FORT HOOD, Texas — Legal wrangling has again delayed the trial process for the Army psychiatrist charged in last year’s shooting rampage here.
Lawyers for Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder, want to postpone until next month the evidentiary hearing that will determine whether he can be court martialed. The Article 32 was scheduled to begin Tuesday, but the investigating officer overseeing the hearing agreed to review the defense’s written request for a continuance until Nov. 8. The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Hasan, who was in court Tuesday in a wheelchair, wearing his Army uniform and a skull cap pulled low on his head, is charged in the shooting rampage Nov. 5 at the center on base where soldiers do health screenings and paperwork before deployments.
The hearing, which is similar to a civilian grand jury and will last at least until mid-November, is the beginning of an arduous process where more than 100 witnesses are expected to testify. Some soldiers will fly in from Afghanistan, including Pfc. Alan Carroll, who was shot four times that day and is serving in Kandahar. Carroll is with the 20th Engineer Battalion, which was the hardest hit unit in the rampage, with 16 wounded and three — Pfc. Michael Pearson, Pfc. Aaron Nemelka and Pfc. Kham Xiong — killed.
They were among the 300 soldiers at the Soldier Readiness Center that day when, witnesses allege, Hasan stood up, yelled “God is great” in Arabic and started firing two guns for about 10 minutes before he was shot outside the building by base security. Witnesses described a terrifying scene in which the shooter sent bullets flying indiscriminately around the room and then took aim at some of the wounded who were trying to crawl to safety. He followed those fleeing outside and kept shooting. About 100 rounds were fired.
The Army won’t release witness lists, but all 32 wounded in the attack are expected to take the stand along with first responders and other witnesses to the carnage. According to the Army’s schedule, the hearing will go through Oct. 29, break for a week over the anniversary of the shooting, then reconvene Nov. 8-18. If needed, the Army said the hearing might continue in December, depending on whether the Hasan’s defense team decides to call witnesses.
Hasan’s lawyer, retired Army Col. John Galligan, wouldn’t comment on whether he would present evidence at the hearing. Galligan said the Army still has not released all required evidence to the defense, making it an unfair process in which his client was being railroaded.
The Army hasn’t ruled yet whether Hasan is competent to stand trial. A sanity board is ongoing. Despite defense objections, the prosecution’s request last month to start the evaluation before the Article 32 hearing started was granted. The Army wouldn’t provide details.
