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tv   Hardball With Chris Matthews  MSNBC  April 2, 2014 11:00pm-12:01am PDT

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self-reported a traumatic brain injury previously come back from the iraq tour. >> was he on medication? >> he was on medication, thank you so much for watching. you're watching msnbc. within minutes, we expect to hear from military officials for the first time about the afternoon's mass shooting at ft. hood. >> once again tonight, we're covering reports of a shooting 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 shootincident 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 with three other victims. >> and a fourth is reported to be in extremely critical condition. >> the situation is fluid right now. >> the president is traveling in chicago. he's been informed. >> we are going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. >> in the chaos, they were getting conflicting reports. >> any shooting is troubling. >> hauntingly reminiscent of the
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2009 shooting. >> we're heartbroken that something like this might have happened again. happened again. >> three people wer three people were killed after a lone gunman open fired at ft. hood, texas. military officials tell msnbc the shooter is also dead and took his own life. he has been identified by officials as 34-year-old ivan lopez, an enlisted army soldier. at least 11 people were wounded in the shooting. the condition of those victims ranges from stable to critical, according to hospital officials. the shots were fired around 4:30 this afternoon. alarms on the base went off immediately and people were told to shelter in place. >> shelter immediately. >> ft. hood is no longer on lockdown. officials say the fbi is on the scene and there's no indication that this incident is tied to any form of terrorism. >> ft. hood is no longer on lockdown. officials say the fbi is on the scene and there's no indication that this incident is tied to
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any form of terrorism. according to nbc news pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski. officials believe it began as an argument that erupted into gunfire. pete williams reports that there is still an ongoing search for a possible second gunman, but officials increasingly believe there was only one shooter. both president obama and defense secretary hagel have been briefed. the president made a statement in chicago earlier. >> i want to just assure all of us that we are going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. you know, any shooting is troubling. obviously this reopens the pain of what happened at ft. hood five years ago. we know these families. we know their incredible service to our country and the sacrifices that they make.
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obviously our thoughts and prayers are with the entire community, and we're going to do everything we 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. >> join meg now is nbc news justice correspondent, pete williams. pete, could you sum up what we know as of now? >> well, i can tell you what we think we know, lawrence. officials say this does not appear to be any act of terrorism. it appears that the gunman was upset about something. there was some kind of an argument, and he open fired and the casualties are what you renumerated earlier. many sources tell us the name of the gunman, who authorities say killed himself after firing all these shots. they identify him as ivan a. lopez, 34 years old. he's in the army, he was wearing a uniform, people say.
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people familiar with the military will understand what i mean when they say he was an e-4. that means a low-ranking enlisted person. either a corporate or specialist rank, and he had served in the puerto rican army national guard. we don't have his service record. we don't know how long he had been at ft. hood. we don't know what the nature of argument was, other than to say that this was some kind of argument or some kind of -- some sort of animosity, not something that was preplanned, they say. this is the initial information that we're getting. and not anything that was related to terrorism or anything like the major hasam shooting. they don't appear to have anything in common with each other. >> when do they think they will be able to tell the full story. >> these thing always take time to make sure, you know, what
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know what you don't know know. they'll certainly be going through his past, searching his house, looking at his writings, looking at his computer, looking at his e-mails, seeing if there's anything that would give any kind of warning that something like this was going to happen. nay eel talk to witnesses, what his grievances were, if he had any disciplinary problems. so probably several days before sufficiently have their arms around it to say with some confidence they know everything there was to know. we're hoping to get some bare bones details here. >> we believe the press conference isless than ten minutes away, pete. there was a period where they were considering the possibility of mor than one gunman. do you know, pete, how they eliminated that possibility? >> i think talking to witnesses is what got them on to the idea
