Fort Hood Eyewitness Remembers the Tragedy
Two days after narrowly escaping death at Fort Hood and just hours after his release from the hospital, Corporal Nathan Hewitt still can't believe what happened was real. The survivor spoke to CBS News Correspondent Don Teague about those fateful minutes.
"I can't make any sense of it. I mean, I guess they say that they happen for a reason," he said.
Hewitt, who's scheduled to deploy in January for a second tour in Iraq, was waiting for a flu shot Thursday in a room full of soldiers when he heard someone scream.
Special Section: Tragedy at Fort Hood
"I didn't see anything at first. All I heard was a yell and the gunshots," he said.
Hewitt said the yell sounded like "Allah Akbar," the beginning of a Muslim prayer.
The next thing he heard was gunfire that went off so fast he thought it was a string of firecrackers.
"Somebody threw a package of blackcats out there and then you started seeing the person coming around, the shots just kept coming," Hewitt remembered.
He dove for cover but was hit by two bullets.
Even after being shot, Hewitt didn't believe what was happening. He thought the gunfire was a training exercise and that he'd been hit by a rubber bullet. He says other victims thought the same thing.
"I heard the yell and then I heard the shots fired. And when the initial shots were fired, I thought they were training you know," Hewitt said. "See how quick people react and what people do to react."
After crawling and running to safety, Hewitt noticed he was bleeding. That was when he realized it was not a drill.
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"I actually didn't realize I had been shot until they took me to another building and lifted my pant leg and blood started coming out both sides."
Hewitt still can't believe a fellow soldier would turn on his own. Today he's praying for those lost and the others who were injured. He's also hoping his injury doesn't delay his deployment to Iraq, where he says at least he will know who the enemy is.