our coverage continues right now with rachel maddow. >> good evening, it's now 9:00 on the east coast, we're continuing our breaking news coverage tonight of what has turned out to be another deadly shooting at the ft. hood military base just outside of waco texas. it's equal distance between waco and central texas. it's one of the largest u.s. military facilities anywhere in the world. ft. hood was the scene of a shooting almost five years ago. the shooter in that previous incident was convicted on capital murder charges last august. he has since been sentenced to death the same army base again

went into lockdown and is the site of what is reported to be gunshot wounds and fatal injuries. the latest information we have right now is that four people have been confirmed dead at ft. hood and 11 more have been wounded. those numbers have fluk tour a ited widely over the course of the day and tonight as recently as the last half hour the latest numbers we have are four confirmed dead and 11 additional persons who have been wounded. the important detail we're learning tonight from nbc news among the four people who are reported to have been killed is the suspected shooter himself. he appears to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wounds at the base. this all started around 4:30 p.m. local time this afternoon.

the shooter at that point was said to be inside a building called the medical brigade building on base. witnesses describe hearing 20 shots being fired. shortly afterwards, warning sirens went off at the base. >> all ft. hood personnel were ordered to shelter in place immediately. ft. hood personnel were instructed to close all doors and stay away from windows huge base. tens of thousands of army personnel were ordered into a lockdown position. about an hour after those first reports came out, ft. hood posted a statement confirming a shooting had taken place. there had been reports of

injuries and emergency crews were on scene. in addition to the lockdown that was ordered at ft. hood. a college located right near the base, they also cancelled all their evening classes and asked all students and faculty to evacuate the area immediately. the emergency response to this incident was not just from ft. hood personnel on base. the bell's county sheriff's office dispatched people to the scene. president obama was informed of the shooting late tonight after giving a speech at the university of michigan earlier today, the president delivered this statement to reporters just a short time ago in chicago. >> i just got off the phone with the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff to get the latest report on the situation in ft. hood. we're following it closely. the situation it fluid right

now, my national security team is in contact with not just the defense department, but the 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 assure all of us that we are going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. any shooting is troubling. obviously this reopens the pain of what happened in ft. hood five years ago. we know these families. we know their incredible service to our country and the sacrifices that they make. our thoughts and prayers were -- are with the entire community. and we are going to do everything you can to make sure that the community at ft. hood has what it needs to deal with the current situation. but also, any potential aftermath.

we're heart broken that something like this might have happened again. and i don't want to comment on the facts until i know exactly what has happened. but for now, i would just hope that everybody across the country is keeping the families and the community of ft. hood in our thoughts and prayers. the folks there have sacrifices so much on behalf of our freedom. many of the people there have been through multiple tours in iraq and afghanistan. they serve with valor, and they serve with distinction. and when they're at their home base, they need to feel safe. we don't yet know what happened tonight, but obviously, that sense of safety has been broken once again, and we're going do have to find out exactly what happened. >> that's president obama speaking just moments ago in chicago, he was there on a

campaign style event at the university of michigan today. the details out of ft. hood tonight are still fluid, but the latest that we have at this hour is that four people have been killed on base, 11 more have been wounded in a shooting at the ft. hood military base. the four dead are believed to include the suspected shooter who is reported to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. there are initial reports that it was suspected there were two shooters involved in this incident. those reports are now believed to be false and it is thought there was one shooter in this incident. ft. hood officials say the injured personnel are being transported to local hospitals at this hour. scott & white memorial hospital reported within the last few minutes they have received a total of four patients so far, all of whom have gunshot wounds. they describe their conditions as ranging from stable to quite critical.

