Harker Heights Mayor Ed Mullen witnessed shooting Posted On: Friday, Nov. 6 2009 05:07 AM By Mason W. Canales
Killeen Daily Herald

FORT HOOD – A local mayor near the Fort Hood shooting said soldiers' training helped them to instinctively react to the incident during a college graduation ceremony at Howze Theater.

"As I drove up at 1:25 p.m., I heard gunshots," Harker Heights Mayor Ed Mullen said Thursday. "A soldier came walking around the side of the building. He was wounded, and at the same time the students that were there started to run around."

Several of the students dropped their robes and instantly took the wounded soldier into the building and began to treat the victim, Mullen said. Others cautioned everyone to get inside.

Mullen, a former soldier, ushered Copperas Cove Mayor John Hull into the building.

"I have been under fire in the past," Mullen said. "Personally, I wasn't excited, but I recognized what was going on and I was concerned with only getting folks inside."

Soldiers in the building locked down the building as they are trained to do, Mullen said.

Someone said that the victim had been shot in the back, Mullen said. But the medically trained soldiers were working fast, and he couldn't see, he added.

When ambulances arrived, they called for medics through a side door and got the victim out of the building, Mullen said.

The building was locked down again, but the ceremony continued, Mullen said. Officers kept many of the families and the children calm and orderly, he added.

"It was quite clear some of the audience were very upset and nervous," Mullen said.

Everyone was aware of what was going on but possibly not the extent of what had happened, Mullen said. Still, they finished what they were there to do.

"We knew (what was going on), and Brig. Gen. Peter Atkinson, III Corps' and Fort Hood's Canadian deputy commander, came to give the graduation speech and asked for a moment of prayer," Mullen said.

Everything was quiet during the prayer, he said.

"(Atkinson) kept everyone calm and made sure they were to do what they came to do."

There were 138 people who graduated Thursday during the shooting, which happened 50 meters away from the building, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, III Corps and Fort Hood commander, Thursday night.

Immediately, soldiers responded and they closed the building, securing the 600 people inside, Cone said.

It is unfortunate that the tragedy overshadowed a monumental event like a graduation for so many soldiers, Mullen said.

"It is just a sad thing that some deranged shooter hurt a lot of families," Mullen said. "Those soldiers have been through a lot. Most of them have just come home from being deployed or were going to get deployed and then dealing with this."

Watching the ceremony at a time of crisis made you proud of the Army, Mullen said.

"I was pretty proud them; they did great," Mullen said. "There will be a lot of sadness on Fort Hood and in the community, but we are going to persevere through this. We are a strong community. We have been through adversity before, and we will persevere."

Contact Mason W. Canales at mcanales@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7554.