Witnesses give testimonies at military hearing for Fort Hood shooting suspect

Witnesses began giving testimonies Wednesday at a military hearing for an army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in last year's shooting spree at the Fort Hood Army base in the U.S. state of Texas. In a second day of the hearing for accused shooter Major Nidal Hasan, the one-story court building at Fort Hood was reportedly under tight security, as soldiers restricted traffics, police cars patrolled the area, bomb-sniffing dogs scrutinized vehicles and only a handful of reporters were allowed into the courtroom. Sergeant Alonzo Lunsford, the first person in a long line of victims to face Nidal Hasan in the court, said he made eye contact with Hasan before the later shot him. Two other witnesses said they did not realize they were shot until they escaped from the scene. Later, a 911 tape was played at the court, reviving the memories of the victims about what happened Nov. 5, 2009 at the military base, when moans of the injured, shouts and sobbing of people trying to escape and gunshots sounded in the background of the tape. The testimony followed a failed defense effort to delay the hearing until November because of a scheduling conflict. The hearing began Tuesday and was quickly adjourned because of the defense request. The hearing could last a month or more and will decide there the case should move forward to a court-martial that could bring the death penalty. Hasan, a 40-year-old U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, faces 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the shooting at Fort Hood. Hasan allegedly opened fire with two handguns on unarmed soldiers who were preparing for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan at a soldier readiness area at Fort Hood, the country' s largest military installation. The shooting spree has been described as the deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. military installation