they said they had two more patients enroute by air, patients being medevaced to that level one trauma facility. they're expected to go immediately into surgery upon arrival at that facility. military officials are telling nbc news they have identified the gunman, a 34-year-old man, an enlisted soldier in the u.s. army, named ivan lopez. he may have been stations at ft. hood, at this hour, the lockdown has been lifted. this is still a very fluid story with our level of information out of ft. hood changing, and frankly increasing by the minute. something we're keeping an eye on right now, i got a second monitor i am watching, they just set up microphones and cameras and lights at the main gates just outside the main entrance to ft. hood, which means we are awaiting a news conference from u.s. army officials and base officials on those shootings. joining us now is jim

miklaszewski, he's nbc news chief pentagon correspondent. mik, thank you for being with us. what's the latest you're hearing from your pentagon sources tonight, and anything that i just said, is it obsolete at this point? >> it appears to have been one lone shooter, ivan lopez, and according to military and federal officials, this shooting rampage started as a result of an argument that erupted in the motor pool there at ft. hood normally soldiers when they're on the base do not carry weapons. the rules and regulations are different at each individual base. but after that 2009 incident in which army major nadal hassan shot and killed 13, wounded 32 for which he was eventually convicted and sentenced to death, he's still on death row

as of tonight. there were some strict rules about the carrying of weapons on base. now, if in fact you're in uniform on a military base, you could carry easily carry a weapon in a backpack, in a pocket of your bdu's and not be stopped, frisked, go through any metal detectors. the fact is on any military base around the world, there are a lot of guns. and as we've seen now at ft. hood twice, they are used in tragic mass shootings. >> let me ask you for some clarification on that, from the officials that are telling you about this idea that it may have stemmed from some sort of argument that erupted at the motor pool, are they describing this as a heat of the moment event? a heat of the moment reaction? or is this something where this agrieved shooter for whatever reason that he was agrieved actually plotted this out in response to an earlier event.

>> nobody knows, that's way too early yet. the fbi, the u.s. military are working together on this? as far as we know, they have yet to gather any meaningful forensic evidence. go to his -- wen don't know if he lived in a private home on base, in a barracks, they would obviously seek out his computers, his cell phone. figure out as they did with nadal hassan, figure out who he had been in contact with. to try to figure out the motive. right now, we're only hearing it was some sort of altercation, and a shooting erupted. the motive is entirely unclear at this point. >> do we know if anybody who knew the alleged shooter has made themselves available to authorities or to reporters or any of your sources on this story? now that a name has been out there for more than an hour, has anybody who knew him or could speak to him, even his potential

innocence, has anybody come forward on his behalf? >> if they have, you can bet that federal and military investigators will keep that person under tight raps. and so far we haven't heard about any potential witnesses coming forward who may have known this suspect, who may have known what his motive may have been. >> jim, one last question for you about the immediate response here, obviously, ft. hood has been through a mass shooting not that long ago, 4.5 years ago, 2009, did that affect the ability of the base to respond once it was apparent that there was another active shooter? do we know anything about the immediate first responders type response here? both in terms of trying to go after the shooter, but also trying to rescue the wounded and the hurt? >> by all initial accounts, the security forces there at ft. hood responded quickly and took appropriate actions. there was a lot of chaos, some people reported a shooter from

one angle some from another angle which made it appear there could have been two shooters. so once they determined that the shooter himself had apparently shot and killed himself, they nevertheless continued their methodical and really aggressive search of the surrounding areas. there were reports, for example that security forces were marching people including families out of buildings at gunpoint. forcing them down on the ground so that they could be searched in the event -- in the possibility that there may have been another shooter. i, you know, it's clear they learned their lessons from that 2009 shooting incident in terms of an immediate response. and again, in terms of the fact that a soldier on a military base would have a gun, it's impossible to believe that that would ever be totally eliminated. and so, therefore, that threat

in some respects will probably always exist. >> and in terms of motivation to be clear, nothing has surfaced to suggest any sort of political or ideological or radicalized motivation for a shooting like this. if they're suggesting it was a product of some sort of altercation or argument, that would seem to preclude any deeper seeded reason for this? >> people are digging as deeply as they can, as quickly as they can into his private effects in an attempt to -- talking to everyone they can in an attempt to learn a motive, if they even have an inkling, they aren't sharing it with us. >> jim miklaszewski on this story from the beginning. thanks. >> let's bring in jim cavanaugh, he's a former hostage negotiator. thank you for helping us tonight. appreciate you being here? >> thanks, rachel.

