Nov 6, 2009 11:15 pm US/Eastern
Md. Mosque Saddened By Fort Hood Massacre
SILVER SPRING, Md. (WJZ/AP) ―
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Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan once attended a mosque in Silver Spring seven days a week.
CBS
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Soldiers from 3rd Brigade "Grey Wolf" 1st Cavalry division from Fort Hood Texas get ready to return to the US after finishing their tour in Iraq at Warhorse base in Baquba, Diyala province, 27 November 2007.
Gianluigi Guercia/Getty Images
The news of an attack on a U.S. military base in Fort Hood, Texas is hitting hard in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Thirteen people are dead after a military psychiatrist is believed to have opened fire on fellow service members. At least 30 others were wounded.
Kai Jackson reports Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan once attended a mosque in Silver Spring seven days a week. Those who knew him say he was polite and quiet, and they never saw this coming.
Hasan use to pray every day at the Muslim Community Center. The only thing that made him stand out was his army fatigues.
Now the only question that remains -- what was going on in the mind of Hasan?
Akhtar Khan knew him for years and was shocked when he learned he opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood.
"I said, 'no, he cannot be like that," said Khan. "He is not one of those kind of people who get angry or who has some kind of agendas. He was an educated psychiatrist doctor."
Hasan, 39, was born in Virginia, attended Virginia Tech, and received his medical degree from Uniformed Service University in Bethesda. For the past six years, he worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center caring for those injured in war.
He was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan where he would help soldiers deal with stress. Now many are wondering if Hasan himself needed healing.
He lived in several homes in Maryland. Those closest to him say he was quiet and kept to himself.
"I think what struck me here is how easy for some of these people to be operating to be operating inside the military forces," said Ali Al-Ahmed, Institute of Gulf Affairs.
Many who gathered at the Muslim mosque in Silver Spring for prayer worried about a backlash against their community.
"A list of hundreds of thousands of people have come through here," said Arshad Qureshi, MCC Board of Directors.
Many wonder what made Hasan snap.
"Why a person like him can do something like that? What made him to do that thing," said Khan.
Hasan never showed any signs of mental problems in any of his evaluations including one in September.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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