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that there was more than one person firing shots at the beginning. and subsequently doing searching and talking to more witnesses is probably what got them off of that idea. they seem to be pretty confident now that there was just one single gunman. and pete, as this unfolds, who will have primary jurisdiction over this investigation? >> it's going to be a military investigation because it was on a military base, committed by a person in uniform. if it was a civilian person on a military base, that would be different. if the gunman had survived it would be a military prosecution. the fbi will certainly assist in whatever it can do in off-base investigations, but they will do so at the request of the military. it will be a mail tear case. >> the fbi is standing by to offer suggestions and assistance? >> absolutely. >> pete williams, thank you very much for joining us tonight. i'm joined by a law enforcement analyst, former police officer
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and former special agent with the atf. and eugene o'donnell, professor of law and police study an jot jay college of criminal study and a former police officer. jim, what do you make of the state of the evidence as we have it now? >> i think there's more to be learned about the argument that resulted in 14 people being shot. normally you're not arguing with 14 people. so it's going to be something deeper than that. why this happened as it did, maybe there's some animosity, some revenge. there's suicide here, and if you want to look for the answers in suicide, often you have to look to humiliation. so we'll see. i've had cases as a cop, and i'm sure your other guest has as well, where a person gets in a fight with someone in a tavern
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or a bar and he shoots the person he's arguing with and shoots other people as well. that happens sometimes. but 14 people is an awful lot of people. so i think there's something else that the military is going to learn or tell us when the u.s. army criminal investigation division and all the agencies collectively will help them. the sheriff's department, state troopers, to get the answers. >> eugene o'donnell, is one of the possibilities we might discover on the 14th that this is kind of wild shooting where it wasn't necessarily a deliberate attempt to get each one of these 14 people? >> sure. there's a lot of history of people have a long grievance. sometimes they don't get the right person even. they take this to their grave, so you never really get a clear picture very often of why they're doing this. i mean, what story they have is they take with them. >> and we're probably just a few minutes now away from this press
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conference that we've been waiting for. jim cavanaugh, if you could get a question in at this press conference, what would you focus on? >> i want to know if the soldier who committed suicide in the shooting here, was he under any disciplinary problem? was he about to be disciplined for anything? loses his position? was he being reassigned? any conditions, medical conditions, disputes with his bosses, in ig like that that the mill taur could tell you. what you're looking for is, you know, a precipitating event. something that, you know, might have caused the person to shoot all these people. and, you know, that precipitating event could have happened before and then the argument happens today. so i just want to know the answers to those kinds of questions, you know, as a starting point. of. >> and eugene, in terms of what
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actually happened in the shooting, we would like to know, for example, how many weapons do we think we used. this could have been more than one gun that he was firing. >> absolutely. and obviously clearly to make sure there's nobody else involved, because as it appears at this point, there's nobody else involved. but you certainly want to go the extra distance to make sure there's absolutely no link to anyone else. >> and jim, how -- this question of premeditation, i think, is a little trickier than we may be presenting it right now. he could easily have had an angry outburst, but it could have been something that was brewing. it could have been something he thought about to some extent before this happened. >> right, lawrence. and what happens is sometimes these guys collect grudges. you know, they save them up, they carry them around and, you know, he could have had a pistol with him, for example, in a crowded place, and, you know, he launched out at someone. it's just a possibility. we don't have the answer. but these things do happen. they build up. you know, if you look at shooters, like, say, virginia
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tech. that built up over a number of months for him, over his grades, over his feeling alone, over his mental instability. there was a whole lot of issues there. it didn't happen one day. the thing, people say he snapped, that really doesn't happen. it brews for a long time, they come to the attention of people, the shooter in tucson, he came to the attention of the authorities on the college, his teachers. and, you know, they wanted him offcampus. it didn't happen all of a sudden, but then he's out with a gun and he's looking for the act, the grudge, the revenge. you know, the suicide, if you will. and so what the investigators may do is go back and see if they can pick up any of the beginnings of this horrific event. >> i want to listen more to what the president had to say today, especially about this occurring at this particular location. a. >> the folks there sacrifice so much on behalf of our freedom.