>> the last question we were discussing with mr. miklaszewski there. the question about motive, my guess is that you do not approach an investigation like this with motive as your first -- as the first thing that you are trying to diseacertain. but where does an investigation like this start? >> what you're going after when a suspect is deceased. is there any other conspirators or people involved. you play be able to sort that out quick if it looks like a lone actor. then the investigators, this is going to be the forward agency on this is going to be the united states army criminal investigation division called the criminal investigation command. they're extremely good. i worked with them for years. some of the best investigators in the world. they have a big contingent in ft. hood. they're set up just like federal civilian law enforcement agencies. they have special agents in charge.

supervisors, agents. they're great investigators. and what they're going to try to do is go back on mr. lopez here and get a motivational picture. they're going to want to know everything about his life for the past 60 days. when you're running a case like this, you want to know everything about him, his influences, his behaviors, where he goes, who he visits. what did he have for breakfast a month ago. you're trying to put the picture together of who mr. lopez is, and you're looking for what is the motivational picture that would drive this kind of activity. >> with army cid taking that kind of controlling role in this type of investigation, what role is there for these fbi agents who we saw as part of the response today. texas state troopers who we saw as part of the response, county sheriffs personnel moving in. with all of these different jurisdictions having some claim to what happened there in central texas, how is it

organized and who reports to o who? >> what we do when we get to these things, we set up what we call a joc. it's the joint operational center, and that's where the command is. and the commanders from all the agencies. the special agents in charge, and the chiefs of the agencies collectively are there, and usually we have a giant room set up, like a giant boiler room, phones and computers. and then the assignments are made, and you know, there may be -- between the agencies, as if there's no difference. the u.s. marshall and a dea agents may go out on this lead. u.s. army cid may go out in that lead. it all comes back to the command it's sorted through, it's very cleaningial. hollywood likes to have lots of infighting. once in a while there's disputes between agencies, actually, they're all like brothers, they fight amongst themselves a little bit, but to get the job

done. clearly this will happen at ft. hood, everybody will pull together, they'll get the facts, but unfortunately, it's not going to bring the people back. >> jim, let me just ask you, considering the prior incident at ft. hood five years ago, how does that affect the response to an ongoing incident like this, how would that have affected the planning for another active shooter. this is a huge military base, one of the biggest ones in the world, tens of thousands of army personnel and their families, it takes a big chunk of that area in central texas. it was chosen as that site because it was sprawling, they could do large scale weapons training there. it's a big place, with a ton of people. but also this very recent history, how would that have affected their planning for a response to something like this? >> they've had a fast response. you heard jim miklaszewski talk about how the teams were moving

quickly. the mp's, the base police, i'm sure they swiftly move. they started evacuating everybody. if you have a shooter that has a handgun with 15 rounds, for example. he can unload those 15 rounds in a matter of seconds. five seconds, eight seconds. he could shoot all those rounds. there's no possible way that the base police or the mp's could get there necessarily. it depends how the shooting unraveled and how it unfolded. was it all in one room or two adjacent rooms? did he walk distances and we've seen all these different cases. you can shoot the rounds quickly, you have 14 people shot and the shooter dead. you have somewhere around that number of rounds shot. and it can happen very quickly. >> thank you very much for helping us understand this, really appreciate having you here, jim. a former atf agent and hostage

negotiator. in terms of what mr. carvin awe was saying about how this unfolded and the response to it. who may be among the victims here. we don't know if this was a targeted shooting, whether this was bystanders, whether this was some sort of ambush or something more like what happened in ft. hood in 2009, where the shooter essentially shot in a fan pattern near him, and people who were unlucky enough to be near him were most likely to be shot. we are going to be trying to figure out some of the locations described by people who were the initial witnesses phoning in to news stations and posting things on to social media about where the shooters were. the first reports were from the medical brigade 3wi8ding on ft. hood. later in the evening, officials are telling nbc news, that this may have stemmed from an argument that erupted at the motor pool on base. again, ft. hood is a large, sprawling facility. in terms of understanding

