Murder In America
Title: EP. 188: TEXAS - The Ft. Hood Mass Shooting: A Terrorist Attack From The Inside (Pt. 2)
Fri, 07 Feb 2025
In today's episode, we take a look at a shooting that shocked Americans to their core, a massacre that took place on a United States Army base. The stories of terror that emerged from that day are heartbreaking, and the ripple effect that this act of violence caused across America are still being felt to this day. You're listening, to MURDER IN AMERICA. - Listen to our new show, "THE CONSPIRACY FILES"!: -Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5IY9nWD2MYDzlSYP48nRPl -Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-conspiracy-files/id1752719844 -Amazon/Audible - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/ab1ade99-740c-46ae-8028-b2cf41eabf58/the-conspiracy-files -Pandora - https://www.pandora.com/podcast/the-conspiracy-files/PC:1001089101 -iHeart - https://iheart.com/podcast/186907423/ -PocketCast - https://pca.st/dpdyrcca -CastBox - https://castbox.fm/channel/id6193084?country=us - Stay Connected: Join the Murder in America fam in our free Facebook Community for a behind-the-scenes look, more insights and current events in the true crime world: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4365229996855701 If you want even more Murder in America bonus content, including ad-free episodes, come join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderinamerica Instagram: http://instagram.com/murderinamerica/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/people/Murder-in-America-Podcast/100086268848682/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MurderInAmerica TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theparanormalfiles and https://www.tiktok.com/@courtneybrowen Feeling spooky? Follow Colin as he travels state to state (and even country to country!) investigating claims of extreme paranormal activity and visiting famous haunted locations on The Paranormal Files Official Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheParanormalFilesOfficialChannel - (c) BLOOD IN THE SINK PRODUCTIONS 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What was the Fort Hood Massacre?
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Warning, the following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects.
Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children.
This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned.
In last week's episode, we talked about the life of Nadal Hassan, a man who was born and raised in Arlington, Virginia. Nadal had a pretty normal upbringing. His parents, who were Palestinian immigrants, moved to the US in the 1960s and opened up several businesses. They worked hard to live out the American dream, and they had a lot of respect for our country.
So much so, after high school, Nadal decided to join the United States Army while also earning his college degree. But it's also around this time when he started leaning more into his religion of Islam, and he was soon faced with a conflict of interest. In the early 2000s, after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, the United States entered into war with Iraq.
And at the time, Nadal felt like he was fighting in a war against his own people, and this would only cause him to grow more and more radicalized. He even started chatting with a man named Anwar al-Awlaki, who had ties to Al-Qaeda. And while all of this was happening, Nadal was serving as a psychiatrist in the United States Army, unbeknownst to everyone.
Nidal Hasan did not have the army's best interest at heart. By day, he was counseling soldiers with PTSD, but by night, he began planning attack against the very soldiers he vowed to help. So this is the story of the Fort Hood Massacre. I'm Courtney Browen.
And I'm Colin Browen.
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Chapter 2: Who was Nidal Hasan and what drove his actions?
Another person inside the Soldier Readiness Processing Center that day was Staff Sergeant Patrick Ziegler. He had just come home after his second deployment to Iraq, and he was just seconds away from getting cleared for Officer Candidate School.
When the shots first rang out, Patrick originally thought it was some sort of training exercise, but then he saw a green laser flash across his eyes, followed by a huge blow to his head. Patrick would later say that it felt like someone had hit him in the face with a metal baseball bat.
He quickly hit the ground, and when he lifted his hand to the right side of his face, he felt pieces of it missing. Using the last bit of energy he had, Patrick began crawling towards the exit. Along the way, he noticed his own blood pooling beneath him. The last memory Patrick has is reaching out towards the leg of a chair. He was hoping that he could use it to pull himself closer to the door.
But instead of inching closer to the door, the chair just pulled towards him. Then, Patrick says he passed out. He was also shot three more times in the shoulder, arm, and hip. But surprisingly, he would survive. To this day, no one really knows how he got out of the building.
A medic would later recall that he found Patrick, barely conscious, begging for someone to give him a phone so he could call his fiance Jessica.
Staff Sergeant Patrick Ziegler was later rushed to the hospital where he would undergo one of several brain surgeries. And during this one, they had to remove part of his brain. Patrick would suffer from his injuries for years after the shooting. He would later say, after every brain surgery, I'd be set back to the point where I'd have to relearn. I've had to relearn how to walk four times.
sadly patrick also had to give up on his dream of becoming an officer he would later say i went through the complicated steps to re-enlist while i was a wounded warrior in the hopes that i would be able to reclassify or something like that but it looks like i'll be medically retiring once my medical boards are complete but patrick was at the end of the day
grateful that he made it out alive that day, as many others didn't. The following year, he was also able to marry his wife, Jessica. The wedding was actually set up by the show Extreme Makeover Home Edition, and despite doctors telling him that he may never have children, the two would go on to have a son named Liam.
Back inside the SRP Center, the gunmen continued firing at soldiers, many of whom had gone to war before. These soldiers would later say that the building looked just like a combat zone. There was gunfire, blood, bodies covering the floor, gun smoke filling the room. and an enemy trying to kill as many people as possible.
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Chapter 3: What happened during the shooting on November 5, 2009?
For most of the bodies they came across, they were already gone. They knew that there was nothing they could do for them, so... They had to get up and move on to the next person. And there's this video I found, I think it's body cam footage, but it shows the immediate aftermath of the SRP center that day. As the officer walks around the room, there is blood everywhere.
And there are soldiers lying all over the ground receiving aid. Every time the officer turns a corner, you see a group of people surrounding a soldier who isn't moving. Several times throughout the video, you see the flash of a head bobbing up and down as first responders are performing CPR all around the room.
A woman named Jeanette Juroff would later say of the scene, quote, "'Every single medic was just going on like it was a movie, like it was scripted. I need a shirt. I need a belt. Elevate his head. Everybody was helping everybody.'" In the video I mentioned, you can also see so many of those folding chairs that were in the waiting room.
Chairs that had been knocked over as many people tried to run to safety. Some of those chairs were also thrown at the gunman in an attempt to stop him. Also covering the ground you see debris, shoes, paper, medical kits, and spent shell casings. all remnants of the chaos that ensued that day.
But soon enough, all 33 of the wounded had been removed from the building and brought to a nearby hospital. But everyone who was left in the room had succumbed to their injuries. Inside of the SRP center were the bodies of 11 people. The total death count was 13, but two would later die in the hospital, all of whom lost their lives in an act of terrorism.
Two miles away at the Darnell Medical Center, hospital staff had not been prepared for the influx of patients they were about to receive. In fact, when the wounded started to arrive, most of the emergency staff had been outside smoking cigarettes, but they would soon have to spring into action.
The Darnell Medical Center was so overwhelmed, Bell County Dispatch had to contact the world-class trauma center in nearby Temple, Texas, called Scott & White Medical Center. And luckily, they immediately sent out their trauma teams to help. At the hospital, physicians, surgeons, and operating rooms were made ready for the wounded.
In fact, Scott and White had decided to close their doors to the public so they could solely focus on the Fort Hood victims. The severely wounded were airlifted in army choppers and taken to Scott and White. Disturbingly, the shooter himself was a part of this group. Now, many of the people being airlifted were too wounded to be aware of their surroundings.
but think about how scary it would be to look over and see the gunman lying next to you in a helicopter.
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