Neighbors knew alleged Fort Hood shooter as a nice, but quiet, man (Outward Moral Can Be Deceiving - True Muslims Pledge Their Allegiance Only to Allah)
Patricia Villa was grateful to have such a kind and generous neighbor at her new apartment in an area some residents call “the ghetto of Killeen.”
Now her neighbor, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, lies in a hospital with multiple gunshot wounds, the suspected gunman who killed at least 13 military personnel and wounded dozens of others Thursday at Fort Hood.
Authorities on Friday seized Hasan’s home computer, searched his apartment and took away a large metal trash bin as the Army major lay in a coma in the hospital, attached to a ventilator.
Villa, 47, and her husband moved to the Casa Del Norte complex a month ago. Hasan had been there since July. The two dozen units face each other across a courtyard where residents often gathered for cookouts and just to sit and talk.
Villa and her husband often sat out on a porch they shared with Hasan’s apartment, and the 39-year-old psychiatrist who came to Fort Hood from Walter Reed Army Medical Center seemed nice.
On Tuesday night, she said, Hasan approached them on the porch and offered her a Spanish-language Quran. When she told him she didn’t read Spanish, he pledged to return with another Quran for her.
Before 9:30 the next morning, he knocked on her door, offering the Islamic holy book and three bags of frozen food. When he saw the couple has little furniture, she said, he gave them some shelves and folding chairs and some clothing for her husband.
He wanted to know whether they had a bed. No, she told him — they could barely afford to pay the rent on the place.
“I barely had anything, so of course I said, ‘OK,’ ” said Villa, who moved to Killeen to be near her daughter. “I thought, ‘Wow. Thank God.’ ”
He told her he was being deployed Friday and that he “was ready,” Villa said, and asked her if he could pay her to clean his apartment after he left. After he turned down her offers to do it for free, they agreed on $60 for the job. Military officials said Hasan was to be deployed to Afghanistan, where he was to counsel soldiers suffering from stress.
Villa accompanied Hasan to his apartment to size up the task, she said, and all she saw in the unit were a kitchen table and some dish soap. He told her he’d bring her a key Friday morning so she could clean.
On Thursday morning, he brought Villa an air mattress and other items he said he no longer needed. Wanting to do something in return, she wrapped up a couple of the sweet tamales she’d been making and knocked on her neighbor’s door. He thanked her and accepted the tamales after she assured him they contained no meat.
It was the last time she saw him. She heard a blast of sirens at about 1:30 Thursday afternoon, the sound of emergency crews responding to the mass shooting.
“When I heard the sirens and I heard there had been a shooting, I had a feeling it was him who had been shot,” she said. “And now . . . I cannot believe he did this.”
Others at the complex were also taken aback that the quiet but friendly Hasan might have unleashed such violence. He kept to himself, they said, and neighbors were used to seeing him in all sorts of garb: his fatigues, jeans, T-shirts and sometimes white robes.
Alice Thompson, who manages the apartments with her husband, John, said Hasan paid six months’ rent upfront at the complex, which charges $325 to $350 a month for the units.
“He could have made bombs and put them on the roof of this place and blown us all up,” she said. “But instead, he shot up his own soldiers. I just don’t know why.”
Another neighbor received a phone message from Hasan at 5 a.m. Thursday.
Jacqueline Harris, 44, said Hasan called her boyfriend, Willie Bell.
“He just wanted to thank Willie for being a good friend and thank him for being there for him,” Harris said. “That was it. We thought it was just a nice message to leave.”
Hasan recently was involved in a spat with another Fort Hood soldier residing in his apartment complex, apparently related to his Muslim beliefs.
John Thompson said the other soldier, John Van de Walker, allegedly keyed Hasan’s car and also removed and tore up a bumper sticker that said “Allah is Love.” Thompson said Van de Walker had been in Iraq and was upset to learn that Hasan was Muslim.
“That’s why he did it,” Thompson said.
A report filed with Killeen police Aug. 16 indicates that Hasan’s vehicle, a 2006 Honda Civic, had been scratched by an unknown object causing an estimated $1,000 worth of damage. The report indicates that Van de Walker, 30, was arrested Oct. 21 and charged with criminal mischief. The matter has been referred for prosecution, according to the report.
Another neighbor, 42-year-old Kim Rosenthal, said Hasan didn’t seem too upset that his vehicle was scratched.
“He said it was Ramadan and that he had to forgive people,” Rosenthal said. “He forgave him and moved on.”
Hasan’s mind-set about his mission overseas wasn’t clear. Someone who used to work with Hasan said he had expressed some anger about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but neighbors said he appeared fine with his pending deployment.
“I asked him how he felt about going over there, with their religion and everything, and he said, ‘It’s going to be interesting,’ ” said Edgar Booker, a retired soldier who works in a cafeteria on the post.
While Hasan mostly got on well with his neighbors, the Thompsons said they never saw him receive visitors until Wednesday night, when he arrived home with a man who entered his apartment and left after about five minutes, they said.
“This is just unbelievable,” John Thompson said. “That someone who lives 30 feet from you would do this.”
Though he apparently had problems at Walter Reed, Fort Hood officials said they weren’t aware of any issues with his job performance.
One of Hasan’s bosses praised his work ethic and said he provided excellent care for his patients.
“Up to this point I would consider him an asset,” said Col. Kimberly Kesling, deputy commander of clinical services at Darnall Army Medical Center.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Source:The Waco Tribune-Herald
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Muslim terrorists are trained to be nice, quiet men — that is, until they’re activated and told to commence with the blood-letting.