Danquah said Hasan never expressed anger toward the Army or indicated any plans for violence, but during the second of two conversations they had over the summer, Hasan seemed almost incoherent, he said.
“But what if a person gets in and feels that it’s just not right?’’ Danquah recalled Hasan asking him.
“I told him, ‘There’s something wrong with you,’ ’’ Danquah said during an interview at Fort Hood yesterday. “I didn’t get the feeling he was talking for himself, but something just didn’t seem right.’’
Authorities accuse Hasan of firing more than 100 rounds Thursday in a soldier processing center at Fort Hood, killing 13 and wounding 29 others in the worst mass shooting on a military facility in the United States. At the start of the attack, Hasan reportedly jumped up on a desk and shouted “Allahu akbar!’’ - Arabic for “God is great!’’ Hasan, 39, was seriously wounded by police and is being treated in a military hospital.
The military has said Hasan was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan, but family members suggested he was trying avoid serving overseas.
A brother of Hasan said yesterday that the Army psychiatrist is a peaceful person - and he hopes he will be treated fairly by the legal system.
Eyad Hasan said in an e-mail statement released yesterday that he hopes authorities will give his family information on his brother’s condition. He also says he hopes his brother is allowed the right to an attorney when he gains consciousness.
The brother says the Army major is a compassionate person who has never committed an act of violence. He also says his family is praying for everyone affected by the “horrific events that transpired at Fort Hood.’’
A former classmate has said Hasan was a “vociferous opponent of the war’’ and “viewed the war against terror’’ as a “war against Islam.’’ Dr. Val Finnell, who attended a master’s in public health program in 2007-2008 at Uniformed Services University with Hasan, said he told classmates he was “a Muslim first and an American second.’’
“In retrospect, I’m not surprised he did it,’’ Finnell said. “I had real questions about what his priorities were, what his beliefs were.’’
