Both men were struck and did not survive. Those who knew Michael Cahill said that anyone who understood who he was would not have been surprised. Moving toward danger rather than away from it was consistent with everything about him. Herman Toro, the director of the soldier readiness processing site, rushed toward a colleague who had gone down near the north side of the medical building.
As he moved through the room, the red beam of Hassan’s laser sight crossed his chest. Asan did not fire. Toro took cover behind an electrical box on the far side of the room. From that position, he watched the final moments of the attack unfold. On the east side of the building, two soldiers and a sight worker broke through a window and fled into the parking lot.
One soldier sustained a hand injury from the glass. They survived. The attack lasted approximately 10 minutes. When it was over, 13 people were dead and 32 others had been wounded. Department of the Army civilian police officer Kimberly Munley was among the first to respond. She engaged Hassan directly and exchanged fire with him before being shot three times. She went down.
Her partner, Sergeant Mark Todd, arrived and confronted Hassan. Todd fired five shots. Hassan at that point had emptied his weapon and was reaching for another magazine when he was struck. Todd crossed the room, kicked the pistol out of reach, and placed Hassan in handcuffs as he lost consciousness. The Smith and Wesson.
357 Magnum revolver Hassan carried was recovered at the scene. Forensic analysis confirmed it had never been discharged. Hassan was transported to Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, and later transferred to Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio. These are the 13 people who did not leave that building.
Michael Grant Cahill, 62, civilian physician assistant from Cameron, Texas. Married for 37 years, father of three. He had returned to work just the week before after recovering from a heart attack. Lieutenant Colonel Wanita Warman, 55, from H D Grace, Maryland, a physician assistant and mental health counselor. She had two daughters and six grandchildren.
She was preparing to deploy to Iraq. Major Leardo Eduardo Caraveo, 52, from Woodbridge, Virginia. He was born in Suad Huarez, Mexico and arrived in the United States as a teenager with limited English. He earned a doctorate in psychology from the University of Arizona. He had arrived at Fort Hood only days before the attack. Captain Russell Seager, 51, from Rine, Wisconsin.
A licensed clinical social worker and United States Army Reserve officer. Captain John Gaffany, 56, from Sarah Mesa, California. He ran toward the threat. Staff Sergeant Justin Dro, 32, from Plymouth, Indiana, married and father to a 13-year-old daughter. He had transferred to Fort Hood from South Korea just weeks earlier.
Specialist Frederick Green, 29, from Mountain City, Tennessee. Sergeant Amy Krueger, 29, from Keel, Wisconsin. She enlisted in the United States Army specifically in response to the September 11th attacks. She was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. Specialist Jason Hunt, 22, from Norman, Oklahoma. He had been married for two months.
Private First Class Michael Pearson, 22, from Bowling Brook, Illinois. Private First Class Aaron Nela, 19, from West Jordan, Utah. The youngest of the 13. Specialist Cam Shong, 23, from St. Paul, Minnesota. M American, married with three young children. His widow Shuher later testified at sentencing. She said, “I feel dead yet I am alive.
” Private first class Francesca Veles, 21, from Chicago, Illinois. She had returned from a deployment to Iraq 3 days before the attack. She was 3 months pregnant. Her father, Wier Moles, traveled to Texas to testify at sentencing. He delivered his statement in Spanish. He told the court that his daughter had come home from a war zone and that she had been taken from him anyway inside an American military base by an American military officer.
13 people, each one with a name, each one with people waiting for them to come home. The investigation that followed November 5th, 2009 confirmed what the evidence already indicated. This was not a spontaneous act. The date had been chosen deliberately. The units processing through the soldier readiness center that day were the same units Hassan was scheduled to deploy with.
The weapon had been researched and purchased weeks prior. 3,000 rounds of ammunition had been stockpiled. Range practice had been completed. Forensic investigators found nothing suggesting impulse. Every element pointed to deliberate advanced planning. What followed the investigation opened a wound that survivors are still fighting to close.
The Department of Defense officially classified the attack as workplace violence, not terrorism. The distinction carried direct legal consequences. Survivors were denied combat related benefits and Purple Hearts were withheld. Staff Sergeant Shawn Manning, shot six times and still carrying two bullets in his body, received a formal DoD letter stating his injuries did not qualify as wounds caused by an instrumentality of war because Hassan’s weapon was a privatelyowned pistol, not Army issued. Days after the attack, Army
Chief of Staff General George Casey stated publicly that it would be a greater tragedy if diversity became a casualty of Fort Hood. For the families of 13 people, that statement was difficult to process. In November 2011, survivors and families filed a civil lawsuit against the federal government seeking compensation and a formal terrorism reclassification.
It took an act of Congress to move the needle. The 2015 National Defense Authorization Act authorized the Purple Heart for Military Victims and the Defense of Freedom Medal for civilians. On April 10th, 2015, 5 and a half years after the attack, Army Secretary John Mchugh formally presented those awards. The legal proceedings began on November 18th, 2009 when Colonel James L.