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Injured begin leaving hospital

The New York Times

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 8, 2009

KILLEEN, Texas - As the nation grieved for the 13 people killed in Thursday's attack at Fort Hood, there was a glimmer of encouragement Saturday as some of the people wounded in the shooting were able to leave one hospital near the Army base.

Four of the 10 shooting victims who were taken to Scott & White Hospital in Temple, Texas, were released Saturday. Two people were still in intensive care but were no longer on ventilators, said the chairman of surgery at the hospital, W. Roy Smythe.

"Some are out of the woods," Smythe said at a news conference, "but some of them, again, their injuries are so severe, only time will tell how they will do in the long run."

Some of the victims will be physically impaired for life, Smythe said at a press conference Saturday. Many were shot in the head, neck and abdomen and some were shot in multiple places, he said.

The authorities said that a gunman, whom they identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old psychiatrist, fired more than 100 bullets inside Fort Hood's medical processing building on Thursday, killing 13 people and wounding 30 others. How he was able to execute such a deadly act - and why - has become the focus of federal investigators. Hasan was shot four times by a policewoman and is in serious condition at Brooke Medical Center in San Antonio, said investigators, who have yet to speak to him.

On Saturday, FBI agents went door to door in the predominately Muslim community adjoining the mosque that Hasan attended, asking residents if they knew him and what sorts of interactions they had with him.

The major was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan along with other mental health professionals.

Five of the 13 people who died were from medical units. It was not known whether Hasan had targeted stress counselors.

Information from Cox News Service was used in this report.

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