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many of the people there have been through multiple tours in iraq and afghanistan. they served 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. >> joining us now by phone, msnbc military analyst colonel jack jacobs. jack, i want to get your reaction to this in effect lightning striking twice in the same place. >> yeah, well, the two cases didn't have very much to do with one another, except in so far as they're both at ft. hood and perhaps that this shooter may have had a history which should have led his chain of command to anticipate this kind of action. >> what do you think was in that history? what do we know about it now that would have suggested they
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should watch him? >> well, nothing in particular, but it's important to keep in mind these people lived together and they worked together. they're together all the time. they're extremely close. both physically and focused on achooeing a variety of tasks all together. they spend lots and lots of time together than people normally spend when they're at work. and the chain of command is responsible for keeping their eye on absolutely everybody. and identifying when somebody might have a problem. it's difficult to envision if somebody did -- if this guy had a problem that it would not have come to the attention of the chain of command. and so that's the other thing that the major hassan case and this one have in common. in the case of major hassan, his chain of command knew that he was a problem and didn't do anything about it. we hope this is not the case
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here. >> jack, we're minutes away from this press conference at ft. hood. what are you hoping to learn? what are you going to be listening for in particular? >> well, there are two major groups of things that would be interesting to know. first of all, as we just discussed whether or not there was some inkling that the chain of command knew he had problems or had been a disciplinary problem before. he was an e-4, which is a relatively know rank for an enlisted man, and he was 34 years old. that's quite old to be an e-4. perhaps he was a higher rank and had some disciplinary problems and was reduced in rank because of them. so he may have a history of disciplinary problems. so what kinds of attitudes what kind of work environment?
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this is important. the second thing that would be of interest, the mechanics of the whole thing. i would be interested to know what kind of weapon caused this. whether there was more than one weapon. it's interesting if this had been percolating for some time, to know that if it -- typically, when you come on a military base, if you have a car that's registered on post and you have a military id, the mp's at the gate will check your id but will not search your vehicle or your person. it would be interesting to know whether he brought a weapon on post or had it on post. but that whole sequence of events would be important to know. >> jack, is that rule going to have to be reconsidered? or the process by which they search or don't search vehicles entering military base, is it time for reconsideration of that? >> well, it's a very interesting question. you have to balance efficiency with safety at the end of the day. with people, military people coming in and out of the post
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all the time to search every single vehicle, even those that are registered on post and driven by people in uniform who have military id's. that would be a logistical nightmare. but in smaller posts, it's easy. huge posts like ft. hood, fort bragg, north carolina, that's going to be virtually impossible to do without bringing the entire post to a stand still. all the supervisors and police to do without bringing the entire post to a stand still. but in smaller posts, it's easy. huge posts like ft. hood, fort that would be a logistical nightmare. but in smaller posts, it's easy. huge posts like ft. hood, fort bragg, north carolina, that's going to be virtually impossible to do without bringing the entire post to a stand still. >> jack said these people work in close quarters. they have all sorts of conversations ranging from all sorts of suggests. i suspect we will now be hearing
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no doubt over the next few days quotes that ivan lopez, things he said at some point in time that now resonate in a way that last week they might not have. >> that's right. the military is a close family. they find each other's ticks and ins and outs. their commanders know, their noncommissioned officers know. so there will be some signs. the issue, though, is to train all the supervisors and police and everybody to recognize, the signs are always subtle. they're never real blatant. once in a while you'll get somebody who says i'm going to do this and spits it out. you see that from a lot of younger people in high school and stuff. but often the signs are very subtle. a large resentment building up. someone sort of really, really being effective in their life by
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that anger, that you can see it boiling inside them. or maybe just comments about, you know, he'll get his and i'll get back. or it sort of boils up. and people see that. you need to, you know, get that to the right person, the right mental health person. hostage negotiators, we used to call them. now it's crisis negotiator. but we all need collectively as a country to increase our crisis negotiators. we need to have more. and in the mill tafr, we need to push that up and push that out and get those mental health people more available and up front without a stigma. there should be no stigma to it. it's just part of living. we're going to take a break right here so we can get back in time for the press conference which should be starting very soon. we're going to be right back. those little things still get you. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment is right. cialis is also the only daily ed tablet approved to treat symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines,
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and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial. >> you are watching our live continuing coverage of the shooting at ft. hood, texas, today. we are awaiting a press
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conference at that military base that should be starting at any moment where there are now three dead, 11 wounded, one of the dead includes the gunman who opened fire at ft. hooded if you had. we will be right back with more of our lye coverage. these days, everything your business does
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slow dsl from the phone company was built for stuff like this. switch to comcast business internet. then add voice and tv for just $34.90 more per month. and you'll be ready for tomorrow today. comcast business. built for business. >> this has just been a crazy day. you hope to god this didn't happen again and then we get word when the coverage unfolds that it does, and it did. it's sad, it's heart break, but you hope that the community can recover from this. that was from kcen in temple, texas, from earlier tonight.
