place, wolf. >> and they're getting ready for this news conference, michelle, at ft. hood. the commanding general mark milly, lieutenant general of the united states army, will be briefing us momentarily once he gets to that microphone. we'll of course have live coverage. stand by for that. joining us on the phone right now is retired staff sergeant alonzo hundre alonzolunsford. shot in the 2009 attack shot by major nidal hasan. alonzo, thanks very much for joining us. this brings back awful memories, i'm sure. just tell us what's going through your mind as you watch this story unfold. >> well, right now i appreciate you all having me on. i'm dealing with a lot of emotions. and i would first like to give my deepest sympathies for the

families of the fallen and also the families of the wounded. and right now is a perfect time for as a nation we need to embrace each other, to make sure that what's in all of our powers that we make sure this does not happen again. after the shooting in ft. hood in 2009, i had said that that was the first but it would not be the last unless we end up changing policies recognizing the threats that we have within our nation on u.s. soil within our military. now, it's not a politically correct situation. it is what it is, being that it is a terrorist act. and it saddens me that bought individuals was trying to save their careers and not openly admitting that the prior ft. hood shooting was a terrorist act but workplace violence that, gave more ammunition for people to follow suit. because they felt like they had

the power. now is the time instead of us pointing fingers, the first act we need to do is to embrace the families of the ill, injured or wounded. >> remind us, alonzo, what happened on that day back on november 5, 2009. you were at ft. hood and major nidal hasan opened fire on you and a lot of your fellow soldiers. >> yes, sir. major hasan, we had initially worked together on the 18th of october so we knew each other. and after lunch on thursday, november 5th, 2009 is when major hasan decided to open fire on his fellow comrades that were ready to deploy. i was working at the srp, the processing center that day, i had just relieved one of my soldiers to go eat lunch. therefore i was there. and the as a result of our shooting was 14 dead, 32

wounded. and not counting the wounded of our families and the psychological effects of the trauma. what saddens me even more is that some of us was hit inside of the building. when we tried to get out or tried to help out other comrades, major hasan still continued to try to kill us. for me, i got hit twice inside the building, then when i exited outside the building he hit me again. he went back inside the building and then while they were triaging me on the ground he shot me again. and it really bothers me. because everyone as a uniform, we have a uniform not because we have to, because we want to. we are an all volunteer force.

being shot outside of hostile theater, now the fighting brought back to us on u.s. soil. we need to do something about this issue together as a nation. >> we certainly do. staff sergeant alonzo lunsford. i'll have you stand by once again we're expecting to hear momentarily from the base commander, lieutenant general mark milly. we'll have the news conference that will give us all the latest information. that is expected momentarily. we'll take a quick break, resume our special coverage right after this. [ male announcer ] this is the cat that drank the milk... [ meows ] ...and let in the dog that woke the man who drove to the control room [ woman ] driverless mode engaged. find parking space. [ woman ] parking space found. [ male announcer ] ...that secured the data that directed the turbines that powered the farm that made the milk that went to the store that reminded the man to buy the milk that was poured by the girl who loved the cat. [ meows ] the internet of everything is changing everything. cisco. tomorrow starts here. the internet of everything gunderman group is growing.

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as we wait to hear from fort hood's commanding officer, lieutenant general mark milley, the press conference will be beginning soon. we want to continue to follow the breaking news. i want to remind you it's still a very very fluid situation. we know there are multiple fatalities on this post, including the shooter, a united states soldier. also multiple injuries, some of them we're told extremely

critical. earlier tonight, the defense secretary chuck hagel spoke to reporters in honolulu where he's been meeting with asian defense ministers. >> i just got off the phone with our senior leaders at the pentagon to get an update. i know there have been a number of reports out in the press. fort hood is still locked down. we are still getting facts. it's a terrible tragedy. we know that. we know there are casualties, both people killed and injured. we don't have all the facts yet. we will get those. it's still under investigation. our military has it as well as law enforcement. i understand the commanding general at fort hood, general milley, willing holding a news conference here shortly. i know the president addressed this as well this afternoon.

