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Seven people were killed and 12 wounded in a shooting at Fort Hood on Thursday, officials confirmed.
Fort Hood spokesman Sgt. Tim Volkert said seven people were killed in a shooting at about 1:30 p.m., with more than one assailant firing shots at the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center and the Howze Theater next to it.
“I don’t know if it was inside or outside but I do know it was in that area,” Volkert said.
The Army could not confirm whether the victims or the assailants were soldiers or civilians. There were conflicting reports inside and outside the post on the number of assailants and whether they were all in custody.
Another Fort Hood spokesman earlier said Military Police had the situation contained, but Volkert, interviewed about 3 p.m., said there were two gunmen, one of them believed to be in custody, but another still at large.
A City of Killeen spokesman, meanwhile, told News8 Austin that three shooters were involved, with one in custody, one surrounded by SWAT teams and the third at large.
Volkert said the base was on lockdown.
“Right now on Fort Hood they’re just telling people to stay at home or to stay put and the homes and day care facilities on post have been locked down as well. We are taking the appropriate measures to protect the soldiers and families and employees here on the installation,” Volkert said.
A Tweet at 3:06 p.m. from a person who lives on Fort Hood stated she was “locked in my post housing. scared. dont know where the shooters are.” A few minutes later, the sender, whose MySpace page indicates she is the wife of a soldier, wrote, “all i hear are sirens telling us to stay indoors. can’t hear any gunfire. the PX is up the road from my house though.”
Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe said her agency had received information that the shooter had been cornered, so it was allowing school buses to come and pick up remaining kids on a normal schedule at Fort Hood.
Ratcliffe said she got the information from an administrator with the district, who also said no Killeen ISD staff or students were involved in the shooting and that both shooters and victims were in uniform.
Killeen ISD has nine schools on the post, a number of them elementary schools. This was an early release day for elementary school students and they were away from the area before the shooting occurred.
Express-News Staff Writers Peggy Fikac and Eva Ruth Moravec contributed to this report.