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the 62-year-old, michael cahill a physician's assistant, his daughter joins me now by phone from cameron, texas. also on the phone, still with us, military analyst colonel jack jacobs. kylie, i can imagine your shock today hearing another shooting at ft. hood. >> hello? yes? >> kylie, i think we can all imagine your reaction today hearing there was yet another shooting at ft. hood. you haven't lost your father in the last shooting there. >> i just couldn't believe that something was happening again. my sister call the me. she said where are you? she said i'm at home. she said have you watched the news. i said no, i hadn't turned it on. so i immediately turned on the news and i just couldn't believe that there was something going
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on like a shooting again at ft. hood. >> and did you find yourself going through that process again? i know you have friends at ft. hood, trying to call around and make sure that everyone was okay? >> yes. i mean, it just -- it brought back very vivid memories of, you know, the first time when we were trying to contact my dad and were sitting here trying to go okay, who's still at ft. hood and trying to make sure that everyone is okay and where are you. and slowly, we were able to hear from people and find out that they were on lockdown or that, you know, they were okay or they were already off post. we still have a few people we're wondering where they are and if they're okay or not. every vivid memory from five years ago came back. >> fife years ago, how long did it take you to discover what happened to your father that day when you were making those phone
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calls? >> it takes a long time. and this is where i really, really feel for all you families out there right now still waiting for record, and they're sitting here or listening to me or watching the news desperate. and they're calling everyone they know. they're calling every fellow soldier they know. and they're desperately, desperately awaiting word. i just hope -- you know, it's just so hard for me to say, you know, hold out some hope. you know, if you haven't heard from them yet, just hope that, you know, you'll receive some positive word, or that maybe that they're injured but they're alive. and it does -- you know, we didn't know about my dad until
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11:00 that night. there are some families that didn't find out until the next day. >> in your case, it was about nine hours after the shooting that you finally got the word. i imagine you were trying to call him on his cell phone and getting no response after those hours dragged on. i imagine you began to believe that he was definitely one who was hurt anyway. >> well, it was hard. i mean, we were -- at that point, they were finally putting out -- every person we called, every number we called, we got another number. then we started calling the hospitals. and, you know, you kind of -- i think back now, every answer you have, i'm sorry, we don't have his name. i'm sorry, he hasn't been brought to the hospital, you know, the hindsight tells you, gosh, wow, i should have just realized. but you don't want to believe anything like that at that
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moment. you want to have that hope. you know, we just were hoping that, you know, he's busy, you know? that he wasn't killed. that he was helping the wounded. we knew he was not going to be -- you know, even if he had survived, he would have been right in there in the mix with helping everyone. so, you know, you really try to hold out hope the whole time. >> and kylie, do you have any suggestions for the authorities on how they should, based on your experience, on how they should hand this will kind of notification? >> it gets very difficult. what people have to understand, and this is where it's just really hard if you're not in a military community to really understand how this works. because, you know, right now, ft. hood is, one, trying to determine who is injured and who has been killed. and those that have been killed, they go through a process and they have to find who gets first notification, who is their
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mother, who is the father, who is the wife, or the husband. and figuring and determining who that is. and how quickly they have to find that information. if this is someone who just arrived at ft. hood that day because they were going to go through srp or something, they don't have access to that information quickly, as you might think. so it takes a while to determine that. and once they do, then it becomes, they have to notify wherever their family are, you have to understand, these family members may be in alaska. their family might be in new york. their family is not necessarily living there at ft. hood. and then they have to contact, you know, chaplains and casualty assistance officers and get them ready to go. and they go directly to the home and do personal notifications. and, you know, as soon as you want that information, it takes time for the army to do it right.
