East Texas Soldier in Ft. Hood shares experience

TYLER - East Texans were among those involved in what's being called chaos at Fort Hood Thursday.

"It's rough because you think whenever you get back from Iraq, you think something like this would never happen," Trey Rutherford explains.

Staff Sergeant Trey Rutherford says he was about three blocks away from where the shooting happened on Thursday.

He went to run an errand and saw all the buildings were locked.

He found out why like the rest of us.

"Once I did get inside and started watching the news, I finally found out what was going on," Mr. Rutherford says.

The next few hours were confusing for him and his new wife of just a few months.

He says no one could leave the buildings they were in, and no one was allowed to leave or enter post, and contacting relatives was not easy.

"Fifty to fifty-five thousand soldiers on post, and they're trying to use their cell phones at once," Rutherford says.

Once it was clear it would be ok, the questions started.

Sgt. Rutherford says although he visited the office Nidal Malik Hassan worked in several times, he didn't know him.

And he certainly doesn't know how his fellow soldier could take so much from his country in minutes.