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Then on June 1st, 2009, a shooting occurred at a military recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas. The gunman was Abdul Hakeim Mujahid Muhammad. Two recruiters were targeted. Assan’s response shared with colleagues was to call it a sign. He told people around him that Muslims had an obligation to stand against what he called the aggressor, a term he was using to describe American forces.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee later investigated the full sequence of events. Their report was titled a ticking time bomb. Its conclusion was unambiguous. The attack at Fort Hood was preventable. The information existed. The warnings were on record. Nine of Hassan’s supervisors were formally reprimanded after the fact.
By late October 2009, Nidal Hassan’s deployment orders were confirmed. He was being sent to Afghanistan. This was the assignment he had spent years working to avoid. He had previously consulted a military attorney about the possibility of being discharged as a conscientious objector on religious grounds.
That effort produced nothing. The order stood. He was going. He told colleagues directly that he would not be deploying. The statement was noted by those who heard it. It was not formally reported up the chain of command. What happened in the 48 hours that followed was only fully understood in retrospect.
The day before November 5th, neighbors in his apartment complex noticed Hassan moving through the hallways with belongings, furniture, clothing, personal items, copies of the Quran, offering them to anyone who would take them. That evening, he had dinner with a friend he had met through his mosque.
During that conversation, Hassan told him that the Quran was clear on the matter. A Muslim could not take up arms against fellow Muslims. He said he felt he was supposed to quit. His friend later recalled the conversation as one that at the time seemed like the frustration of a man struggling with his conscience. In hindsight, it was something else entirely.
On the morning of November 5th, Hassan approached a neighbor and offered her a bag of vegetables, a Quran, and whatever remained of his personal belongings. He asked her to give anything she did not want to the Salvation Army. Before he left, he said three words. I’m ready. He then attended far the pre-dawn Islamic prayer at a local mosque.
What investigators later established through purchase records and witness accounts was that Hassan had not arrived at this moment unprepared. In the weeks prior, he had visited Guns Galore, a firearms dealer in Khen, Texas. Army specialist William Gilbert, a regular customer at the store, recalled Hassan walking in and asking for the most technologically advanced weapon on the market with the highest standard magazine capacity.
He purchased an FN57 semi-automatic pistol, returning to the store weekly to acquire additional magazines. In total, he accumulated 3,000 rounds of 5.7x 28 mm ammunition, a figure that stood in stark contrast to the figure of over 200 rounds that was widely reported in initial coverage. He also visited an outdoor shooting range in Florence, Texas, where he practiced on silhouette targets at distances of up to 100 yards repeatedly until his accuracy was consistent.
On the morning of the attack, he carried two weapons. The FN57 fitted with two laser sights, one red, one green, both confirmed by multiple survivor accounts, and a Smith and Wesson.357 Magnum revolver. Forensic analysis later confirmed the revolver was never discharged. He had one weapon for the task and he had prepared for it with precision. At 1:34 p.m.
on November 5th, 2009, Nidal Hassan walked into the soldier readiness processing center at Fort Hood, Texas. The room was occupied by soldiers working through final administrative and medical checks before overseas deployment. Support staff and civilians were present alongside uniformed personnel. It was a routine processing day.
Nothing about it was unusual until Hassan spoke to a soldier standing near the entrance. He said, “I’m going to do good work for God.” Then he walked inside. He stood on a table, declared, “Allahu Akbar,” and opened fire. What is established by forensic analysis and survivor testimony is that Hassan moved through the room with deliberate intent.
He did not fire indiscriminately. Investigators confirmed that he passed multiple opportunities to fire on civilians and concentrated his targeting on uniform soldiers. Those soldiers, in accordance with standard militarybased policy, were not carrying personal sidearms inside the processing center. They had no means to return fire.
Staff Sergeant Alonzo Lungsford, a health care specialist, was shot seven times. He lost most of the sight in his left eye. He survived by lying still on the floor. He later told investigators that as he lay there, he could hear Hassan counting his rounds between reloads, methodical, unhurried.
Staff Sergeant Patrick Ziegler was shot four times, including once in the head. Physicians told his family to prepare for the worst. He survived but sustained permanent partial paralysis on his left side. Specialist Logan Bernett in the moment Hassan stopped to reload picked up a table and threw it at him.
Bernett was shot in the hip. He crawled to a nearby office cubicle and waited. Captain John Gaffany, 56, from Sarah Mesa, California, moved toward Hassan holding a folding chair. He did not reach him. Michael Grant Cahill, 62, a civilian physician assistant from Cameron, Texas, did the same. He also charged with a chair. He also did not reach him.