Fort Benning Threat

from The Army Times:

Note said Hood-style shooting could happen

By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 23, 2009 10:58:25 EST

A box of hollow-point bullets and an anonymous note threatening an incident like the one at Fort Hood, Texas, were discovered Thursday at Fort Benning, Ga., sparking a criminal investigation and greater police presence, a witness told Army Times.

According to a witness at the scene, a box of 20 hollow-point shells and a handwritten note were found in the motor pool area between 1st Battalion and 2nd Battalion, 29th Infantry, under the 197th Infantry Training Brigade.

“The note said ‘tell the commanding general to call off all charges or there will be a re-enactment of Fort Hood,’ ” the witness told Army Times. He spoke on condition he wouldn’t be identified.

After the discovery, he said, military police arrived with dogs, cordoned off a 20-foot perimeter around the box and began dusting for fingerprints and questioning people.

“They’re talking with anyone with a pending [Uniform Code of Military Justice] charge and people who are getting chaptered out to see if they can find out who it is,” the witness said.

An official at Fort Benning would not comment on the details offered by the witness except to acknowledge “an ongoing investigation into a general threat at Fort Benning.”

“A suspicious package and note were found,” post spokeswoman Elsie Jackson said. “The soldier notified a noncommissioned officer, who alerted 911. The area was secured as is normal in these types of incidents.”

The witness said soldiers in the unit were asked to step forward and were nervous about the possibility of a copycat crime like the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood, in which 13 people were killed while waiting for medical appointments.

The suspect in the Fort Hood shootings, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, has been charged with 13 counts of murder.

Jackson said “appropriate force protection measures are in place while an investigation is underway to determine if this is a viable threat.”

The witness said he has seen an increase in MP patrols on post and that the Kelley Hill area of Fort Benning had been placed on a lockdown status for part of the day Friday.