Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan 'gunned down pleading pregnant woman'

It wasn't "work place violence" and it wasn't 13 that Hasan killed that day.  The number is 14 because the death of the unborn child is considered murder in America.  
-W.E.

Telegraph

Major Nidal Hasan gunned down 13 fellow soldiers including a pregnant woman who pleaded for the life of her unborn child and screamed "My baby, my baby, my baby," a court martial heard.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan
Major Nidal Malik Hasan during his court-martial in Fort Hood, Texas. Photo: BRIGITTE WOOSLEY/AP

Private Francheska Velez, 21, who had become pregnant while serving in Iraq, was one of those killed in the massacre carried out by Hasan, an American-born Muslim, in a medical building at the Fort Hood military base in Texas on Nov 5, 2009.

In emotional testimony at the Fort Hood trial on Thursday, Sergeant Maria Guerra, who was on the other side of an office door when Hasan opened fire, said: “I hear 'Run, run,’ and I hear 'He’s coming.’ I hear 'Please don’t, please don’t. My baby, my baby.’ And then I hear shots. I hear continuous shots.
“When I opened the door I could hear a pin drop it was so silent. I see bodies, I see bodies everywhere, and I see blood. No-one is moving. I yelled 'Is everybody OK?’ and I started hearing 'Help me, I’m bleeding, help me.’”
Survivor Sergeant Michael Davis told the trial that he was getting a vaccination when Hasan began shooting those waiting in line behind him. Like several other survivors, he initially thought the chaos was a training drill ahead of his deployment to Afghanistan. When Hasan stopped to reload he tried to escape through a door, but was shot in the back with the bullet lodging in his spine.

He said: "I hit the ground face first and started yelling and screaming.

There were a lot of bodies on the ground, a lot of blood on the floor. It smelled like gunpowder, blood, it was bad."

Sergeant Alan Carroll, who was shot four times by Hasan and survived, sat just feet from his attacker in court as he described the bloody scene.

He said: "We were waiting in line just talking about the weekend, and what deployment was going to be like. Then I heard shouts of 'Allahu Akbar.'

"Then we heard bangs going off. I thought it was a pop gun. Then I realised it was a lot louder than a pop gun and I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder.

"I was trying to figure out what was going on. I turned around and there was a man behind me and he was laughing. At that point I thought it was a training exercise." He did not indicate, and was not asked by the prosecutor, whether the "laughing man" was Hasan.

Sgt Carroll said he grabbed another man and pulled him down telling him to play dead, but the man "sat up and got hit in the neck."

He tried to help his injured friend to the door but heard gunfire behind him. He said: "The shooter came around to my side and I said 'this is it.'" He was shot several more times but made it out the door and collapsed.

Major Laura Suttinger, now retired, said she was in a cubicle receiving vaccinations when the shots began, lasting for less than three minutes.

She said: "After about a minute somebody crawled into the cubicle. It was a male major and he was bleeding significantly from his leg. There were bodies on the floor. There was extensive blood all over the place."

Sergeant Ingar Parker described hearing fellow soldiers "screaming out in agony," and how she tried to hide in a refrigerator.

Hasan faces 13 charges of premeditated murder and 32 of premeditated attempted murder. He could face the death penalty if convicted. He is in a wheelchair after himself being shot during the rampage.

The former Army psychiatrist is representing himself in court. Three standby lawyers assigned by the court to assist him said they believed he was actively seeking the death penalty, which they found "morally repugnant," and asked to withdraw from the case.

But the judge, Colonel Tara Osborn, said the lawyers' objection was "nothing more than their disagreement with Major Hasan's trial strategy".

She added: "I'm going to make it easy for you. I give you an order to perform these duties as standby counsel, and that relieves you of any ethical liability."

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