Officials Identify Fort Hood Shooter: Ivan Lopez

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And joining us now is NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman. Tom, what do you know?

TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Well, again, we've confirmed the name of the shooter. It's Ivan Lopez. He's a soldier, a military truck driver. And we're told - there were conflicting reports earlier, Robert - there was more than one shooter. But we're told there was just a single shooter here. And again, 14 have been wounded, taken to area hospitals. And we don't have any details on their condition at this point. And again, of course, the base is still on lockdown. We expect more information soon. And a Pentagon official told me they expect a number of wounded will probably change, increase over the night.

SIEGEL: Let's report something that hasn't been said. No one has made the least suggestion that this was an act of terrorism of some sort.

BOWMAN: No. That's not - yeah, that's right. And it appears to be just kind of soldier on soldier violence is what we're hearing. No hint at all of any kind of terrorism at all.

SIEGEL: This, of course, was the sight of a mass shooting in 2009. I want you to remind us about that terrible night less than five years ago.

BOWMAN: Right. It was in November 2009. And U.S. Army major and psychiatrist named Nidal Hasan fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others. He had some ties to Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemen-based Imam. And he was convicted of murder last August and sentenced to death.

SIEGEL: And in this case - again, no intimation of any terrorist link or inspiration. And very few facts about what happened. Do we know when all this happened - how many hours ago this actually happened at Fort Hood?

BOWMAN: Oh, this happened I'm guessing 4 or 5 o'clock, you know, toward the end of the work day. And again, not really any more details. The base, I believe, is still on lockdown. And this is a sprawling base. It's the largest U.S. Army base in the country. And 40,000, 50,000 people live and work there. So it's, you know, a developing story. And we're still waiting for more information. And apparently, there will be a press conference down at Fort Hood soon.

SIEGEL: But the lockdown, of course, is cautionary at this point.

BOWMAN: Absolutely right.

SIEGEL: There's no indication there's any more gunfire at Fort Hood at this point.

BOWMAN: Right. Yeah. It's cautionary. There's no indication of any threat at this time.

SIEGEL: Tom, thanks and good night to you.

BOWMAN: You're welcome, Robert.

SIEGEL: That's NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman reporting on this shooting at Fort Hood, Texas today. As we've said, at least one dead, perhaps as many as 14 or more injured - wounded, and the shooter identified as a military truck driver, serviceman named Ivan Lopez. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.