FORT LEWIS, Wash. – Fort Lewis would not comment Thursday on security measures at the post following a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas in which 12 people were killed including the gunman, an Army major.
Fort Lewis officials say they are following the developments in Texas. They say their thoughts and prayers are with the soldiers and families there.
"We have no indications of a threat against the Fort Lewis community," said a Fort Lewis spokesman in a statement. "The safety of our community is our top priority."
"Why would a soldier do that to your own soldiers that are getting ready to go fight?" said one person at a nearby restaurant where soldiers often dine.
"That's a one-in-a-million type of horrible type of thing," said another.
A Fort Lewis spokesman says if there are any lessons learned from the violence in Texas. Perhaps that could lead to security changes at army bases across the country. But for now, they do not want to add to any speculation about what went wrong at Fort Hood.
Marysville woman stationed at Fort Hood
News of the Fort Hood shooting panicked a Marysville couple whose youngest daughter is stationed there.
"She called and said, 'Mom, turn on the news,'" said Beth Bogart. "She said 'There's gunfire here.'"
From inside a building on base at Fort Hood, 19-year-old Sarah Bogart called her mom at home in Marysville this afternoon and told her she could hear gunfire and they were all locked down.
"Honestly, I was freaked," said Dan Bogart, Sarah's father. "With your youngest daughter running around down there, you worry about her being deployed to Afghanistan, being shot at, but not on the base where she's waiting to be deployed."
Today, over the phone, Private First Class Sarah Bogart described the chaos on base, that started after 1 p.m. this afternoon.
"All we could see was police cars swarming the area, across the street people were running," she said. "Somebody had blood from their shirt and all they said there were people were shooting."
The Bogarts say their daughter leaves for Afghanistan after the New Year. What happened today brought on an anxiety they weren't ready for.
"I've already spent a lot of days crying about her being deployed to Afghanistan," said Beth Bogart. "To have to worry about her on base, it shouldn't be that way."
KING 5's Linda Brill and Elisa Hahn contributed to this report.
neilstl said on November 5, 2009 at 11:17 PM
I am very sad about what happened at Fort Hood today but I am disappointed that King 5 is reporting about a girl who is stationed there that is safe and how her parents are affraid of when she leaves for afghanistan in Jan and yet Ft Lewis is morning the dealth of 8 soldiers and not one word was mentioned about them tonight. Huh, a girl safe at Ft Hood is more inportant then remembering our fallen soldiers here? There was a funeral service being held today at Ft Hood.
dr_cooper said on November 5, 2009 at 11:30 PM
For some very interesting information re this guy, go here: http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-politics/20091106/US.Fort.Hood.Shooting.Suspect/ once again it may be that we missed the forest for the trees.
cmeeverett said on November 6, 2009 at 1:20 AM
There is much more to be learned, but... from what i can tell.... this sounds no different than anyone else who has gone "postal" in the past. Fact it happened on a government base, or a govt post office, or a private business should not be any surprise ---considering the #2 cause of death on the job in this country IS, indeed, "homicide", & has been for several years. (#1 being: car accidents.) Maybe King-5 can do a news article about that?