Okay, this might be the post that confused an administrator earlier. I will preface it by giving a little background as to its source and the permissions I believe I have posting it here.
The following quotes are survivor's testimony in Hasan's article 32 hearing. They are public record and available to those that want to do some research. This hearing was discussed on fnforum.net and I have permission from the poster who compiled some of the relevant quotes to post it on here. I have found no copyright issue to exist with the following testimonies.
http://cmm.lefora.com/2010/10/14/fort-hood-survivors-testify-major-nidal-malik-hasa/
SGT. ALONZO M. LUNSFORD JR. 20 year Army veteran (worked at the Soldier Readiness Center )
"His first targets were members of the unit Hasan was scheduled to deploy with
to Afghanistan. I saw a physicians assistant lift a chair over his head to try and
stop Hasan and the Major turned, fired and brought the man down."
"I was in a crouched position, then prone, searching for a way out, then decided to
make a run for the exit."
When I got up Major Hasan and I made eye contact, he brings his weapon over
me - "He looked at me, I looked at him.
"The laser comes across my line of sight. And I closed my eyes. And I get hit
in the head, I spin around. turned toward the door, took two steps and dropped
and I hit the floor."
"The left side of my face was on the ground and I felt blood pooling around me,
but I could still see Hasan with my right eye. I did a "self assessment, realized I
could move my hands and feet, got up and ran out the doors."
A tough cookie. He lost half of his face.
MICHELLE HARPER (CIVILIAN ARMY EMPLOYEE) LAB TECHNICIAN
"I could hear the pop of his gunfire, and I saw one solder drop. I realized from
the movements of his body that he had been hit three times."
PFC GEORGE STRATTON
"As soon as I turned I saw Maj. Hasan behind me. He was holding an older-fashioned
pistol. As soon as I looked at him, he brought his magazine up and loaded it. He looked
straight down at me, we made eye contact, and he brought his weapon down toward me.
I turned on him, and the weapon fired. It hit me in the left shoulder, my arm went limp."
"I couldn't feel it at all."
"I then hit the ground, and crawled as fast as he could to the door."
Rounds from the FiveseveN seem to be devastating against hard objects like bones. They usually penetrate instead of glancing off.
Some witnesses testified that Michael Grant Cahill, a civilian physician
assistant, and Capt. John Gaffaney, a psychiatric nurse preparing to
deploy to Iraq, each were fatally shot after picking up chairs to try to
stop Hasan.
CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER II CHRISTOPHER ROYAL
Testifying by telephone from Georgia.
"I went to one corner and looked for a way to pounce on the gunman.
I saw Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford run of the same door I escaped from, and
during that time the shooter opened the door before Sergeant Lunsford
got to the parking lot and he shot Sergeant Lunsford, and he fell face
down into the grass."
I'm going to the building, he comes adjacent to the other side and sees me
again, and he starts firing at me. I ran to a sport utility vehicle and took cover.
Hasan bore down, squeezing off rounds. I felt something jump me in the back,
but I wasn't sure what it was. Then I realized I'd been shot in the back."
He was shot in the back while hiding behind a sport utility vehicle? The gun was designed to penetrate. This example is a case in point.
SPC. MEGAN MARTIN 467th Medical Detachment, the combat stress unit
testifying via a video link from Kandahar, Afghanistan
"A captain from my unit charged the gunman with a folding chair. "But he wasn't
fast enough (fighting tears), and he was shot at close range."
"I focused on a man in fatigues and ripple-soled desert boots moving with a
laser-sighted handgun near an area called station 13. The gunman sprayed
bullets at soldiers in a fanlike motion, before taking aim at individual soldiers.
When I saw a soldier near me was bleeding from the mouth, I hit the ground.
But my eyes stayed riveted on the man with the pistol."
This spraying in a fanlike motion is most likely responsible for a lot of the "limb shots" as he was just trying to hit as many people as possible during this period.
SPC. JAMES ARMSTRONG (Shot twice)
"I was in a large seating area when I heard shooting and turned around to see
soldiers being shot and a chair thrown amid rapid gunfire before the shooter
reloaded.
The scene was "the worst horror movie," with wounded soldiers leaving bloody
handprints on walls as they tried to get up and blood pooled on the floor where
they lay dead."