i have no additional facts or figures other than what i've just told you. as we go along as i get those facts i'll share them with you. >> defense secretary chuck hagel. once again we're waiting to go hear from the bait commander, the commanding general at fort hood, lieutenant general mark milley. as soon as he goes to the microphone we'll have live coverage. we'll get the latest details from him. in the meantime, joining us now our cnn law enforcement analyst the former fbi assistant director tom fuentes, peter berg again and former commander general of the army's central intelligence center. tom fuentes, you have good sources in the law enforcement community. what are you hearing? >> at this point, wolf, i'm not hearing from them. there's just not enough

information that's coming from the scene and people are waiting for the briefing by the general. so there's really no other information going out other than what local media in texas is reporting. and it's already been put out there in public. but i'm not hearing anything new. >> let's bring in general marks. this is as we say the second mass shooting at fort hood within five years. second shooting at fort hood. it's an awful, awful situation. general marks, i know you know general milley who's about to do this news conference, the commander general at fort hood. i assume you served there at one point in your career. but when you heard about this, what goes through your mind, general marks? >> wolf, the first thing i think about is the families that are again going through this similar tragedy. and you put that on top of what i would call the routine stress of an army that's been in a constant state of conflict for the last 13 years. the soldiers will respond and

will be able to both physically and emotionally heal as will the families. the families are amazingly resilient. we tend to focus in on the soldiers and their sacrifices. now's the time as was stated earlier, to pay attention to the families, to embrace those families, so this community will absolutely coalesce much beyond what they already do as a matter of routine and will stay very very tight together. because you know, the strength of our army belongs exclusively with those families. if the families aren't strong, the soldiers are distracted. so this is a very important time to focus in on them. >> the notion of american soldiers killing fellow soldiers, it's an awful awful situation, general marks. what can the military do if anything to prevent these kinds of horrible incidents? >> well, rules can be put in place. rules have been put in place, wolf. and clearly the military is a very disciplined environment. no one better than a soldier understands the costs of being

engaged with weapon systems and to use them as a matter of routine. and also the soldier has seen the incredible cost of being a part of an army and a military that's been in a state of war for the last 13 years. so this is a part of their environment. it's a part of their dna. what is most difficult is when you separate the soldier from a combat zone, you have to be able to separate and segregate those emotional feelings so the soldier can achieve normalcy, the new normal, when he or she is back in where the families are located. that's the most difficult thing to achieve. frankly they do it quite well. obviously there are aberrations as we're seeing right now. >> peter better bergen, let's talk about fort hood and what happened back in 2009, specifically november 5th, when u.s. army major general nidal hasan opened fire and killed fellow soldiers, injured many others.

last year he was convicted, 13 counts of murder, 32 counts of attempted murder. he admitted that he wanted to target u.s. soldiers, he said who were about to deploy to afghanistan to protect the taliban and the taliban's leadership. that's what he said, even though he didn't testify directly that's what he said during the course of various statements that he made. yet for some reason this was not formally categorized as an act of terror. why wasn't it an act of terror? it was sort of seen by law enforcement as workplace violence. >> you know, wolf, he was tried in a military court. he wasn't tried in a conventional court. my understanding of military law is that terrorism is not a charge that he would necessarily have been convicted under. it was a very straightforward murder trial. he admitted that he did it. it wasn't really necessary to go to terrorism charges. and by the way, he had no links to a foreign terrorist organization. he had been in contact with the leader of al qaeda in the raven

peninsula by e-mail. but the leader, anwar al alaki ignored the e-mails. what did nnidal hasan do? he killed 12 soldiers and a civilian. as we hear about what is going on in fort hood over the past several hours, it's clear that somebody with the scale of casualties we're seeing we're seeing somebody who didn't just bring in a handgun. it was a much larger kind of assault. and bears some similarities to major nidal hasan, which raises the question what did we learn from the last time around? second gates who was then defense secretary instituted a review, and he said a number of things had to happen. and i think some of them did happen at fort hood and some didn't. the first thing he said we may need to have a better mass warning emergency system.

and we saw that in play today. he also said we need to have a better understanding of workplace violence in the military. we need commanders who understand people who might be at risk. we need them to be briefed on this. and in this case, obviously we're dealing with a huge number of soldiers on the base, this particular soldier clearly wasn't in the sights of the commanders above him and was able to do this horrible crime. >> and major nidal hasan, he was certainly inspired by al qaeda and the arabian peninsula, by ann mar al-awlaki among others. he made that clear. stand by, guys. we have a lot more to discuss. we're awaiting word directly from the arm base, fort hood,texas. we'll have live coverage lieutenant general mark milley commander about to speak to reporters. we're also going to get an eyewitness account to what happened today. stay with us.

