Fort Hood shooter has D.C.-area ties

The Army officer suspected in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, that left 13 people dead and dozens wounded had longtime ties to the D.C. area.

Born in Arlington, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan grew up around Roanoke and attended college at Virginia Tech. He has relatives, including an aunt, several cousins and a brother, who have lived in the area.

On Friday, his aunt’s Falls Church home was besieged by reporters and photographers.

His cousin, Nader Hasan, issued an e-mail statement to the Associated Press in which he said the family was cooperating with authorities.

“We are all asking why this happened,” he said. “And the answer is that we simply do not know.”

According to public records, Maj. Hasan, 39, lived as recently as April just outside the Capital Beltway on a tree-lined suburban street in the 9300 block of Cedar Lane in Bethesda. A woman at the address declined to speak with a reporter.

Maj. Hasan lived at the White Oak Towers apartments in Silver Spring from 2004 to 2008 and spent four years before that at a townhouse in Kensington.

He routinely attended prayer services at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring. On Friday, the imam at the center held a press conference, telling reporters that Maj. Hasan was “not friendly.”

“His personality was not violent,” the imam said. “He was calm. He came here every day.”

Maj. Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, worked from 2003 to 2008 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Northwest Washington, where he consulted with wounded patients who were returning from combat tours overseas.

He lived in the D.C. area for nearly a decade after being accepted to the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, now known simply as the Uniformed Services University. The military offers medical school training at the university in exchange for several years of military service.

Maj. Hasan earned his medical degree and went on to become a fellow at the school’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress.

In January, he attended a symposium on security priorities at George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. On Friday, the institute posted a statement on its Web site distancing itself from Maj. Hasan.

“All of these events were open to the public. At no time has Nidal Hasan been affiliated with HSPI or The George Washington University.”

Maj. Hasan graduated with honors in 1995 from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry.

Peter J. Kennelly, head of the biochemistry department at Virginia Tech, said records indicate he taught Maj. Hasan in one class, but he did not remember him.

Mr. Kennelly said Maj. Hasan arrived at Virginia Tech in the summer of 1992 after attending Barstow Community College in California and Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke. He said the incident was especially troubling for a campus community that has experienced horrific violence in recent years.

“There is certainly a sense of distress that for whatever reason a string of events associated with the school have been tragic,” Mr. Kennelly said. “That wears on people.”

University spokesman Mark Owczarski said the reaction from the campus, where in 2007 Seung-hui Cho killed 32 people and himself, has been “how we can help?”

Representatives from the school were scheduled to speak with officials in Fort Hood Friday afternoon to give insight on how to deal with repercussions of the shooting.

“We’re going to respond to their questions and listen to what their needs are,” Mr. Owczarski said. “I wouldn’t be presumptuous to say this is what they need to know.”