Aunt says suspect sought discharge

WASHINGTON -- He prayed every day at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Md., a devout Muslim who, despite asking to be discharged from the U.S. Army, according to his aunt, was on the eve of his first deployment to war.

Thursday, authorities said Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, a 39-year-old Arlington, Va.-born psychiatrist, shot and killed at least 12 people at Fort Hood, Texas.

In an interview, Hasan's aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, Va., said he had endured name-calling and harassment about his Muslim faith for years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and had sought for several years to be discharged from the military.

"Some people can take it and some cannot. He had listened to all of that, and he wanted out of the military and they would not let him leave even after he offered to repay" for his medical training, she said.

An Army spokesman, George Wright, said he could not confirm the report of any request to be discharged.

As authorities scrambled to figure out what happened at Fort Hood, a hazy and contradictory picture emerged of a man who received all of his medical training from the military and spent all of his career in the Army, yet turned so violently against his own.

Hasan, who was shot while being taken into custody, was reported in stable condition at a hospital Thursday night, authorities said.

Hasan had been affected by the physical and mental injuries he saw while working as a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Hospital for nearly eight years, according to his aunt.

"He must have snapped. They ignored him. It was not hard to know when he was upset. He was not a fighter, even as a child and young man. But when he became upset, his face turns red. You can read him in his face."

Hasan "did not make many friends" and "did not make friends fast," his aunt said. He had no girlfriend and was not married. "He would tell us the military was his life," she said.

At the Muslim Community Center, Hasan stood out because he would sometimes show up in Army fatigues, said Faizul Khan, the former imam there.

"He came to mosque one or two times to see if there were any suitable girls to marry," Khan said. "I don't think he ever had a match, because he had too many conditions. He wanted a girl who was very religious, prays five times a day, which is all very good."

In search of a partner in marriage, Hasan wrote in an application filed with a local Muslim matching service that "I am quiet and reserved until more familiar with person. Funny, caring and personable."

"He was a very quiet and private person. I can't say that people knew him very well other than attending prayers," said Arshad Qureshi, chairman of the board of trustees at the Muslim Community Center of Silver Spring.

"You didn't see him attend anything, school for children or celebrations. He did not go out of the way to engage people. We have thousands of people who come through to pray; he was just one of them."

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said after a briefing on the shootings that Hasan was born in Virginia to parents who immigrated from Jordan. The congressman said that Hasan "took a lot of advanced training in shooting."