SPC. LOGAN BURNETT reserve combat stress unit
"I saw Capt. John Gaffane try to attack Hasan with a chair."
"I saw that captain fall. Even so, I decided to try to rush the gunman when I
saw a magazine drop from his pistol. "I stood up and grabbed a folding table.
"I turned to throw it toward the shooter. At that point I was struck in the hip
and fell down."
"I was shot twice more, in the elbow and hand, as I tried to crawl for safety
into a cubicle. I glanced backward when I finally fled the building. "There was
no station 13 at that point. There was nothing but chairs scattered everywhere,
bodies scattered everywhere, blood everywhere."
Another devastating bone shot.
STAFF SGT. JOY CLARK 467th Medical Detachment - combat medic and
occupational therapist
"I was sitting between a veteran psychiatric nurse, Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, and
Capt. Russell Seager, when the gunfire erupted, Warman pulled me down to the
ground, and we lay facing each other on the floor of the center.
"Then I heard her cry. I reached over her side to see if I could feel the wound.
And my hand came back bloody. I heard more shots, saw Seager had stopped
moving, felt for the officers' pulses. There were none. I saw a soldier fall in front
of me "convulsing and coughing up blood," and reached to pull him toward me.
That is when she felt a sting in my left forearm, "and I lost my hold on his jacket."
The gunfire shattered her bone.
Another shot to the bone.
CAPT. MELISSA KALE 467th Medical Detachment
Testifying via live feed from Afghanistan
(Crying) Sgt. Amy Krueger, had been shot Nov. 5 after a gunman began
spraying bullets in the Army post's Soldier Readiness Processing Center.
"I wanted to get to the east wall. I tried to pull (her) with me. I was unable
to pull her. She didn't move, so I had to leave her there."
MAJOR ERIC TORINA
"I saw Maj. Libardo Caraveo killed while sitting in the waiting area of the
processing center. "I saw Maj. Caraveo was sitting like he was before,
with his legs crossed and his head down, almost like he was sleeping.
But I noticed a bullet hole in his head that was dripping blood."
This conjures up a very chilling image...
SPC. GRANT MOXON
"I was shot in the leg when I saw my (467th) squad leader go down.
I lay across Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning to protect him from getting hit
again. He was bleeding pretty badly. I kind of tried to help him."
Staff Sgt. Manning survived.
SPC. LANCE AVILES
"There was a loud shout, 'Allahu akbar,' and then gunshots.
"I initially thought the shooting was a training exercise."
Aviles testified to a sense of shocked realization that the attack was real.
"I saw friends and fellow soldiers lying on the floor in pools of blood. I saw a soldier
lying on the floor with part of his skull damaged (the GI later died). One soon died
of a bullet wound to the head. I saw Hasan quickly reload a black handgun.
"I considered trying to tackle Hasan after seeing the left side of my battle buddy's
head blown open. I thought I might be able to charge as the shooter reloaded.
But the gunman switched magazines too quickly. I looked up where the shooter
was and I seen the magazine drop and so when the magazine dropped I got up.
I'm trying to take a left turn to go toward the shooter, and when I took that left turn,
he had already reloaded."
"I jumped under a table...
The advantage, and in this case tragedy, of a semi-automatic firearm with large capacity...
SPC. JOSEPH FOSTER (testifying via video feed from Kandahar,
Afghanistan)
"I was texting a friend."
"The shooter spoke with a "strong, stern voice, like a drill instructor."
"I heard the man shout out "Allahu Akbar" -- Arabic for "God is great"
and then felt the shooter's attention turn to him. The weapon came in
my direction, the laser came across my eyes. I fell to the ground and
I felt sharp pain in my hip."
Bone penetration.
TED COUKOULIS (CIVILIAN NURSE)
"When it was apparent that the shooter had left the building, I rushed to begin treating
the wounded. There was so much blood on the floor, and so many shell casings
submerged in it, that I kept slipping and falling. Soldiers were dying all around station 13.
I saw a lieutenant colonel bleeding out so fast that "it was like a soaker hose you would
have in your garden, the amount of blood coming out in a perfect line."
I had to use my sweat shirt to keep wiping my face because so much blood was spurting
as others gave another dying soldier cardiopulmonary resuscitation."
This is a very graphic account of what the SS192 does to tissue in vital areas.
