Family Of Local Soldier Injured In Fort Hood Shooting Speaks Out
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Posted: 10:45 AM Nov 8, 2009
Family Of Local Soldier Injured In Fort Hood Shooting Speaks Out
A local soldier was among those injured in a shooting at Fort Hood on Thursday.
Reporter: KCTV5
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A local soldier was among those injured in a shooting at Fort Hood on Thursday.

Keara Bono, 21, was among the 31 people injured when a military mental health doctor facing deployment overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post killing 11 people. Bono was hit in the shoulder, but family members expect Bono to make a full recovery.

Keara Bono's family said the reservist arrived at Fort Hood on Thursday. She was in the process of filling out paperwork for her deployment to Iraq when the gunman opened fire.

Bono's family said they are relieved she survived the shooting.

"She said 'Yeah, I've been shot.'" brother Dustin Bono said. "'I said 'You got shot?' Are you serious? You're not messing with me?' And she said, 'No, I really got shot.'"

Dustin Bono, from Independence, said he spoke to his sister shortly after the gunman shot her in the back of her left shoulder.

"It's just a really scary deal, so I've just been nerves on end trying to figure out exactly what's going on here," Keara's father Steve Bono said.

Steve Bono said he had not been able to talk to his daughter, but said that Keara had called her husband, who lives in Minnesota, in the middle of the shooting.

"He could hear the shots, he could hear her screaming," Steve Bono said. "He didn't know what went on, then the phone went dead."

Concerned about her daughter, Keara's mother rushed to the Kansas City airport and caught a flight to Texas to see her, Steve Bono said.

Keara joined the reserves three years ago and is stationed with a unit out of Topeka, Kan. She works in human resources and was supposed to arrive in Iraq in December. Her family said they knew she might get shot at overseas, but never imagined her getting shot at on a military base by another U.S soldier. The family said they believe it will take time for her to get over the incident.

"That's always going to be in the back of her mind, it just always is, she's always going to worry about, is the soldier next to me going to go insane," Steve Bono said.

Keara's friend told the Bono family she actually pulled the bullet out of Keara's shoulder after the shooting and Keara is expected to recover.

The suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was on a ventilator and unconscious in a hospital after being shot four times during the shootings.

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder released a statement mourning the losses at Fort Hood and mentioned that Bono, who is from Independence, was among those injured in the shootings.

"I offer my thoughts and prayers to Keara and her family and to the families of those who are dead and wounded," Kinder said.

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