exactly what happened here, the way this unfolded, who may have been in the path of the shooter and how many people he tried to get access to before he eventually reportedly took his own life, we're going to be looking at that geography among all the other details we can get our hands on. we are awaiting news -- a press conference from a ft. hood spokesperson. they're set up right now at the front gates at ft. hood, we're expecting this first press statement from ft. hood itself momentarily. the latest numbers right now according to nbc news, four dead reportedly the shooter. some of those wounded are said to be in critical condition. stay with us, we'll be right back. gy and a life of purpose and meaning was infused into a corporate culture. there was a commitment to creating new jobs out of recycled metals, right here in america. and a bank that helped carolyn rafaelian's business

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contact your doctor right away. other serious stomach conditions may exist. avoid if you take clopidogrel. for many, relief is at hand. ask your doctor about nexium. continuing to follow the breaking news tonight out of ft. hood texas where there has been another deadly shooting on the u.s. military base at ft. hood. we are awaiting a news conference from ft. hood. that will be the first news conference we've had from authorities at ft. hood. we're expecting to get from them the latest information about the shooting that could start at any moment. we're keeping an eye on the cameras and lights and microphones they have set up there. we're expecting at least the official u.s. army spokesman for the base to be speaking nbc news has confirmed there are four people dead in this incident and 11 more people wounded. the shooting took place at ft. hood texas, which is one of the biggest u.s. military

installations in the world. the suspected shooter in this incident is among those reported to be dead. in his case, he's reportedly dead by a self-inflicted gunshot wound obviously this is an outrageous and horrify iing situation. this is exacerbated by the recent history at ft. hood in november 2009, the same military base is the scene of the same kind of shooting. >> good evening, the largest military post deals with a colossal loss of life. the numbers have gone up to 13 killed, 43 injured in that single attack on ft. hood in texas. and a new picture is emerging of

this accused gunman literally and figuratively, the army major, a trained psychiatrist. >> the army's top brass at ft. hood today leading soldiers in a moment of silence. exactly 24 hours after one of their own turned this state side post into a battleground. >> i'll tell you candidly, this was a kick in the gut. not only the ft. hood community but also our entire army. >> nadal hassan turned on the very soldiers he was charged with carrying for. when at 1:34 p.m., hassan opened fire inside the ft. soldier readiness center, men and women preparing for deployment were undergoing medical screenings. a group filing into a graduation ceremo ceremony. the rampage ended when kimberly

munley shot hassan four times wounding him, despite being shot herself. >> 12 of those killed in the 2009 shooting were soldiers, one was a civilian, initially thought nadal hassan had been killed at the scene of the rampage. he was shot, but he survived his injuries. paralyzed from the chest down, but he lived. nadal hassan was an army psychiatrist, a u.s. citizen who was a muslim who became radicalized once he was in the army. he never denied being the shooter in ft.hood, he cited his rall callized beliefs for the reason he shot and killed 13 people and injured more than 30 others. nadal hassan tried to mount his own defense he was found guilty and sentenced to death. although that sounds like maybe the suspected sentence for a suspected mass murderer, it should be known that a sentence of capital punishment is extremely rare in a military

court-martial, but he is on federal death row right now. after that 2009 shooting the worst shooting to take place on an american military base in history. could anything have been done to stoop nadal hassan before he killed those people? in 2010 the pentagon launched an internal investigation into what went wrong. they revealed a wide range possibilities. the pentagon report issued 47 different recommendations for how to make u.s. military installations safer. later two years later, another report was made public. this one commissioned by the then director of the fbi. it was supposed to find out what the fbi knew about nadal hassan before the shooting and how they handled the information that they had about them.

