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Fort Hood victims confront shooter in court
AFP Updated August 7, 2013, 11:55 am
FORT HOOD, United States / Texas (AFP) - With the one eye he has left, Staff Sergeant Alonzo Lunsford stared down the US army psychiatrist standing trial for the Fort Hood massacre, and recounted how he was repeatedly shot.
Lunsford was the first victim to testify Tuesday at the trial of Major Nidal Hasan, who could face the death penalty if he is convicted of killing 13 people and wounding dozens more at the Texas army base in 2009.
Hasan, who has fired his lawyers and is representing himself, earlier gave an opening statement in which he admitted his guilt over the mass shooting.
Lunsford, now retired, who was shot in the head and the body, detailed how the carnage unfolded, pointing to the seven places where Hasan's bullets left their mark on his large frame.
He recalled how people initially froze in shock after Hasan started to open fire on troops in a pre-Afghanistan deployment center, before realizing that the shooting was premeditated.
Lunsford rushed for an exit but as he gazed back he saw a laser sight from Hasan's weapon focused on him. He blinked, and was then felled by a bullet smashing into the right side of his head. After trying to crawl away he was shot in the back, after which he decided to "play dead."
Hasan, who did not ask Lunsford any questions, had spoken only for a few minutes earlier Tuesday, telling the jury of 13 Army officers that the people he killed were casualties of war after he "switched sides."
"The evidence will clearly show I am the shooter," Hasan declared.
Paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by police trying to stop the bloodbath, Hasan was calm and collected as he monitored the proceedings from his wheelchair in a green camouflage uniform.
He was sporting a thick beard responsible for delaying the trial by months as he fought to win the right to violate the military's grooming rules.
Now aged 42, Hasan was due to deploy to Afghanistan weeks after the attack. He has said he shot the soldiers to protect his fellow Muslims from an "illegal" war.
His opening statement reiterated his radical views.
"We, the mujahedeen, are imperfect Muslims trying to establish a perfect religion in the land of the supreme God," Hasan said. "I apologize for any mistakes that I made in this endeavor."
Military law prohibits Hasan from pleading guilty to a capital offense and so he has been given the opportunity to try to convince the jury that he does not deserve death for his actions.
Michelle Harper, a civilian who worked in the pre-deployment processing center where Hasan opened fire, described how the initial gunshots sounded like firecrackers going off, before chaos and bloodshed followed.
Huddled beneath a desk in a far corner of the building, she called 911. In a recording played for the court, gunshots could be heard as she whimpered "please hurry."
"Oh my god, everybody is shot," she told the operator.
One of the soldiers who died, Private First Class Michael Pearson, could be heard groaning in pain on the recording.
Military judge Colonel Tara Osborn has insisted that Hasan cannot use the high-profile trial as a platform to espouse extreme views and that he treat witnesses with respect.
Osborn has also barred prosecutors from mentioning terrorism as a motive and prohibited Hasan from using a "defense of others" strategy to justify his actions.
The Pentagon has classified the incident as "workplace violence," but a number of victims have filed suit hoping it will be reclassified as an act of terror so they can receive more financial compensation.
Three weeks before the shooting, according to prosecutors, Hasan told a doctor: "They have another thing coming if they think they are going to deploy me."
He studied jihadist writings by Taliban leaders and wrapped ammunition magazines in paper towels so people wouldn't hear them clinking in his pockets, prosecutors said.
Born in the eastern US state of Virginia to Palestinian parents, Hasan joined the Army in 1995.
It was during a residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from 2003 to 2006 that he first exhibited signs of radical Islamic views, according to an FBI report entitled "A Ticking Time Bomb."
Hasan attended a mosque where radical US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki -- a key figure in Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula until his death in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen -- worked in 2001.
He exchanged emails with Awlaki in the months leading up to the shooting, in which he questioned the morality of killing soldiers if they intended to attack Muslims. Awlaki later called Hasan a hero.
FILE - An April 9, 2010 file photo provided by the Bell County Sheriffs Department, shows U.S. Maj. Nidal Hasan at the San Antonio to Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas. Judge, Col. Gregory Gross, is to decide at a pretrial hearing Tuesday Aug. 14, 2012, whether to delay the trial of Hasan. (AP Photo/Bell County Sheriffs Department, File)
FILE - The 2007 file photo provided by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) shows Nidal Malik Hasan when he undertook the Disaster and Military Psychiatry Fellowship program. Hasan is charged in the fatal 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood which killed 13 people and injured more that 30 others. He faces the death penalty if convicted. (AP Photo/Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2009 file photo, the entrance to Fort Hood Army Base in Fort Hood, Texas, near Killeen is seen. Eighty-three victims and family members in the worst mass shooting ever at a U.S. military installation are seeking $750 million in compensation from the Army, alleging that willful negligence enabled psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan to carry out a terrorist attack at Fort Hood, Texas. (AP Photo/Jack Plunkett, File)
Maj. Laura Suttinger of the 467th Combat Stress Control Detachment shows a bracelet at a press conference Saturday, Oct. 30, 2010, in Madison, Wis. The bracelet commemorates soldiers who were killed on Nov. 5, 2009, at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, during a shooting rampage suspect Maj. Nidal Hasan. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)
File - In this Nov. 1, 2010 file photo from Beaver Creek Ohio, U.S. Army Col. Kathy Platoni talks of the Fort Hood, Texas shooting that took 13 lives and wounded more than 30 others. After years of delays, Platoni will come face to face with Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the man accused of the 2009 shooting rampage. (AP Photo/Al Behrman, File)
FILE - This file combination image shows handout photos of the victims killed during the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.
