Month: November 2009

UPDATE2: In another press conference about 8:30 p.m. Central, Fort Hood and the Army’s III Corps commander told reporters that the suspect in the shooting at the World’s largest military base on Thursday afternoon is not dead despite being shot multiple times by a female civilian police officer. Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said the suspect, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was in “stable condition” and that  his death was not imminent despite being shot multiple times. Hasan is reportedly a U.S. citizen of Jordanian heritage who received his undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech. Cone said evidence does not rule out terrorism, but there is no evidence to suggest the shootings were terrorist-related. This is really going to help out the military’s mental health program at a time when suicides in the service are at an almost epidemic level. Prozac anyone?

UPDATE: Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, commanding general of the III Army Corps and Fort Hood, said at a short press conference that at least 12 people have been killed and 31 wounded in the shooting. Both those shot and the suspects are soldiers, Cone said.

As the hed said, media reports indicate perhaps nine people are dead and more than two dozen have been wounded in a shooting involving at least two suspects at Fort Hood, Texas. The massive military post lies about halfway between Waco and Austin, right smack dab in the heart of Texas.

So this means what to me? Well, Ft. Hood was part of my beat back in my days of employment as a newspaper reporter. I visited the post many, many times to cover not only military events but for events involving our most recent ex-president. I am watching CNN coverage. Once again, I think for all their shortfalls, CNN is still the best at breaking news.

I have little to add to the current news coverage except that I noticed during my time hanging around the Fort Hood area, an undercurrent or, vibe, if you will. One might say that’s to be expected since it is a Army base, the “free world’s largest,” as post officials liked to point out during my time covering the military.

But actually, I’ve been on other military posts including Army posts and didn’t get this same vibe.

Since the beginning of the so-called “War of Terror” there have been at Fort Hood as at other Army posts a number of suicides reported. Killeen, the city outside the post, seemed at the time I reported on the military at Fort Hood to have an extraordinary amount of violent crime. Even before the Afghan and Iraq wars there was the horror of the mass shooting at the Killeen Luby’s cafeteria in which 23 people were murdered after George Hennard drove his truck into the restaurant.

One suspect has reportedly been captured and another “cornered” in the Fort Hood incident. The big question is — since at least two people were involved — the motive. Are these guys just nuts or are they some  kind of jihadists? It will be interesting to learn more. My thoughts go out to those whose family members or friends were involved.

 Goodness gracious. Another bank robber in our fair city. One bad effect a city located on one of the nation’s most traveled Interstates — I speak of IH-10 — faces is bank robbery. It’s relatively easy for a committed bank robber to drive off the interstate, rob a bank and then hit the freeway in one direction or another. Police will not say whether this is the same bank robber who robbed a Houston bank and apparently looked similar to this fellow, according to a local media report. I wonder what that Houston bank robber’s nickname might be? You know they all seem to get nicknames, like the Grandma Bandit.

 Our  — as in Beaumont, Texas’ — bandit entered the Wells Fargo Bank at 595 IH-10 North on Tuesday morning and robbed the place while “displaying” a silver handgun, according to a Beaumont Police Department press release. Police like to use words like “display.” It’s like “Hey ya’ll, isn’t this the prettiest 9 mm pistol you’ve ever seen? Now how ’bout that cash?”

 Bank employees triggered the silent alarm and officers were told the suspect was last seen running on foot toward an apartment complex behind the bank. Police and a “K-9 Unit,” a.k.a. “a DOG and handler,” searched for the bandit to no avail.

 Police describe the suspect as a Hispanic male, 5 feet, 10 inches to 6 feet in height, 180 pounds, dark complexion, wearing dark sunglasses, a blue button shirt and having short black hair. I’m sure he wears those sunglasses and blue shirt everywhere — to bed, playing basketball, working on his car. Okay, I’m picking at the descriptions the police give out. I’ve written a hundred of these for news stories when I worked as a reporter, but they sound kind of funny out of context. This one is actually a better description than some I have seen on local TV reports, such as “a black male, between 5′ 11″ and 6 feet, 175-190 pounds.” Hmm. I bet there aren’t too many of those running around.

 Now I thought I had a suspect when I saw the shot below taken from a bank camera. Even though the police description lists him as Hispanic and dark-complected, he isn”t all that dark, at least in my opinion. Now, if you forget that the man is supposedly Hispanic and dark-complected, in this picture at least, doesn’t he bear a slight resistance to former Arkansas Governor and failed candidate for the Republican nomination Mike Huckabee? 

I mean, look at him. Maybe Huckabee  with a tan?

Perhaps a bit younger Mike Huckabee with a tan.

Oh well. That’s my contribution to the community today. That is partly why I try to write about things like this because I have a forum to do so and, who knows, maybe someone surfing blogs stumbles across this one and just might recognize the robber I now dub the “Senor Mike Huckabee-almost-look-a-like-bandit-if-Huckabee-was-Hispanic.” That person calls the police and clang, he’s behind bars. You know, someone might see this guy taking a nap out in his chaise lounge wearing his sunglasses, blue buttoned shirt and displaying his handgun.