the report found there was e-mail traffic between nadal hassan and a suspected terrorist overseas, they did not share that information with anyone outside of the fbi. they should have played that information known to the major's bosses. what happened today at ft. hood is very different from that shooting rampage in 2009. the alleged shooter is believed to be dead in this incident is believed to have started the shooting incident. some sort of dispute with people on base, he's thought to be an enlisted army soldier who lived in the ft. hood area. we expect to learn more, perhaps as soon as we hear from ft. hood authorities. they're due to start a press conference shortly, within the next few minutes. looking back at 2009. at the last mass shooting at

this same base. after those investigations into what went wrong in 2009 at the same base. how is it possible that this happened again. at the same base. did the u.s. military succeed in what they said would make these -- what was aimed at making their bases safe? i want to bring in the former director of the u.s. counter terrorism michael lighter, he served in the bush administration and obama add men trace station. >> it's too soon to try to take a big look at what has happened because we're not sure what has happened yet? >> that's right looking back at 2009 -- did that change the shootings. >> i have to say up front. >> i think what it did show,

military bases aren't immune from the violence we've seen in society with guns. you can move around on a military base with a weapon just as you can anywhere else in the society. i think the security steps that were taken were largely focused on insider threats associated with known terrorist organizations and ideologies. they did a much better job in 2009 of connecting the dots. but if this isn't in that category, there's not a lot in my view that was done in 2009 which keeps people who have other problems from getting a gun and getting on a base. viewers have to understand, this isn't like the movies. bases are relatively open. you have an i.d., you come in. it's much easier to get on to a base than to your flight at an airport. they come on bases, if they want to bring guns, there's nothing the military can realistically

do to stop them. >> you don't think about the military as being a gun free zone. to be clear, though, what you're saying, is that essentially the lesson of the hassan shooting in 2009 was to pay more attention to potential terrorist connections and potential radicalized motivation among individuals, to try to learn to spot those things. and from what we know about this case, there's no reason that would have applied to stopping this particular shooter? >> that's exactly right. the failures we had in ft. hood in 2009 were people in the military not seeing signs and symptoms and warning signs of radicalization. people in the fbi not understanding them, and both sides not communicating with each other. we have no idea, it doesn't look like that happened here, i think the other piece that the military has been struggling with, over the past 13 years of conflicts in iraq and afghanistan are broader issues of the pressure on the force and the families, and certainly

people who had been deployed, people who have not been deployed over the past 12 or 134 years, the military has seen significant increases in suicides, other forms of violence. the military has focused tremendous resources and who knows if that's a part here. there's both the insider threat piece and then there's simply the pressure which is on the force as a result of these wars which really can lead to some very unfortunate circumstances. >> let me ask you as another axis on that graph. rather than focusing on the potential perpetrators of these crimes, either because of somebody cracking under some kind of pressure, the kind of pressure that could affect a civilian or has been under combat stress or anything else, isn't there also a consideration that members of the united states military made themselves be at heightened risk of being

targeted? isn't it possible that the u.s. military bases should be seen as targets themselves, have to be hardened because they house military personnel? >> they are viewed that way, and really going back to the uss cole attacked overseas many war zones have been attacked targeted by terrorists. they are viewed as that, they are a harder target if you're a civilian and you don't have access to a base, it's harder to attack a military base than it would be to walk into a shopping mall and shoot people. >> but somewhere between shopping mall and airport is how we protect our bases. >> if you don't already have access to those places, it's hard to get in. >> and the naval facility. the navy yards? >> if you have access to those

bases, it's really no harder than walking into almost any other office building anywhere in the united states. in that sense, the military remains vulnerable to its own personnel that has already given a card of trust to. it's not immune from the pressures that lead to violence or the presence of guns in these sorts of facilities. >> michael lighter, again, i should mention was deeply involved in the nadal hassan investigation in the 2009 ft. hood attack. thanks for being with us. we are awaiting the press conference which will be the first press conference. the first opportunity to explain things and answer questions from personnel at ft. hood itself. the ft. hood press conference we are expecting. stay with us, we'll have it here live. around here you don't make excuses. you make commitments. and when you can't live up to them, you own up, and make it right.

