more photosA moment of silence is observed Friday as a flag flies at half-staff at Fort Hood in Texas. Amid a public outpouring of grief on Friday for those gunned down at the base, details slowly emerged about the chaotic moments of the shooting and the Army psychiatrist accused in the attack.
Michael Stravato / New York Times News Service
Wounded man with local ties once worked with the gunman
Shawn Manning, shot 5 times, expected to survive
By Scott Hammers / The Bulletin
Last modified: November 07. 2009 10:39AM PSTA former Redmond-area resident is expected to survive after being shot five times Thursday in a mass shooting at a Texas Army base that killed 13 and injured 30.
Shawn Manning, 33, was shot once in the lung, twice in the abdomen, once in the leg and once in the foot during the shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, according to his aunt JoDeen Ridgway. Ridgway, who lives in Prineville, said her nephew served as a social worker for the Army, and worked with the Army psychiatrist who has been identified as the gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
“That guy was supposed to be his friend.” Ridgway said. “He works in mental health, too. They worked in the same hospital, the one in Washington, Walter Reed.”
Larry Manning, Shawn’s father, left Redmond on Friday morning to fly to Texas to see his son. Shawn Manning’s brothers, Todd and Brian, and his sister, Kim, will also be going to Texas, according to Chris Haley, Larry Manning’s sister.
Haley said Shawn Manning was able to speak to his father on the phone Friday morning.
Shawn Manning lived in Redmond for about four years, Haley said, and is listed in Redmond High School yearbooks as a freshman in 1991 and a sophomore in 1992. He finished high school while living with his mother in Idaho, Ridgway said.
Haley said Shawn Manning has been living near Seattle, and recently remarried. He served two tours in Iraq in recent years, she said, and was scheduled to deploy again soon.
Randy Trogdon, Larry Manning’s neighbor for the last five years, said that when he heard on Thursday evening about the shootings at Fort Hood, his thoughts immediately turned to Shawn Manning. Trogdon said he knew Shawn Manning worked in the mental health field for the Army, and had recently been called up to Fort Hood in preparation for his deployment.
Later Thursday evening, Larry Manning called Trogdon to tell him Shawn Manning had been shot, and that he would be going to Texas in the morning. Trogdon said Larry Manning was extremely concerned, because the Army had provided him with only limited information about his son’s condition. Trogdon said he thought about Shawn Manning’s multiple bullet wounds when he heard that one of the injured had died on Friday, and wondered if it might have been his neighbor’s son.
Trogdon said he met Shawn Manning on multiple occasions when he’d come home to visit his father, and though he never talked much about what he did in the Army, he was proud of his service. During his visits, the two would often ride ATVs or target shoot in the backyard of Larry Manning’s rural home northeast of Redmond.
“He’s a nice guy,” Trogdon said. “The Mannings are just nice people, very caring.”
Haley and Ridgway both said their brother has been extremely tense since learning about his son’s injuries, but they expect the visit to Texas will be good for him and other members of the family.
Scott Hammers can be reached at 541-383-0387 or shammers@bendbulletin.com.
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