The 25 year-old victim was hanging around Times Square, who "would approach the tourists, ask them their names, write their names on the CDs and then demand payment of $10." (Tourists: "Fuck are you fucking kidding me? Fuck away from me with that" is the proper response in this situation). Cops chased the guy, and whoa, he whipped out a god damn Mac-10 and started shooting, and then got shot to death.

Emer Rooney, 33, a visitor from Ireland on the last day of a trip to New York, walked with a friend from a nearby hotel to take pictures of the scene...She cited the shooting, in fact, as one of the more exciting moments of her trip, including recovering lost luggage at the Port Authority Bus Terminal and getting tickets to the musical "Wicked."

So all things considered here, most people in New York City still favor robbing tourists. Give em the memory of a lifetime!

Captain Anthony Tasso told the New York Times' blog The Local that "all incidents, although not directly related, were the result of a promotion for all high school kids from several schools throughout the borough to meet at Buffalo Wild Wings for a 40-cent wing promotion." No one died, this time. But be thankful they didn't throw in those little sticks of celery and dipping sauce.

UPDATE: An armed gunman fired multiple shots into a drug testing facility at a strip mall, local television is reporting. A man and a woman were killed. The gunman is not at large, but it's unclear if he's in custody or among the dead.

MSNBC says an armed suspect fired shots into the mall. Local authorities say the suspect is "not at large."

According to KGW-TV in Portland, the shooting took place in the past two hours at a mall in Tualatin, a suburb roughly 15 miles from downtown Portland:

PORTLAND, Ore. — A shooting has been reported and confirmed at a Tualatin business mall.

Few details were available. According to Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, there may be as many as 10 victims.

The shooting was reported at 7575 SW Mohawk at the Martinazzi intersection.

Nearby streets had been closed. Businesses located in the mall were evacuated.

Police first confirmed that a shooting had occurred sometime after 11 a.m.

FORT HOOD, Texas - Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" — an Arabic phrase for "God is great!" — before opening fire, the base commander said Friday.

Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said officials had not yet confirmed that the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, made the comment before the rampage Thursday.

And CNN has what it claims is security-camera footage of Hasan in a convenience store wearing Islamic garb on the day of the shooting:

If true, the above would seem to confirm what many on the wingnut right seemed to positively hope was the case last night—that Hasan's rampage was an act of Islamist terrorism, as opposed to the result of a breakdown or mental illness or the garden-variety insane rage and alienation that has inspired what seems like a mass killing every other month. We all know what first came to mind when Hasan's name was released yesterday. But we suppose a handy guide for finding the line that divides the Glenn Becks of the world from the rest of us is whether you reacted with dread at the idea that it may have been related, however murkily, to Islamism, or if you were filled with smug delight.

Here's some smug delight, from a horrible woman (via the Awl):

The moment I first heard about the mass murders at Fort Hood I knew in my bones that the shooter or shooters were Muslims.

Call me "Islamophobic," call me "psychic," call me what you will.

It now seems that there was only a single shooter: Major Malik Nidal Hasan, an American-born Muslim man of Palestinian/Jordanian descent, an American citizen who is an Army-trained physician-a psychiatrist to be exact-as well as a religious Muslim.

And here, from the Corner's Victor Davis Hanson, is a new meme watch: When a Christian or a Jew or any other kind of regular American blows a gasket and kills a bunch of people, there are a variety of reasons we can investigate as to the potential cause. When a Muslim does it, it's a personal jihad:

[I call it] al Qaedism, or the spontaneous rage of disaffected Muslims, who connect their own failures in some sense to generic radical Islamist sentiments, and act out that anger by running over the innocent (San Francisco or North Carolina), shooting Jews (the LAX or Seattle attacks), or shooting up malls or sniping. These are of course different from but in addition to the 24 organized plots that have been broken up since 9/11, four of them this year alone.

Maybe Hasan killed all those people because he thought Allah wanted him to. Maybe he did it because he wanted to exact revenge for perceived slights. Maybe he was a paranoid schizophrenic and thought they were lizard people. Maybe all of the above. We don't know. But if it was Islamism, this is the lesson that Hanson and his partisans want to take from it:

In other words, the narrative after 9/11 largely remains that Americans have given in to illegitimate "fear and mistrust" of Muslims in general. A saner approach would be to acknowledge that there is a small minority of Muslims who channel generic Islamist fantasies, so that we can assume that either formal terrorist plots or individual acts of murder will more or less occur here every three to six months.

A saner approach. No one, anywhere, has ever disputed that there is a small minority of Muslims—or any religious sect, for that matter—who subscribe to violent and extremist religious views. Make no mistake, this is an argument for legitimate fear and mistrust of "Muslims in general." Expect to see more like it.