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they were thought to be quite seriously wounded tonight. the death toll is four, including the alleged shooter. we're awaiting a press conference at the gates of ft. hood, that will be the first time today or don't that we have heard from ft. hood itself. we're expecting lieutenant general martin milli to be explaining the situation on base. that is shortly and hopefully the lieutenant general will be taking questions as well. the press is assembly right now. beyond the story today, there was some important political news today. the united states supreme court issued a landmark ruling that's being decried on the left. making the democrats very unhappy, the republicans very happy. it's campaign finance ruling. the supreme court did that today, and we have that story for you as well. mine was earned in korea in 1953.

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limits on the aggregate amount of money that any one donor can spend on candidates and political parties in any one election. there used to be a limit of about $123,000 for what you could spend on federal candidates, and the fund-raising committees for the political parties. that aggregate limit is now struck down. so for the very fortunate people in our country who are bumping up against that six figure ceiling in terms of what they wanted to donate in an election cycle. those folks are now free to be way more powerful than you and me. there's still a limit on what you can spend directly on any one candidate. or the various committees. if you have the means to write large checks to political candidates. they cleared the way for you to break out the pen and do what you wanted to do. that was the decision today by the john roberts led majority. interestingly today, justice

steven breyer who was not part of the majority, who was part of the descenting four liberal justices in this decision, he took the very unusual step of reading his descent outloud from the bench in open court. along with the parts he read outloud, justice breyer, and three other descenting justices included a set of tables, showing how getting rid of the aggregate limit creates a loophole, in which not only can you blow through what used to be the aggregate ceiling of what you can donate in any one election cycle, you can blow through the still in tact limit on what any one donor can give to any one candidate. justice breyer said it eviscerated the campaign finance laws. today's ruling creates a loophole that will allow a single individual to contribute millions of dollars to a

political party or a condition day date's campaign. and he provides tables in his descent showing you just how to do that. along with those tabulated calculations, justice breyer also quotes from the historic record of elected officials testifying about the effect on congress of outsized giant donations. i think the effect of justice breyer reading his descent outloud is going to be remembered as the important thing in this ruling. obviously the effect of the ruling itself is important, but the descent from justice breyer was rare, informed and in its words. he said the decision understates the importance of protecting the political integrity of our government institutions, taken together with citizens united eadvicer ates our campaign finance laws, leaving a remnant incapable of dealing with the grave problems of democratic legitimacy that those laws were intended to resolve according to justice breyer today, where

enough money calls the tune, the general public will not be heard. corruption cuts the link between political thought and action, a free marketplace of political ideas loses its point. analyzing the decision today in the new york times, nicholas bottom lines it like this, he says, the ruling most impowers two groups of people, those with the wherewithal to spend millions of dollars on campaign contributions and those with access to them. oh, good because those folks didn't have enough influence in our politics already. joining us now, nicholas contisori. thanks for being here. >> when you said that the two people who are going to benefit the most here include people with millions of dollars to spend on campaign contributions, some of the limits that exist on those contributions are in tact. >> that's correct. justice breyer essentially said they're not in tact in anyway that means anything, the

loopholes are big enough to drive a truck through? >> under current law, you can give $5,200 to any candidate you want. but there's this overall cap on how much you can spend in total, which means you can only give to about nine candidates around the country. what's happened today, they've removed that cap, can you make the contribution to every candidate, every party and every political action committee in the entire cun 9. >> and then if they form joint fund-raising committees, once you donated to all of those different candidates, the people to whom have you donated can move the money around in such a way they may be able to funnel it all to one guy anyway? >> that's correct. we saw a version of this in 2012, under the current cap. both candidates for president would actually raise these large checks for a couple of state parties, and eventually the state parties would give the money to other states and battleground states and it would be spent on the activities which

