Massacre at Fort Hood
Editor’s Note: County Progress asked Bell County Judge Jon Burrows to recount the events of Nov. 5 when a gunman opened fire at Fort Hood, the nation’s largest military post, killing 12 soldiers and one civilian and wounding 29 others.
It was almost 1:30 p.m. when Pct. 1 Commissioner Richard Cortese came in to my office and told me he had just heard there was a shooting going on at Fort Hood. He had just got a call from our fire marshal, Steve Casey, who also serves as our assistant emergency management coordinator. Casey had heard the radio traffic.
I immediately called the director of our Communications Center, Dalton Cross. Bell County has a unified 911 call center for the county, and we also take the 911 calls from Fort Hood. Dalton said they had dispatched EMS and notified Fort Hood security. The situation was still uncertain.
What followed were several minutes of rumors, speculation and fear. Sheriff Dan Smith and I were calling each other at the same time before we connected. Behind my desk is a TV, and to the side is my computer; both were on. Local TV was live on the national cable channels. Internet reports were updated constantly.
At the Communications Center, the first call came in at 1:20 p.m. We had 13 dispatchers working the floor, with three call-takers. The call was immediately patched through to Fort Hood, giving a three-way call between the caller, the 911 Center, and Fort Hood. As the caller gave information, the dispatchers were already working. The caller was under a table while bullets flew over her. It took a few seconds for her to get composed enough to report where she was, but she did. Help was on the scene in about four minutes.
In an 11-minute span the Center received 64 different calls, and the system worked almost flawlessly. The people did what they were trained to do. The county-wide inner operability of our 911 Center did the job.
In the mean time I was talking with many people. I reached Dennis Baker, our emergency management coordinator (EMC) who was our DPS regional liaison officer (RLO) during the Katrina/Rita hurricanes before joining Bell County. He had been at a meeting in Lampasas with other coordinators, including Killeen’s EMC Chad Berg. They were heading back to Killeen. By phone he had already opened our Emergency Operations Center (EOC), which is located within our Communications Center facility. Dennis was going to go on to Killeen to their EOC to help there and to better assess what the county needed to do. We talked often.
Pct. 4 Commissioner John Fisher, who represents most of the Killeen/Fort Hood area, was talking with his contacts at Fort Hood and coordinating back with me. At one time the story he was hearing was up to three shooters at two locations, including the Post Exchange. Immediately, the thought of a coordinated terrorist effort was on all our minds.
I called our Killeen justices of the peace, Garland Potvin and Bill Cooke. Judge Potvin had been a DPS officer who responded to the Luby’s shootings in Killeen years ago. It was all too familiar to him. He had been at Killeen’s Metroplex hospital and was being called back as casualties arrived.
Fort Hood had locked down. We have a vehicle registration office at the main gate. Those people were locked in. The schools were locked down. Some cities had done a “soft” lock down.
Judges Potvin and Cooke confirmed that we had uniformed constables and deputy constables visibly present at the county annex in Killeen. Our new District Courts Justice Center on the outskirts of Belton already has security screening by uniformed sheriff’s deputies, but to be sure all was in order I talked with our Administrative District Judge Rick Morris and District Attorney Henry Garza. They confirmed all was in place. I had called Judge Morris on his cell phone. He was aware of the situation. He was in the courtroom, but when he saw it was me calling, he immediately answered. We all decided that the Justice Center was adequately secure, so we did not shut down. The same determination was made with Judge John Mischtian at our courts-at-law facility in downtown Belton.
Media contacts began immediately. Having experienced some of this during Katrina/Rita when Bell County took in more than 3,000 evacuees, our response was measured and based on what we actually knew – not on speculation. Reporters were looking for stories. Commissioner Fisher was on CNN.
I talked with metro newspapers/TV reporters and NPR, but I had delayed taking some calls until the Fort Hood commander gave his first press conference. I was able to quote what he had said, rather than what I thought. Commissioner Fisher turned down going on Larry King Live, as did I.
The incident itself lasted about 10 minutes, from about 1:20 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Congressman John Carter’s district aide Greg Schannup, a retired Army chaplain, was in the parking lot near where it was happening. Greg was stopped from going in by a wounded soldier. It may have been Greg who first alerted the commanding general’s office about what was going on. Greg was following my e-mails and responding on his phone.
At about 5 p.m. our vehicle registration people were allowed to leave. At about 7 p.m. the base was reopened. It took that long to be sure it was safe to do so.
Our local Republican women’s group had a fund-raising roast of me scheduled for 6:30 that evening. We just did not think it was appropriate, so we canceled the roast. We met for prayer instead.
The next morning before 7:30 a.m. my cell phone rang. It was Tim Hood, our current RLO, checking to see if there were any state resources needed. I told him that based on my latest reports, counselors and mental health professionals were probably needed but appeared to be in route. He confirmed that was correct. By about 8:15, my cell phone rang again. It was Chief Jack Colley, the director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Management.
Chief Colley and I knew each other well from Hurricanes Katrina/Rita. If I am in personal trouble, I want Jack Colley on my side. He, too, was checking to see if we needed anything at all. I told him what I had told Tim. After the call, I contacted our EMC Dennis Baker for him to make one more call to our contacts on Fort Hood and Killeen to be sure we were not overlooking anything. I soon received an e-mail that all was fine.
A little before noon, another cell phone call came. It was from the governor’s office. A staffer was verifying my phone number for the governor and alerted me that he might call later. In fact, a little after noon Gov. Perry called me directly to again offer any needed state assistance. We talked about the counselors, and he verified that a team was on its way. I told him I had seen his Thursday evening directive, and Bell County’s flags were already at half-staff.
As I write this I am on my way to Fort Hood for the Tuesday memorial service to join President Obama and thousands of others to pay our respects. The crowd will be huge. I will be lucky to get in. But that’s the way it should be.