We're getting some clarity: At a press conference minutes ago, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone told reporters that a soldier entered the post's soldier readiness facility, where servicemembers preparing to deploy go for last-minute medical check-ups and the like, at approximately 1:30 p.m. and opened fire with two handguns, killing twelve and wounding 31. The assailant was killed. According to eyewitness accounts, Lt. Gen. Cone said, two other soldiers were also involved in the shooting. Both men have been located and detained as suspects.

"The situation is ongoing, although I think we have positive news that we're very close to a resolution," he said.

UPDATE: Fox News is reporting that Hasan was an "Army mental health professional," as is the Associated Press: "A defense official speaking on condition of anonymity says Hasan was a mental health professional—an Army psychologist or psychiatrist. It was not known whether he was treating people at the base."

And Texas Rep. John Carter, who represents the district in which Ft. Hood is located, also told the network that he's been told by sources at Ft. Hood that the two suspects have been released, but that authorities are looking for yet another suspected conspirator who's still at large.

UPDATE: Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison just said on Fox, citing officers she's been speaking to, that the shooter "was going to deploy to Iraq, and I think there was some measure of being concerned or upset about that." She said "it's not totally clear" that the two other suspects "were a part of this plot."

UPDATE: ABC News has identified the shooter as Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan. If it's true that he had two other soldiers assisting him, we can't help but think of a recent rash of killings in Afghanistan involving Taliban fighters infiltrating Afghan police units and killing U.S. and British soldiers. On the other hand, the FBI is saying there's "no terrorism nexus."

UPDATE: Here's Obama's statement on the shootings: "It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."

UPDATE: "The individuals involved were all U.S. soldiers," according to an Army spokesman giving a news conference right now. The primary shooter was armed with two handguns.

UPDATE: CNN is now reporting that twelve victims have been killed, and that one of the shooters has died as well. Unclear whether the gunman is included in that figure of twelve fatalities. Barack Obama is expected to publicly address the shootings shortly.

Twenty people were wounded, though that number is likely to increase. It's unclear whether the victims were soldiers or not. Fox News has confirmed that one suspect is still at large, and is speculating based on unconfirmed reports that a third is on the loose as well. Which would seem to indicate a coordinated operation.

UPDATE: KWTX-TV in Waco is reporting that the death toll may have risen from seven to nine. CNN also says that "as many as nine" have been killed.

UPDATE: The Killeen Daily Herald is reporting, on Twitter as well as in a reporter interview on Fox, that the suspect in custody is a 40-year-old male. Fox News, citing FBI sources, says "authorities believe there is no terrorism nexus" in the attack. "It's not being discussed."

UPDATE: Here's Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) on MSNBC, saying that one shooter attacked a processing center where soldiers were being prepared to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan, and that 30 people were wounded.

UPDATE: A local news station is reporting that one of the shooters, an Army major, has been wounded but is still at large.

From KCEN-TV in Waco, Texas:

Police surrounded the 42006 building, said to be used for traumatic brain injuries, on Fort Hood and fired shots at a male suspect in an Army uniform with a Major rank. The suspect was injured, but has now run in to another building.

Reports say the shooter had a high-powered rifle and was aiming to kill.

Fox is reporting that the shooters attacked three separate locations on the post at the same time. According to the Austin-American Statesman, the shooting started at 1:30 p.m.—one gunman was at a "personnel and medical processing center" and another shooter was at a theater. The way this is shaping up, it certainly looks like a deliberate, coordinated attack. Though we can certainly imagine a lot of confusion in the aftermath of an event like this as to who was a shooter and who was just a soldier shooting back. And if one shooter got away after the initial incident and started firing from another location, it could have led to the misapprehension that there were three attackers when there were in fact two. There was a graduation ceremony of some sort taking place on the post, according to Fox, which drew a lot of civilians there today.

The Ft. Hood web site currently bears the message "LOCKDOWN: Ft. Hood is closed...." The site's down, but here's a screengrab:

A Ft. Hood soldier was killed in Afghanistan last month by an improvised bomb. And Killeen was the site of a massacre at Luby's cafeteria in 1991, when a gunman drove his truck into a restaurant and fatally shot 23 people before committing suicide.