would benefit the people who would raise the money. the important thing here, it puts presidents and politicians and others back in the business of soliciting two and three million dollar checks, we haven't had the soft money days, the lincoln bedroom scandals. >> i think part of the reason it was hard initially to appreciate the magnitude of this ruling, we're used to billionaires spends tens of millions of dollars in elections. they've done that through other means. it seems like what changed today, yeah, billionaires can still spend that money the way they have been in the past. but now other dobillionaires ca spend that money not just for independent expenditures. this many can go to the candidates themselves and the political parties themself snds. >> it can go right into the system of candidates and parties. you can get huge amounts of money. remember an official asking for this check or a lobbyist or donor who is giving it, in the old days it might have been a

few thousand dollars or $20,000. now if you're nancy pelosi, john boehner, you can go to your best donors and say, if you have $2 million, i have you have $2 mila way to use all of it. >> and i can maybe use it to funnel all of it to one single candidate who needs it the most. >> imagine what the donors are going to want in exchange for that money. >> and this is now the law. this is the supreme court. this is amazing. political reporter for "the new york times." it was a little hurly purl y bu getting you in here with all the breaking news. again, we eerp awaiting the press conference from torte authorities at ft. hood. ft. hood has not yet spoken about the mass shooting that happened there today, but we're expecting that press conference within the next few minutes. please stay with us. [ female announcer ] grow, it's what we do.

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>> we're continuing to follow the breaking news at this hour of the deadly shooting that took place tonight at the ft. hood military installation just outside of waco, texas. that took place at 4:30 p.m. local time, about 5:30 p.m. on the east coast. at this hour, the latest information that we have is that four people have been confirmed dead in the shooting. 11 people are said to be injured. among those confirmed dead is reported to be the suspected shooter. reportedly a 34-year-old named ivan lopez, who, again,

reportedly is an enlisted soldier in the u.s. army. that's not officially confirmed by the u.s. army publicly, nor do we have any information about mr. lopez's rank or his service history. nbc's jim miklaszewski is told by officials that the shooting appeared to have stemmed from an argument that took place in the motor pool at ft. hood. beyond that report, though, we do not have any detail about what may have led to the shooting or whether the victims in this shooting may have been targeted specifically. in terms of the 11 people known to be injured, a local hospital has been receiving the wounded. they announced within the last hour that they had received four patients tonight already at their level one trauma facility. they said the four patients they had already received ranged from stable to very critical. those hospital officials also said at the last hour they were awaiting the arrival of two more patients who they say were very seriously wounded and who were expected to go straight into

surgery upon their arrival at scott and white. all the injured are said to be suffering from singular or multiple gunshot wounds. ft. hood, of course, was the scene of the deadliest rampage in a military installation ever. in november '09, an army psychiatrist open fired and killed 13 people and injured more than 30 others. the shooter in that incident was convicted on capital murder charge last year. he's currently on death row. but again tonight at ft. hood, there has been another mass shooting. at this point, four confirmed dead, including the suspected shooter and another 11 injured. ft. hood officials are expected to provide their first live update on the situation there within the next few minutes. we'll be right back. ♪

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should be expected at 9:15 central time, 10:10 on the east coast. within a few minutes of that start time, we're also told to expect another update from scott and white memorial hospital, which is a local hospital that's treating six of the injured, including patients who may be the most seriously injured of the 11 people who were shot in this incident but survived. so this next hour is going to be crucial and it's going to be very busy. please stay tuned to msnbc for our continuing coverage. within minutes, we expect to hear from military officials for the first time about this afternoon's mass shooting at ft. hood. >> once again tonight, we are covering reports of a shooting at ft. hood in texas. >> the shooting incident is totally over and the lockdown has been lifted. >> all on base were told to take shelter where they were. >> it's believed now there was a single shooter. >> one shooter and the shooter is dead. >> the shooter is now dead along