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>> kylie, thank you very much for joining us and sharing your unique perspective on today's events and the tragic shooting there five years ago. i am very sorry for your loss five years ago and that it has been brought back to you in this way again today. thank you very much, kylie. >> thank you, and we are feeling for all those families and our prayers are with them right now. >> thank you. joining us now is texas congressman john carter whose district includes ft. hood. congressman carter, where were you today when you got the call about what happened there? >> i was in my office. >> and what was your reaction that here it is happening again five years later? >> my first reaction was the same as the reaction i had in '09. i immediately called my -- i have a staff member who works on ft. hood with the army. i called my staff member and said what do you know. there's supposed to be a live shooting going on in ft. hood.
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what do you know? he said i'm on my way and i'll let you know. >> i know when you represent a district that has a base of any size, but certainly when you represent a district that has a base of this enormity, it is one of the top two or three things on your mind in representation of that district all the time. fighting for assets for it and whatever the base needs. you must have your own contact channels into the base there tonight. have you been getting your own reports about this? >> i have, both from my staffer on the ground and in touch with the facilities folks and been able to talk with them. then i'm chairman of the homeland security appropriations. i'm also getting dhs reports. >> are you satisfied with the speed of the investigation that's going on there now?
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>> well, yeah. the lady that spoke earlier is right. there are procedures that have to be followed by the army, and they do a very good job of it, but everything takes some time. i think general millie is going to come on some time now and give us a full report. >> have you been involved in discussion since the last shooting at ft. hood about base security, particularly at ft. hood and exactly what the procedures should be at the gates? >> i've had briefings on it by the staff at ft. hood and the facilities at ft. hood. one of the things that makes what we call the great place the great place, because that's what they call ft. hood, the great place, is that it has a great community relation with the surrounding area. they want to continue having that strong relation with the community. so once they got through through all the security examinations, they wanted to have an open post as much as they could. it's been four years, almost five years now since november of '09. and so i'm sure there was good security at the gates but there's open traffic. >> on a base this size, to do searches of every car going
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all the security examinations, they wanted to have an open post as much as they could. it's been four years, almost five years now since november of '09. and so i'm sure there was good security at the gates but there's open traffic. >> on a base this size, to do searches of every car going through those gates would just create crippling traffic jams in the area. is that your sense of what would happen if we got into a situation where you actually had to try to crack down on every car going through? >> i agree with that. ft. hood is a 125,000 related employees, soldiers and civilians related to ft. hood. it's the largest employer in texas. so the traffic jams would be
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horrendous and there are traffic jams already, soldiers move in and out of ft. hood. and when you got the call today, have you gotten any requests from anyone at ft. hood for any additional help they might need in this situation? they keep me on tom of things, and i expect general millie anything that he needs. we will do our very best to provide. >> congressman carter, thank you very much for joining us on what is a very difficult night for you. >> these folks at that great place have had a really tough time and this is a real tragedy. we need to pray for them. >> congressman, i want you to take as much time as you want before you leave us and anything
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you want to say to your constituents there at the fort and in the surrounding area? >> well, the one thing we know is ft. hood soldiers are the toughest on earth and our civilians in the surrounding communities support them whole heartedly. let's get behind them as they always do. you'll be amazed at the things surrounding families that feel some comfort. >> thank you for joining us tonight. >> eugene o'donnell, you can see street fights in new york. every day of the week, somebody says to the other guy, i'm going to kill you. and 99% of the time they don't mean it. and we may discover in this investigation that something like that was said, somewhere 24, 48 hours before. people might point to it and say
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why didn't anybody act on that. the language people use in conflict is frequently hyper bollic. the number of times people say i'm going to kill you and had no meaning behind it. it turns out that may be what's involved here. an angry altercation, a fight among sorts, from people who knew each other, one who had a gun. >> we can do more with security, for more on intervention. it's obviously an issue in the military and you would like to believe the military, this giant organization is one big happy gun. >> we can do more with security, for more on intervention. it's obviously an issue in the military and you would like to believe the military, this giant organization is one big happy family. i don't think people would be surprised to hear there's probably a lot of bully, perceived slights that go on amongst troops. those kinds of issues cry out for attention. we can certainly do more. it's probably hard to make a facility like ft. hood safe.
