Cove mayor on post, heard gunman fire Posted On: Saturday, Nov. 7 2009 05:45 AM By Alicia Lacy
Killeen Daily Herald

As he drove up to the theater observing the graduates file outside the building preparing for their commencement, what seemed like a regular event changed for the worst in a matter of seconds.

Copperas Cove Mayor John Hull suddenly heard someone yell, "Somebody is shooting at everybody," through the panic and commotion as he made his way into Howze Theater at Fort Hood Thursday, where 138 graduates were set to receive their college degrees.

"That's when I heard the shots," Hull told the Herald, recounting. "I didn't know what to think and you don't expect something like that to happen on a military base."

Thursday afternoon Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire at the Soldier Readiness Processing site, which is next to the Howze Theater.

Thirteen were killed and 38 others were wounded.

All the graduates and everyone outside the building were led inside from the calamity happening only yards away.

Hull said a man who suffered a gunshot wound was ushered into the theater, too.

"I believe he was shot in the arm or back.

He was bleeding real bad," he said. "They asked people for rags to help stop the bleeding, and everybody got what they could find."

Within minutes, Hull said an ambulance arrived to care for the man, which was followed by a call for assistance outside the theater.

"They came in and asked for combat medics and said 'we need you outside right now,'" he said.

"There were six or eight of them who went out there and they still had their caps and gowns on."

After everything calmed for a moment, he said the commencement exercises continued.

"That's really all they could do."

It was handled as well as one can handle a situation like that, especially if they don't expect it, he said.

After hours of waiting, Hull said the crowd was released, but it still took him nearly two hours to get off post and on his way home.

"We feel sympathy for the ones who lost loved ones and the ones who are wounded. It's going to take a long time to heal," Hull said.

"Soldiers shooting other soldiers – that's what hurts," he said. "You just don't expect this to happen."