The deadly shooting at Fort Hood on Thursday that left 12 dead and 31 injured was the second burst of violence in just over a year involving soldiers at the post. The first one involved a gunman from Alaska.
Eagle River resident Spc. Jody Michael Wirawan, 22, killed his company executive officer and then turned the gun on himself on Sept. 8, 2008, according to police in Killeen, Texas.
Wirawan, an armorer based at Fort Hood with the 1st Cavalry Division's Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, had served in Iraq and was preparing to get out of the Army.
Lt. Robert Bartlett Fletcher, 24, of Jensen Beach, Fla., and an unnamed staff sergeant went to Wirawan's off-post apartment on the morning of that day, a Monday, to talk to him about missing military equipment, according to Killeen police.
A disturbance broke out and one of the soldiers called police. Officers arriving on the scene saw Wirawan attack Fletcher and then shoot him. Police opened fire on Wirawan, who then put his gun to his head and shot himself dead. The staff sergeant was not injured in the altercation.
Police said they found and removed military equipment from Wirawan's apartment and returned the items to Fort Hood in the aftermath of the shooting. It was not clear what type of equipment it was or whether it had been stolen.
Fletcher, a University of Florida graduate, had completed one tour in Iraq and was preparing for a second, according to previous news reports. He was planning to be married after he got back.
But Fletcher was pronounced dead just over an hour after police were summoned to the apartment. Wirawan was pronounced dead one minute later.
According to an obituary Wirawan's family published, he was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. His parents fought regularly and split up soon after Wirawan was born, according to his family. His mother took Wirawan and his sister to Michigan, then Texas, before moving to Alaska when he was about 10 years old.
He spent much of his childhood homeless and hungry or in foster care but worked hard in school and graduated from Bartlett High School in 2004, according to his family.
A visit to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks inspired him to join the service, his family said.
He attended the University of Alaska Anchorage for a time before joining the Army in May 2005 as a mortarman.
Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.
By JAMES HALPIN
jhalpin@adn.com