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just getting new video coming into cnn. wounded, people who are wounded being taken to a local hospital over at fort hood, texas just outside of the hospital you see folks being carried in, helicopters on the scene as well. the breaking news we're following about half past the hour right now, an awful situation. we're waiting to go hear directly from fort hood's commander general about the shooting there. multiple fatalities, multiple injuries. the gunman we're told dead. this is the second such shooting in less than five years at fort

hood, texas. here's how one eyewitness described what happened. >> there are 18 ambulances parked across the street from me. there are people being shuffled to the ambulances and taken to another location. there is a police helicopter flying over top above me. there are approximately 90 police vehicles, including dps, fort hood, sheriff, bell county constable, as well as multiple unmarked units. they do have the scene as secure as possible as well as the streets connecting to it. they're not letting anyone in this area. i'm stuck. >> so it remain as very active scene, sirens, cars, announcements? >> they're not using sirens. they're more doing along the lines of a silent approach. they're definitely not taking any chances with this. but there was two s.w.a.t. vehicles that went by followed by two of the newer bell county constable units, three state troopers and one unmarked unit. >> does it lead you to believe

that this person is inside that buildin building? >> i can't tell you that. the area that i'm in right now there are a bunch of buildings. there are people running around from building to building. at this time it would be safe for me to assume -- this is an assumption -- that he hasn't been located at this point due to the fact that there is so much congestion in such a wide area. >> tyler, can you tell me this? we heard that this happened at about 4:30. does that sound about right to you? >> yes, ma'am. it was right there about that time i went on base, and about the time that that happened they instantly hit the emergency broadcast system for fort hood, telling everybody to seek shelter, close your windows and doors, turn off your air ventilation systems and to seek shelter immediately. >> wow, okay. so it was a pretty chaotic situation when it happened? were there people -- describe some of the scene and the events that unfolded once you heard that. >> as soon as that happened, it

literally looked like if you were going into a room and turned on the light and there was a bunch of bugs and they just scattered. everyone instantly went to their rooms, locked their doors. you could just feel the intensity and the sense of fear in the area. >> heart-breaking story unfolding. joining us on the phone right now, the retired u.s. amy lieutenant general russell honore. i'm sure you'll understand if we have to break away to go to lieutenant general mark milley the commander general at fort hood. he's about to deliver a statement and answer reporters' questions at a news conference at fort hood. you'll understand why we'll go there, we'll have live coverage. but when you hear about soldier on soldier murder at fort hood again, what goes through your mind, general honore? >> you know, the army post by

tradition is our sanctuary. where we come back it our families, to train for the next mission or deployment. to go on that deployment, come back to our families we leave, those who remain behind as well as the surrounding communities to take care of them. when violence like this happens it breaks that trust between a soldier and his family and his community. and i hope general milley can quickly tell the families there what's going on and allow them to go back about their normal business. this is about a city, equivalent of a city around 90,000 people collectively with families, kids, as well as civilians when you count all the soldiers. and you wouldn't lock a city down for that long. so he needs to get things back to normal, deal with the wounded, take care of the family-related and get that post back open so those families can get back about their lives and deal with this mourning that the families are going to have to go through. >> when he steps to the

microphone i'm sure general milley will give us the latest information, fatalities, those injured and where we go from here. how do you secure one of the largest military installations in the world? you're talking about fort hood, texas, where you served for two years. >> absolutely. we go through an extreme procedure of checking every vehicle coming on that post to make sure we know who's in it. and when we increase our readiness, we actually check the trunks of vehicles and talk to people. this is normal operation. we're not operating at a high event. so all the people in and off that installation by showing an i.d. or showing a sticker on the vehicle. so it is a controlled facility from that perspective. but it goes to show, wolf, this human condition we have that any place at any time, someone with a gun could take our people.

it happens almost daily in america. >> it certainly does. but not where a member of the united states military opens fire and starts killing fellow soldiers. it happened back in november 2009 when u.s. army major nidal hasan did that. he was eventually convicted of 13 counts of murder, 32 counts of attempted murder. that is a really rare occurrence, isn't it, general honore? >> absolutely, wolf. i think the data will show that. when it happens -- in the nidal case, hopefully we don't have a repeat of that, it's a double hit on our military families and our soldiers. because anywhere you wear that uniform people are looking at you with that eye of what might have happened on that post. it reflects on our community. but that's a strong community. they're resilient. they'll bounce back and they'll get better. hopefully not having to respond to another one of these anytime soon. and hopefully those families can get back to their lives. >> all right, general, thanks so much, general russell honore is

joining us. let me show our viewers what's going on right now. you're looking at live pictures from fort hood,texas. we expect lieutenant general mark milley to be speaking momentarily. in fact i think he's at the microphone right now or getting yesterday to wa ready to walk up to the microphone, one of the largest military bases in the world and united states. another horrible shooting incident occurred. second time in five years. and there have been multiple fatalities and casualties as a result of what happened today. let's take a quick break. when we come back we'll hear from the general. ♪ [ male announcer ] even more impressive than the research this man has at his disposal is how he puts it to work for his clients. morning. morning. thanks for meeting so early. come on in. [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones i dbefore i dosearch any projects on my home. i love my contractor,

