Just what images Pfc. Lance Aviles made or the length of the video wasn't known, as was whether military or civilian investigators or prosecutors were aware of the action. Aviles did not offer details on the stand in the case against Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys asked about it.

Aviles was one of 10 witnesses to take the stand Friday in the Article 32 hearing. Like most of the 29 witnesses over three days of testimony, he pointed to Hasan as the gunman accused of killing 13 and wounding at least 32 others in a bloody Nov. 5, melee.

"There was a loud shout, 'Allahu akbar,' and then gunshots," Aviles said.

During cross-examination, lead defense attorney John Galligan asked Aviles if he had made a video of the shooting from his cell phone. The attorney also asked the soldier if he had deleted the images at the instruction of an officer and an NCO.

"Yes, sir," Aviles replied.

Col. Diane Battaglia, executive officer to Fort Hood's top commander, said the hearing officer would decide what to do next.

"Since this matter was raised during the Article 32," the statement said, "it is for the Article 32 hearing officer to decide to make further inquiry to the soldier's chain of command for additional information."

The hearing is similar to a grand jury. The hearing officer, Col. James Pohl, will tell Fort Hood commanders if the 40-year-old Hasan should go to trial.

Dozens in room

Prosecution witnesses, all but two soldiers, gave strikingly similar accounts of the shooting during the hearing, which began on Wednesday.

Testifying at Fort Hood, via video from Afghanistan and one from phone at Fort Gordon, Ga., they told of a gunman who methodically fired into the waiting area of a Fort Hood deployment center. Dozens of soldiers were there awaiting medical screening.

Hasan was at the post that day to finish his medical checks before deploying to Afghanistan.

Witness after witness identified Hasan as their attacker.

No one has said if Hasan set out to target members of his own unit or if the shooting was random. Most witnesses said they saw red and green lasers slicing through the air as one or two handguns were fired into the packed waiting area.

Soldiers at first sat dumbfounded, thinking it was a drill. Then they began to dive for cover.

The defense made a point of suggesting that the shooting was random, prompting Pohl to seek clarification. "I don't know what you mean by random," he said.

Two hunted down

As a fact finder who will tell Fort Hood commanders if a trial should be called, he said clearly understanding exactly what the terms meant would be helpful.

"It's a word used by many of these witnesses in their own statements," Galligan told Pohl.

Some victims, such as Staff Sgt. Patrick Ziegler, were near the shooter.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christopher Royal, meanwhile, gave a chilling account of Hasan hunting him and another soldier down outside the Soldier Readiness Processing Center.

Royal said he saw Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford dash out of the building. Already badly wounded, Lunsford had fled into a parking lot when Hasan came out the door, took aim and fired.

Royal said Lunsford "ran out of the same door I escaped from, and during that time the shooter opened the door before Sergeant Lunsford got to the parking lot and he shot Sergeant Lunsford, and he fell face down into the grass."

Lunsford survived.

Took cover too late

Royal was one of four people known to have tried to stop Hasan. Once outside the deployment center, he went to one corner and looked for a way to pounce on the gunman.

But instead, he said, "as I'm going to the building he comes adjacent to the other side and sees me again, and he starts firing at me."

Royal ran to a sport utility vehicle and took cover. Hasan bore down, squeezing off rounds.

"I felt something jump me in the back, but I wasn't sure what it was," he said.

Royal had been hit.

Aviles and others described a scene of chaos, followed by the sight of blood and stilled bodies.

The private said he saw a soldier lying on the floor with part of his skull damaged. That GI later died.

He also saw Hasan quickly reload a black handgun.

"When I seen my battle buddy and his head, the way it was, I looked up where the shooter was and I seen the magazine drop and so when the magazine dropped I got up," Aviles said.

"I'm trying to take a left turn to go toward the shooter, and when I took that left turn, he had already reloaded."

sigc@express-news.net