SGT. 1ST CLASS MARIA GUERRA (BUILDING MANAGER)
"The shooter reloaded three times before moving from the front area, "in one
motion, dropping a magazine and up came another one." After the rampage
ended, I locked the doors to make sure the gunman would not come back
inside. I saw the carnage amid the room darkened by thick smoke from the gunfire.
"All I saw was soldiers, just bodies all over the floor - bodies and blood.
No one was moving."
STAFF SGT. MICHAEL "CHAD" DAVIS
"I was shot in the back as I crawled from beneath a desk."
CROSS EXAMINATION
DEFENSE Attorney Lt. Col. Kris Poppe
STAFF SGT. MICHAEL "CHAD" DAVIS
"I didn't see the shooter, the bullet may have pierced the cubicle wall before
hitting me."
I'm wondering if this didn't happen to a lot of people - 5.7mm bullets flying around a room and cutting through cubicle walls as well as people's limbs and penetrating yet more victims. A cubicle wall as well as a human forearm isn't going to slow a 5.7mm bullet very much at all unless it hits bone.
MAJOR STEPHEN RICHTER (ARMY MEDICAL CORPS)
testifying via video link from South Korea
"I thought the rapid rate of gunfire meant there was more than one shooter.
A testament to how deadly a weapon, with little recoil, allowing such easy follow up shots, can be. I propose had he used a traditional caliber weapon, that he would have fired much fewer shots in the short time during his murderous rampage. I guess this statement is obvious as there are few if any weapons that can match the FiveseveN's capacity. But, if we temporarily allow equal capacity among all firearm choices, I think the 5-7's recoil would still have allowed more shots fired regardless of the traditional caliber choice. I also think fatigue would have set into his wrist causing his aim to suffer dramatically with larger calibers. I don't care who you are, 146 shots of .40 or .45 caliber loads in less than 10 mins. is going to turn your hand numb.
What am I trying to prove with all of this? I guess I am just responding to those who would say that we are lucky that Hasan didn't choose a more "potent" caliber pistol. As sick as it sounds, considering the shooters experience, amount of damage intended, short period of time to do it, I say he picked the "best" weapon he could have, short of a fully-automatic smg.
OFFICER KIMBERLY MUNLEY
When she first saw the gunman walking with his gun extended, I couldn’t get a clear
shot at him because so many soldiers were running behind him. “I did not want any friendly fire.”
The gunman retreated behind a building, she testified, so I went to a corner and got in a prone position to wait for a clear shot. Before long, the gunman came toward me, shooting, so I fired back, aiming for the gunman’s “center mass” in a bid “to stop the threat.”
"I took cover behind a building whose rainspout was peppered by Hasan's gunshots, spraying me with shrapnel. Shards of metal from the gutter hit me in one hand. I could see the gunman round the corner and closing on me.
“I quickly got up, got into a shooting stance,” I fired back, aiming for "center mass,"
I got hit in the thigh first, and I believe that started to take me down. My Beretta 9 mm
handgun had jammed just as the second bullet hit me in the knee and knocked
me to the ground.
He moved away from me and encountered Officer Todd, who ordered Hasan several
times to drop his gun."
Kimberly Munley had surgery for wounds in her hand, hip and included a femur
shattered into 120 pieces,
Again, devastating bone damage.
"I couldn’t get a clear
shot at him because so many soldiers were running behind him. “I did not want any friendly fire."
That's a good thing because she certainly couldn't shoot very well. Her weapon carried 14 rounds (including the round in the chamber) and she missed him with all her shots. She wasn't further from him than 7 yards.
The bad guy had the FiveseveN, the good (girl) had the Beretta 9mm. The bad guy was shot zero times from close range, the good girl was shot 2 or 3 times with injuries to her wrist, knee, and leg. It was also reported that her gun jammed as she was falling to the ground when her leg was shattered. Perhaps if she would have been firing the FiveseveN things would have turned out differently for her? Dare I say this against the "vaunted" 9mm Beretta?
OFFICER MARK TODD
"I arrived at the processing center parking lot shortly after Officer Munley.
As I ran up a small rise, following my partner, I could hear so much gunfire
echoing around the four buildings that it sounded like “thousands of rounds going off.”
"I too was directed to the gunman by soldiers."