From top left, Michael Grant Cahill, 62, of Cameron, Texas; Maj. Libardo Eduardo Caraveo, 52, of Woodbridge, Va.; Staff Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow, 32, of Evans, Ga.; Capt. John Gaffaney, 56, of San Diego, Calif.; Spc. Frederick Greene, 29, of Mountain City, Tenn.; Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22, of Frederick, Okla., Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wis.; Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka, 19, of West Jordan, Utah; Pfc. Michael Pearson, 22, of Bolingbrook, Ill.; Capt. Russell Seager, 51, of Racine, Wis.; Pvt. Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago; Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, 55, of Havre de Grace, Md.; and Pfc. Kham Xiong, 23, of St. Paul, Minn.
A trial for Nidal Hasan, who is charged in the shooting rampage that left 13 dead and more than 30 others wounded, starts Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2013. (AP Photo, File)
FILE- In this Nov. 10, 2009, file photo, soldiers salute as they honor victims of the Fort Hood shooting at a memorial service at Fort Hood, Texas. Maj. Nidal Hasan is charged in the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 dead and more than 30 others wounded. Hasan doesn’t deny that he carried out the rampage, but military law prohibits him from entering a guilty plea because authorities are seeking the death penalty. If he is convicted and sentenced to death in a trial that starts Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2013, there are likely years, if not decades, of appeals ahead.
(AP Photo/Donna McWilliam, File)
FILE- In this Nov. 6, 2009, file photo, Col. (P) John Rossi, Deputy Commander General of Fires and Effects, and Col. Steven Braverman, Commander of Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center, address reporters during a news conference following a mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. Maj. Nidal Hasan is charged in the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 dead and more than 30 others wounded. Hasan doesn’t deny that he carried out the rampage, but military law prohibits him from entering a guilty plea because authorities are seeking the death penalty. If he is convicted and sentenced to death in a trial that starts Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2013, there are likely years, if not decades, of appeals ahead. (AP Photo/Killeen Daily Herald, David Morris, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 10, 2009, file photo, a memorial to victims of the Fort Hood shooting is shown before the start of a memorial service, to be attended by President Barack Obama, at Fort Hood, Texas. Osama bin Laden is dead and there hasn’t been a successful attack by al-Qaida-inspired extremists on U.S. soil since the deadly shooting rampage in Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. But the danger of terrorism remains a reality for Americans, as seen in the attack in Libya in September that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam, File)
FIRST POSTED: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 07, 2013 02:37 PM EDT | UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 07, 2013 03:00 PM EDT
U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan, charged with killing 13 people and wounding 31 in a November 2009 shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, is pictured in an undated Bell County Sheriff's Office photograph. REUTERS/Bell County Sheriff's Office/Handout
FORT HOOD - A U.S. Army psychiatrist who admitted shooting dozens of soldiers at a Texas base wants the death penalty, according to his standby defense lawyers, who refuse to help him die and want the judge to reduce their role in his court-martial.
Major Nidal Hasan, the U.S.-born Muslim who admits he killed 13 soldiers and wounded more than 30 others in November 2009, is acting as his own defense lawyer with a standby team on hand to ensure his case is handled properly.
"Should he decide he wants to fight the death penalty, we're ready to defend him today. However, since that does not appear to be the case, we request that we become truly standby counsel, that we not be ordered and forced by the court in assisting in achieving the goal of arriving at the death penalty," one of the lawyers, Lieutenant Colonel Kris Poppe, said on Wednesday.
Hasan, wearing green fatigues and a full beard, disputed the assertion by the standby lawyer, calling it a distortion. Military Judge Colonel Tara Osborn ended the court proceedings for the rest of the day to consider the lawyers' request to distance themselves from the case.
Poppe said he based his conclusion on documents that Hasan's civilian defense lawyer sent to Fox News, Hasan's questions for potential jurors during the jury selection process, and Hasan's opening statement on Tuesday, when he told the jury, "I was the shooter."
Hasan, who opened fire on unarmed soldiers days before he was to be deployed to Afghanistan, also told the jury he switched sides in what he called America's war on Islam, saying, "I was on the wrong side." He has previously said he was protecting fellow Muslims from imminent threat.
He spoke quietly from his wheelchair, taking off a green knit cap when the court was in session.
"REPUGNANT TO DEFENSE"
The standby defense team wants to avoid being forced by the court to help Hasan achieve the death penalty, calling such a goal "repugnant to defense counsel and contrary to what our professional obligations are."
Hasan was "encouraging or working toward the death penalty," Poppe told the judge.
Hasan, who was paralyzed from the waist down when shot by military police during the attack, called Poppe's conclusion "a twist of the facts."
Hasan became more animated while defending his position, periodically interrupting the judge.
"Colonel Poppe has made an assertion that is inaccurate. I feel compelled to object. It's inaccurate and I'd like to clarify that," Hasan said.
The judge asked Hasan to submit his arguments in writing, and when Hasan refused, saying he wanted to explain his position orally, she shut down the hearing so it could continue in private.
The exchange took place without the presence of the 13 military officers of the jury, comprising nine colonels, three lieutenant colonels and a major. Nine votes are needed for a conviction but a unanimous verdict of guilty is required for execution to be an option.
Hasan previously offered to plead guilty in return for being spared the death penalty, but Osborn rejected that request based on the military's policy against allowing such pleas in capital cases.
He faces 13 charges of premeditated murder and 32 charges of attempted premeditated murder. The dead were 12 active duty soldiers and a retired chief warrant officer who worked as a civilian employee at the base. The victims were unarmed, as is normal for military personnel on bases such as Fort Hood.
Prosecutors declined to bring terrorism charges against Hasan, saying it would prejudice the trial.
A review by a former FBI director found Hasan had exchanged emails with Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric linked to al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing. Awlaki was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011.