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the ability to respond to these events can be raised. most importantly, inside and outside the military, we have a national mental health crisis. it's screaming out for help every single day in the military and beyond. we have these issues playing out. we've had a lethargic response to that major, major issue. >> are there things happen on the technological front that some years down the road plight actually make it possible for cars going through gates to be in effect speed searched electronically for weapons? >> that's. >> going to be tough. the car is metal, the guns are metal. it's going to be pret it tough. maybe they can secure certain areas that may be at higher risk, certain buildings on the base or certain sections on the base. it's too big to secure every
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spot from a driver going on, just like the congressman said. but there may be some places that you don't want that to happen. reports that this was at a medical facility, a hospital. eugene will remember this, we spent many times in emergency rooms. why? because there's a lot of conflict there. people are hurt. that's where people that are assaulted wind up. that's where victims and witnesses go. that's where the mentally disturbed are. so sometimes when you have a hospital facility, if that turns out to be the case here, there piegt be a place where you want more security. but you aren't going to be able to secure the whole base of that size. this is just heart break for the military. it's heart break. i think the country feels a collective respect for the army and the military as a whole after all the wars. it's heart breaking to see that they have to endure this with ft. hood and hassan. we don't want our military to have to endure this after all they endure in the war.
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>> we have reports that the delay in the start of this press conference which is being pushed back is due to traffic leading to the site of the press conference and that there are participants in the press conference who are stuck in that traffic, working their way through that traffic to get to the press conference site. and we are still being told now that we are just a few minutes away from that press conference. that's something we've been told for about the last 40 minutes. and we're going to take a break right here so that when we do get back, we won't miss any of that press conference.
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>> the news conference in ft. hood is starting right now. we're hearing from the commanding general. they're doing the audio checks now. we believe everyone who needs to be at the press conference is at the facility. >> thank you all for your patience. >> we expect it to begin -- >> we want to introduce general mark a. millie, the commander of the u.s. third corpses. he'll make a statement about what he can right now and then he'll take your questions after that. raise your hand if you have a question and we'll direct you as to when it's time to go ahead and ask your question. commander of the third corps, lieutenant general mark a. millie. >> good evening. i would like to start off with condolences to the killed and wounded soldiers here at ft. hood.
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from an incident this afternoon at approximately 1600, or 4:00 p.m. today, a soldier assigned to 13th command expeditionary fired shots at individuals within the unit areas here. within the first medical brigade area and the 49th transportation battalion area. the post immediately went into lockdown. we have now lifted the lockdown as of 30 or 45 minutes ago. within 15 minutes, first responders from the military police and the emergency services responded to the scene, engaged the shooter and the shooter is dead. from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. in regard to the investigation at this time, there is no indication that this incident is related to terrorism, although we are not ruling anything out, and the investigation continues.
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an investigation by various law enforcement officers from fbi and the texas ranger, texas state police along with local armed law enforcement, along with army cid and army military police. we have confirmed that there are three victims who were killed and then the shooter was killed. and there are 16 injured being treated at scott and white and here at darnell. our thoughts and prayers go out to each of those injured and their families and the killed and their families. our focus now is to focus on the families of the injured and focus on the families of the killed. ensure that they have the best care and counseling available. i do ask the ft. hood community,
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or anyone in the local community if they have any information relating to this incident to police contact either the fbi or the ft. hood department of emergency services. events in the past have taught us many things here at fort hide we know the community is strong. we know the civilians and families of this fort who serve so bravely in combat over the last 13 years in iraq and afghanistan are strong and we'll get through this. thanks to all who have supported us. thanks to the local community who supported us for the last several hours and many years. and thanks also specifically to scott and white for their excellent medical care and their ability to handle additional casualties. with that, i will take your questions. >> do we know a motive? what set this man off? >> we do not know a motive. we do know this soldier had
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behavioral health and mental health issues and was being treated for that. >> what's his name? >> at this point, his next of kin has not yet been notified, so i am not going to confirm his name. we do have his name, but the next of kin have not been notified so i'll wait that has been done. >> has he serves overseas? >> he has served in combat. he served four months in iraq in 2011. he was currently under diagnosis for ptsd, but he had not been diagnosed with ptsd. it's under investigation. the exact set of events is under investigation. it's believed he walked into one of the unit buildings, open fired, got into a vehicle, fired from a vehicle, got out of the vehicle, walked into another vehicle and open fired again and was then engaged by local law enforcement here at ft. hood.
