US shooting rampage victims seek more benefits

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — About 160 people affected by a deadly shooting rampage by a military psychiatrist at a U.S. Army post in Texas want the Department of Defense to make victims eligible for the Purple Heart award for bravery and other benefits.

"The victims are being forgotten and it's frustrating," Kimberly Munley, one of the first two officers who arrived at the shooting scene in 2009, told The Associated Press.

Maj. Nidal Hasan, an American-born Muslim who officials believe was inspired by a radical Islamic cleric, faces the death penalty if convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the Fort Hood attack.

While several government reports have described the rampage as an act of terrorism, soldiers and their relatives say the only way victims and their families will get the same benefits as troops killed or injured in combat is if the defense secretary specifically designates the shooting a "terrorist attack."

Pentagon press secretary George Little said Friday that the Department of Defense "will not, at this time, further characterize" the shooting because it is committed to the integrity of the ongoing court-martial proceedings against Hasan.

There are concerns that formally changing the designation could affect the legal proceedings.

Little said survivors of the shooting are "eligible for the same medical benefits as any service member."

Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning, who was shot six times in the attack, said his injuries prevented him from continuing to serve. But he said he won't receive the same benefits as those severely wounded on the battlefield because an Army medical evaluation board didn't deem his injuries to be combat-related.

Witnesses have said that after lunch on Nov. 5, 2009, a gunman wearing an Army combat uniform opened fire after shouting "Allahu Akbar!" — or "God is great!" in Arabic — inside a crowded Fort Hood medical building where deploying and returning soldiers received vaccines and other tests.

Hasan was to deploy to Afghanistan the following month.

Officials say Hasan exchanged emails with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical U.S.-born Islamic cleric killed in Yemen last year by a drone strike.

The National Counterterrorism Center's 2009 Report on Terrorism called the Fort Hood shooting a "high fatality terrorist attack." The shooting also was mentioned in the State Department's "Country Reports on Terrorism 2009."