Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK – Gov. Mike Beebe ordered U.S. and Arkansas flags to be flown at half-staff today to honor of those killed and wounded at Fort Hood military base in Texas.
“There is still much we don’t know about this terrible tragedy, but Arkansans join our fellow Americans who are grief-stricken by this senseless loss of life,” Beebe said.
“Arkansas military personnel have a long history with Fort Hood and feel an especially deep loss among their family in uniform,” the governor said.
No Arkansas National Guard units were at the Texas base, which processes solders deploying to or returning from oversees missions, at the time of the shooting Thursday, Guard spokesman Capt. Chris Heathscott said.
Along with lower the flags until sunset as directed by the governor, Heathscott said the Arkansas National Guard joined an Army-wide moment of silence at 1:34 p.m. Friday in honor of the shooting victims and held a brief service at the Post Chapel on Camp Robinson.
Officials say a military psychiatrist went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood on Thursday afternoon that left 13 people dead and 30 wounded.
The gunman, identified as Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was shot four times by a civilian policeman and remained hospitalized Friday in a coma, attached to a ventilator.
Security remained normal at Camp Robinson and other other Guard bases around the state following the shooting. Heathscott said there was no perceived threat to the Arkansas bases.