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i'm sorry? >> [ inaudible ] did he begin this thing with an argument? we heard there was an argument in the wtu and that is how this started and that he also was used a semiautomatic handgun of some kind. >> he was using a .45 caliber smith and wesson semiautomatic pistol purchased recently in the local area. i'm not aware of an argument at the wtu. there were initial reports there may have been an argument in one of the unit areas but don't have any indication of an argument at wtu. he had not been assigned here to the wtu. > [ inaudible ] >> that, we don't know. he recently arrived in ft. hood in february from another installation. and we're checking with another installation to determine the
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background of the soldier. we are digging deep into his background. any criminal history, psychiatric history, his experiences in combat. all of the things you were expecting to be done are being done right now. i'll come back to you. hang on for just a second. >> [ inaudible ]. >> they were a result of the gun fire, either direct wounds from the gun fire. in some cases, there was some glass that shattered and some have some superficial wounds from that. others, one was jumping a fence and got injured there, but it was a result of -- >> sir, was this soldier was in the process of being transitioned out of the military? >> not to my knowledge. >> was his body found in his car, next to his car, in the
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street? >> his body was found in the parking lot where he was engaged by military police. >> can you describe how they engaged him? >> military police officer responded and he was approaching her at about 20 feet. he put his hands up. then reached under his jacket. she pulled out her weapon. she engaged to his head and he died to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. go ahead. i'm not ruling out terrorism. all i'm saying is there's no indication of it at this time. we have fbi and all the various organizations searching all the internet, twitter, facebook and all the normal soefrks you would do and the investigation on that part is ongoing. we do not have any indications of that right now, but i'm not ruling that out.
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>> you haven't completely ruled that out? >> we are not ruling in or out anything? >> [ inaudible ]. >> i'm not sure i understood what he said but no, i don't have ft. hood as a specific target or any other installation. >> can you tell us if he had any family on post? >> the soldier is married, does have family and again we're in the process of notification. >> are they here? >> they're in the local area, that's correct. >> were any of the victims known to the soldier? >> i do not know that. >> how many weapons did he have? >> to our knowledge, he had one weapon, .45 caliber smith and
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wesson. if i said .9 millimeter, i misspoke. it's a .45 caliber smith and wesson. don't know how much ammunition. it's a headquarters building where they conduct day to day administration of the medical brigade. and then in the other building they conduct the day to day administration of a transportation battalion. they're not far away from each other. >> [ inaudible ]. >> the 49th transportation battalion yes. he would have gone there for administrative purposes. >> for his treatment? >> no, not his treatment. that's his unit headquarters. >> [ inaudible ]. >> i did not say his rank nor his name. i'll do that when his family is appropriately notified. >> what type of treatment was undergoing? >> behavioral thelt and psychiatric treatment for depression and anxiety and a variety of other psychological
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and psychiatric issues. he was not assigned to the wtu at the time. >> the female officer who engaged him, how would you describe what she did? >> it was clearly heroic, what she did. at that moment in time, and she did her job, and she did exactly what we would expect of a united states army military police. >> [ inaudible ]. >> he was not diagnosed as of today with ptsd. he was undergoing a diagnosis process to determine if he had ptsd. that is a lengthy process to be confirmed with ptsd. >> [ inaudible ]. >> there are reports -- i don't know if he was diagnosed in the clinical sense. there are reports he self-reported a traumatic brain injury previously come back from the iraq tour. >> was he on medication? >> he was on medication, correct.