The statements:

"This story is beyond ridiculous and is completely false. Neither Biggie nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during, or after it happened. It is a complete lie to suggest that there was any involvement by Biggie or myself. I am shocked that the Los Angeles Times would be so irresponsible as to publish such a baseless and completely untrue story." - Sean "Diddy" Combs

"In the past 14 years, I have not even been questioned by law enforcement with regard to the assault of Tupac Shakur, let alone brought up on charges. Chuck Phillips, the writer who in the past has falsely claimed that the Notorious Biggie Smalls was in Las Vegas when Tupac was murdered and that Biggie supplied the gun that killed Tupac — only to be proven wrong as Biggie was in New Jersey recuperating from a car accident, has reached a new low by employing fourth-hand information from desperate jailhouse informants along with ancient FBI reports to create this fabrication. I simply ask for all Rap fans and fans of Tupac to analyze this fiction for what it is along with Phillips' motives behind it. I am baffled as to why the LA Times would print this on its website when a simple and fair investigation would reveal that the allegations are false. I am currently consulting with my attorneys about my legal rights regarding this libelous piece of garbage." - Jimmy Rosemond

[via XXL]

Biggie's two verses on "Who Shot Ya?":

Who shot ya?

Seperate the weak from the ob-solete

Hard to creep them brooklyn streets

Its on nigga, fuck all that bickering beef

I can hear sweat trickling down your cheek

Your heartbeat soun like sasquatch feet

Thundering, shaking the concrete

Finish it, stop, when I foil the plot

Neighbors call the cops said they heard mad shots

Saw me in the drop, three in the corner

Slaughter, electrical tape around your daughter

Old school new school need to learn though

I burn baby burn like disco inferno

Burn slow like blunts with ya-yo

Peel more skins than idaho potato

Niggaz know, the lyrics molestin is takin place

Fuckin with b.i.g. it aint safe

I make your skin chafe, rashes on the masses

Bumps and bruises, blunts and landcruisers

Big poppa smash fools, bash fools

Niggaz mad because I know that cash rules

Everything around me, two glock nines

Any motherfucker whispering about mines

And im, crooklyns finest

You rewind this, Bad Boy's behind this

(Hook)

I seen the light excite all the freaks
Stack mad chips, spread love with my peeps
Niggaz wanna creep, got ta watch my back
Think the cognac and indo sack make me slack?
I switches all that, cock-sucker gs up
One false move, get swiss cheesed up
Clip to tec, respect I demand it
Slip and break the, 11th commandment
Thou shalt not fuck with raw c-poppa
Feel a thosand deaths when I drop ya
I feel for you, like chaka khan Im the don
Pussy when I want rolex on the arm
Youll die slow but calm
Recognize my face, so there wont be no mistake
So you know where to tell jake, lame nigga
Brave nigga, turned front page nigga
Puff daddy flips daily
I smoke the blunts he sips on the baileys
On the rocks, tote glocks at christenings
And my cock, in the fire position and...

[via Lyrics Freak]

The Times obtained FBI records that say the attack was masterminded by manager James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond and promoter James Sabatino. Rosemond was a thug-turned-music businessman, and Sabatino was a young promoter whose father was in the mob. They offered Tupac $7,000 to record a track at the studio—where Puffy and dozens of Bad Boy associates were also recording that night—and then hired some guys from Brooklyn to beat and rob Tupac. He pulled a gun, and ended up getting shot, but surviving.

On Nov. 29, 1994, two dozen Bad Boy executives and associates gathered on the 10th floor of the Quad to record songs for a debut album by Junior M.A.F.I.A., a group formed by the Notorious B.I.G., Bad Boy's leading artist.

On hand were Combs, B.I.G., Rosemond, Agnant and Sabatino. Also present, among others, were rapper James "Lil' Cease" Lloyd and music executive Andre Harrell.

Rosemond had booked an adjacent studio to produce a recording by rapper Little Shawn, whose career he managed. This was the session at which Shakur was to be paid $7,000 for a guest vocal.

In fact, Rosemond never intended to record the session, according to the FBI informant and the other sources.

He had enlisted a trio of his friends from Brooklyn to ambush Shakur in the lobby of the Quad, the sources said.

Agnant and Sabatino helped plan the attack, working out the timing, arranging for the three assailants to be driven to the studio and mapping out their escape route, according to the informant and the other sources. Sabatino informed Combs and Wallace in advance that a trap had been laid for Shakur, the sources said...

The FBI informant said the shots were audible in the 10th-floor studio. "Sabatino, Rosemond and Combs did not seem concerned about this," the informant told the FBI, though others in the studio "were very upset."

The Times contacted the three guys who sources told them did the crime, all of whom are in prison on unrelated charges. One denied it; "one of the men said that Rosemond orchestrated the ambush. Another was cryptic. He wrote that the statute of limitations for the assault had expired, and he offered to produce, for an unspecified fee, the medallion stolen from Shakur."

Puffy declined to comment. Tupac was murdered in September of 1996; Biggie Smalls, Puffy's greatest rapper, was murdered the following March. Puffy is now a mainstream star; needless to say, this could further complicate his already complicated image.