When I spotted the gunman, I shouted repeated commands to surrender, but the
gunman opened fire. The gunman retreated around a corner of the building,
and I then heard more volleys that sounded like they were coming from different
weapons.
"I followed and soon saw the gunman standing by a telephone pole."
20 feet away from the downed and wounded Officer Munley, trying to crawl
for her weapon, Officer Mark Todd confronts the gunman.
I challenged him — 'Halt! Military police! Drop your weapon
At that moment, I saw the gunman's red targeting laser fixed on me.
The gunman got off several shots.
I returned fire five times from my Beretta M9 semiautomatic pistol.
"I seen him wince a couple times. He collapsed and slid down against
a telephone pole. "I ran up, rushed him. I kicked the weapon
away, flipped him over to handcuff him and placed him in hand irons."
I began emergency medical treatment. I started checking his vitals to try to
save his life.
Emergency rescue crews then took over, and I left the gunman to help
wounded soldiers. But fire, I recovered a semiautomatic pistol, a revolver
and several magazines loaded with rounds.
When I reached into Hasan’s pants pockets, I found he still had an arsenal,
loaded magazines for his Herstal semiautomatic and an unused revolver
along with a cellphone."
The revolver apparently was not fired during the rampage.
Officer Todd, the one that hit Hasan in the CNS and crippled him, said he shot at Hasan under fire but there are conflicting accounts of what really happened. In the following article, an eye witness stated that Todd caught up with Hasan after "rounding a building" and shot him while Hasan was reloading his FiveseveN.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/us/13hood.html?pagewanted=all It could very well be that Hasan was taken out by a shot to the back.
The issue of who took out Hasan was also controversial as all "official accounts" during the first few days had Munley taking Hasan out. Later we learn that she missed him completely. I'm thinking there was some manufacturing of the hero to make things look as good as possible for whatever reason. The bad guy was taken down, that is all that mattered.
FREDERICK BRANNON (Former Salesman at the Guns Galore in Killeen, Tx)
"Nidal Hasan walked into the area's largest gun store, Guns Galore. He drew
attention by asking which handgun in the store was "the most high-tech."
The manager, after a little head scratching, came up with the FN 5.7 pistol."
Hasan left that day, saying that he had to look up the weapon. The next day,
Aug. 1, 2009, he bought the gun, an expensive laser sight, several magazine
extenders and boxes of the armor-piercing ammo. That, too, was odd because
Hasan took out a cell phone and made a video of the manager's demonstration
of how to load the new pistol, remove its magazine and break it down for cleaning.
"I'd never seen any other customer make such a video. Hasan said that "he wanted
to review it later."
"Hasan was told that the SS192 cartridges were becoming less available and that
once the store exhausted its supply, Hasan would have to buy a less penetrating
version."
"Hasan reappeared every week or two to buy more magazines, magazine extenders
and four or five boxes of ammo – usually the penetrating 55192 rounds and extra
magazines for the gun.
"When I asked Hasan why he was buying so many magazines, Hasan told him he
didn't like spending time loading magazines at the shooting range and preferred to
have a large supply."
"Hasan bought a top-end green laser sight for daytime shooting."
SPC WILLIAM GILBERT
"I was browsing at the store and I was asked to tell Hasan about the
weapon, because I own a Herstal FN 5.7. I "tried to kind of feel [Hasan]
out" about what he would do with a handgun. Hasan was vague, saying
that he wanted something high-tech with the biggest magazine possible."
"He did not know what he was looking for. He did not know about handguns."
"Based on Hasan's requirements — he wanted something technologically
advanced and with a large magazine capacity — I advised Hasan to buy
the FN 5-7, which uses magazines that can be extended to hold 30 rounds.
It's extremely lightweight and very, very, very accurate. It's easy to fire and
has minimal recoil."
"I own the same weapon and am a gun aficionado."
"I explained that the FN had a 20-round magazine capable of being fitted
with extenders to hold 30 bullets. The gun was light and "very, very easy
to fire with one hand, like shooting a .22." I explained that one of the
weapon's three types of ammunition, the 55192 round, had such penetrating
capabilities that authorities ordered it off the market after existing stocks were
sold. I told Hasan that the round was thought to be able to penetrate Kevlar
armor and expand on hitting flesh, "basically liquefying anything ... in that area."
"I spent nearly an hour talking to Hasan."