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>> [ inaudible ]. >> yes. he was. he was not a wounded warrior. he was not wounded in action to our records. no purple heart, not wounded in action in that ard. >> you said he came another installation in february. can you tell us which one that is? >> at this time i prefer not. i mean, i've got folks calling that installation, talking to their chain of command in order to determine all the background information of the soldier. >> which state? >> which state? >> it's here in texas. okay, a couple more questions. yes, ma'am? >> [ inaudible ]. >> all of the wounded and killed were military. >> sir, what can you tell us about the protocol as far as carrying the type of weapon the soldier has and other soldier thars allowed on base. what can you tell us about security? >> if you have a weapon and you're on base, it's supposed to be registered on base.
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this weapon was not registered on base. >> can you give us your reaction, what went through your mind when you heard another shooting had occurred here? >> immediate reaction was casualty, what kind of casualties, and do we have one or more shooters? and are those shooters secure and to provide the protection for the local community. >> is the fbi already on the scene? [ inaudible ]. >> we have a local fbi liaison officer. but no, large fbi assets were not here. they are actually enbound to help with the investigation, but no, there's local fbi available to us. >> a lot of programs were placed in to help soldiers dealing with issues coming back from service. in light of what's happened today, are you concerned those programs had gaps in them?
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>> we'll have to re-examine all of those programs and see if there were any gaps. i'm not ready to answer that just yet. >> over the years now, we've had three, this is the first one we've had. are you concerned beyond the fact that this is not the first time. are you concerned about this becoming a target for whatever reason? >> my reaction wasn't not again here, my reaction was immediately to make sure we had a read on the cads you'll tirks immediately secure the site and look for one or more shooters. i wasn't thinking about not again or any of that. what do you think now? >> my concern is of the families of those that were injured and those killed. >> what are yo ugt thos [ inaudible ].
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>> you're not allowed to carry concealed weapons on base. no, i don't think soldiers should have concealed weapons on base. i don't endorse carrying concealed on base. >> how soon was law enforcement on scene? >> it was within minutes. 10 to 15 maybe max. i think law enforcement acted very rapidly and swiftly given the nature of the circumstance. i'm not going to get into a debate with you on carrying weapons on a military installation. >> [ inaudible ]. >> i'm not going to get into specifics. the shooter was a male and the
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officer that engaged the shooter was a female. >> [ inaudible ]. >> maybe 15, 20 minutes. yn the exact time line. let me go to someone else. >> [ inaudible ] i think the response from the law enforcement and from the medical folks displayed lessons learned from the previous case. and i think it was obvious that the response was swift and it was appropriate both from a law enforcement perspective and from a medical perspective. last question. >> you said the suspect bought the weapon.
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how much indication do you have about premeditation here? [ inaudible ]. >> i do not know. that will be part of the investigation. don't know any idea about the premeditation. last question, go ahead. >> considering he did have a weapon that was not registered. he carried it on base. are you considering changing the protocol or practices of how -- if you can check a vehicle as it's approaching base, considering this just happened. >> i will be reviewing all of those procedures, that's correct. thank you very much. i appreciate it. also appreciate you support. we will hold a regular press conference daily until we get all of the information out into the public that we have that's appropriate. i don't have a time for that but the first one obviously will be tomorrow. and colonel chris garver, our public affairs officer will put that out. i just ask your thoughts and prayers for the fallen and
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wounded in this particular case. thank you very much. >> that was ft. hood commanding general lieutenant general mark millie. there are now four dead, three killed by the shooter and then the shooter himself. he did have mental health issues. he had served four months in iraq, and he was in the process of being diagnosed for ptsd. he was under psychiatric treatment for depression and anxiety. the general said that he entered a building and open fired. he left that build, got in his car and open fired again. then reentered another building and opened fire, then he was approached by police in a parking lot where he shot and
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killed himself. we continue our coverage of the shooting at ft. hood, texas, tonight. that shooting took place at 4:00 p.m. local time this afternoon. the latest intermission we have is that for beck people have been confirmed dead, including the alleged shooter. eisen lopez was enlisted soldier. he died of a self-inflicted wound. 16 people have been injured. as far as those injured people go, and report from a local hospital that is receiving the wounded, which confirmed they had at least four patients ranging from stable to a very critical condition and two more on the way it and were expected to go straight into surgery. the shooting stemmed from an