November 6, 2009 Details emerge about Fort Hood suspect Play video

(NECN: Greg Wayland) - We are learning more about the gunman accused of opening fire, killing 13 people and injuring 30 others at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.

39-year-old Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan apparently stopped at a local convenience store every day before going to Fort Hood.

ABC News has also learned that Hasan had just been promoted in May, but his family and a congressman briefed on the case say he had hired a lawyer to help him get out of the Army.

In an Internet posting earlier this year, Hasan compared suicide bombers to GIs who save their colleagues by throwing themselves on a grenade.

Hasan, an American citizen of Palestinian descent, went to college at Virginia Tech and studied medicine at the military's medical school. Hasan worked as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Military Hospital for six years until this July.

A congressman says he had a poor performance evaluation and was transferred to Fort Hood military base.

Overnight, federal agents carried out search warrants at Hasan's apartment outside Fort Hood. A neighbor told ABC News that earlier this week, Hasan had been giving away his furniture and copies of the Koran, as he apparently planned to dispose of all his belongings.

Meanwhile, we are learning about at least one soldier victim. 23-year-old Army Specialist Kham Xiong of St. Paul, Minnesota: married, the father of three infant children, was standing in line for a physical and preparing

for a New Year's deployment to Iraq at the time of the shooting. He and his family had been in Texas for five months.

President Obama is urging Americans not to jump to conclusions while law enforcement officials investigate the shootings.