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if you're just joining us we're following breaking news, tragic news out of fort hood, texas. multiple fa stalli multiple fatalities and multiple injuries, another shooting incident at the u.s. army base. second shooting rampage in less than five years. we're standing by for a news conference from the commanding officer, commander general at fort hood, lieutenant general mark milley. we'll get the latest details. number of people killed, number of people injured, where we go from here. who was the shooter. was there a motivation. was there any political motivation? what's going on.

we're going to be hearing from lieutenant general mark milley, the commander general at fort hood. we're told momentarily. we'll have live coverage of course here on cnn. in the meantime let's bring in our justice correspondent, pamela brown. she's got some new information. what are you learning, pamela? >> reporter: we're learning from sources, wolf, that the shooter in this case used a semiautomatic handgun. again learning from sources it's believed that the shooter used a semiautomatic handgun. we know that atf agents are there on the scene right now. they're going to be look at where this handgun was purchased, how the shooter obtained it and so forth. so in this early stage in this investigation, it is believed again that the shooter used a semiautomatic handgun. and also we're learning from sources as we've been sailiying it's believed this was a soldier on soldier incident, that's how this started. sources are telling us the attacker here was wearing fatigues. so perhaps that's what is leading investigators to believe that this began as a soldier on

soldier incident. but again it's still very preliminary. as we've been reporting, agents, fbi agents as well as local and state law enforcement there on the scene, still clearing out buildings, still going building to building. the area is still on lock down. so it's a very fluid and active situation. >> do we know anything about the shooter, any political motivation? >> reporter: i can tell you that at this early stage they are still trying to learn everything they can about the shooter, wolf. sources are telling us that they do not believe -- again preliminary -- that terrorism was a factor here. but of course, not ruling that out. what they're going to look at is this individual's social media commentary, any sort of pre-event indicators, any sort of trail this person left behind to show a motive of some sort. but it's just too early to definitively say whether there were any political motivations and that kind of thing, wolf. >> once again we're standing by for lieutenant general mark milley. he's the commander general at fort hood. he'll go to the microphones and make a statement and answer

reporters' questions. pamela, i know you're working your sources. we'll get back to you. let's get some context now. fort hood is certainly a sprawling u.s. army baseme it's america's largest army base. the shooting what was in the medical brigade building, that according to a soldier who lives nearby. tom foreman is joining us to give us a little bit more on exactly how this was unfolding and the nature of this huge base, tom. >> reporter: wolf, this is a big sprawling base. it's a big sprawling base for a reason this. base was actually founded to deal with issues of tank warfare many many years ago. so they needed a lot of land around for that purpose. basically the main part of the base is laid out through here, wolf, in sort of a rectangular pattern side to side. we go to the main gate of the base, this is the one that was shut down fairly early on in this process. and a lot of focus was right here for awhile in terms of making sure they knew who was coming and who was going. if you go down this road though

a bit, main road in, there's another checkpoint here. you come to the base headquarters right here. this is really the command center of the base in the middle where so many things would center around. then you mentioned the hospital and where the shooting is believed to have happened. that's all right down here, again very close. there's the gate over there, the headquarters over here. this is the big medical center there on the base that serves not only thousands of soldiers but thousands of families connected to those soldiers coming in there with their wives, their children, their husbands, all sorts of people who need some sort of care during this time. a very busy place right in here. we've mentioned many times, wolf, the shooting that happened before. if we go over here to the western end of the camp, the area of the post here you get to where the shootings happened with mnidal hasan. the building was slated to be torn down after his trial. a readiness center for soldiers there. this is all surrounded by communities that come right up to it.

the town of killeen, texas is very close by. one of the things we noted earlier that is worth remembering in all this, in fact this community has not only dealt with what happened on this base, with nidal hasan and this incident but 23 years ago just outside of the base at killeen, one of the biggest shootings in this country's history at the luby's cafeteria which affected many families connected to this base. so the civilian and the military community here has been through a tremendous amount in a very short time, wolf. certainly there are many people living on both sides of the base barrier here, the base boundary, who would remember all these incidents, wolf. >> so many of those soldiers from fort hood, they get ready at fort hood to go overseas during the war in iraq to iraq, to afghanistan, where it is a dangerous situation. they don't expect a dangerous situation on the home base at fort hood. that's why this i so, so awful, all right, tom, thanks very much. as we await the commander general from fort hood, cnn's ed

lavandara is standing by, he's over at fort hood at the gate there. he's joining us by phone. this news conference expected to begin, we're told, fairly soon, right? >> reporter: that's our understanding, several minutes away as you can imagine here tonight in fort hood and the surrounding area. a very tense situation. a lot of the victims at local hospitals are dealing with those victims and trying to save lives essentially at this point. we are told by one local hospital that they've taken in six shooting victims, that the conditions of those victims range anywhere from stable to several that were in critical condition. so you know intense care is going on right now and very close scrutiny being paid to the situation and the conditions of those soldiers. so even though things appear to at least the initial danger here has settled down, there's still a great deal of concern here. i've just pulled into the fort hood-killen area tonight. i can tell you driving the

streets coming in you can even tell in the town of killeen, somber, very quiet, not a lot of cars out on the road. and the entrances into the main gate completely quiet and guards are stationed up several hundred yards away from the main gate checking cars and asking people why they're pulling up into the area. so a situation that's very tense and a situation that many people are monitoring closely waiting to go seat conditions of the soldiers that were victims in today's shooting. >> ed lavandara on the scene for us now at fort hood. stand by, ed. we're going to get back to you. we're waiting to hear from the fort hood commanding general shortly. the news conference getting ready to begin. we'll take another quick break. much more of our special coverage right after this. i have low testosterone. there, i said it.

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approaching the top of the hour right now. we're about to learn much more about the shooting today in ft. hood, texas. the commanding general expected to greet reporters momentarily. we have live coverage gearing up for all of you. in the meantime, let's bring in our panel. to discuss what's going on. spider, you're familiar with the u.s. military. it's a heartbreaking situation when you see, as we did back in 2009, a united states major, an army major nidal husan randomly murdering fellow soldiers. something similar happened

today. we know there are multiple fatalities and injuries. we do know that a united states soldier opened fire on fellow soldiers. >> it's a horrible situation to be a part of, it really is. again, we don't know enough about what just took place. we know everything about what major nidal hasan did and how he, in his own twisted way, attributed post traumatic stress and affiliation with soldiers who had just come back. he had not deployed but had assimilated on himself and took it out on additional soldiers before they deployed. that was a horrible incident. but we move forward. we need to be very cautious about what we know right now and what we can speculate about. there are not enough facts. we've all tried to dance around the fact. we don't know enough. hopefully the general will lay out information in great detail so that we can all, especially

the community, can get their arms around that. i lived at ft. hood as a child and as a commander at a relatively senior level. those connections into the community can't be anymore fulsome or rich. so the ft. hood community and the local community grieves, as well. the general has this obligation to embrace that entire community and tell them what he knows, not allow for speculation and go about the business of healing. then there's going to be a full after action review to determine what can we take from this and put back in the force to be better prepared for these types of incidents. >> we can learn from this to make sure it doesn't happen again. tom, this is going to be the u.s. military taking the lead in this investigation. it occurred on a military base, although the fbi is being brought in to help, right? >> normally the fbi would have jurisdiction, but they have a

prior agreement between the fbi and the u.s. army in particular that soldier on soldier will be handled by army criminal investigative division, with fbi support, both in the forensics and any other leads that need to be covered in the investigation. >> we should know soon enough, peter bergen, if there was some terrorist inspired motive for what happened today, as there clearly was with major nidal hasan. >> in the case of nidal hasan, he had given a number of strange briefings, which a number of officers complained about. you know, in one briefing in 2007 two years before he did the attack, which was supposed to be about environmental issues, he started talking about the war on terror and being a war against islam in his view. he also applied for a conscientious objector status. he tried to drop out of the army. that was not successful. as general marks was saying,

part of his motivation it seems, it was quite worried about deploying to afghanistan. you know, he presented as a sort of heroic act. but i think he didn't want to go to afghanistan basically. >> everyone stand by. let's take another quick break. we'll be right back. [ male anns joe woods' first day of work. and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, and he'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. it's just common sense. with olive garden's new cucina mia for just $9.99. italian dinner first, choose unlimited soup or salad. then create your own pasta with one of five homemade sauces. and finish with dessert.

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truly heartbreaking evening

at ft. hood, texas. another mass shooting with memories of the first ones still so terribly fresh. any moment now the base commander will go before the cameras and tell us precisely what's going on. our special coverage continues throughout the night, starting right now with don lemon. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> this is a cnn special report. i'm don lemon. i'm going to begin with breaking news on that deadly shooting at ft. hood, texas. the situation still considered an active scene. the suspected shooter is dead. that's according to officials. but a senior military official tells cnn there are multiple fatalities. at least six people are wounded. their conditions range from stable to quite critical. we have learned the shooter used a semiautomatic and was wearing fatigues. and the shooting