US News

Prez leads nation in mourning

WASHINGTON — President Obama said yesterday the entire nation is grieving for those slain at Fort Hood, and he urged people not to jump to conclusions while law-enforcement officers investigate the shootings.

Obama met yesterday morning with FBI Director Robert Mueller and other top officials to get an update on what they’ve learned.

Thirteen people were killed and at least 38 others injured in the shooting rampage at the Texas Army post Thursday.

“We don’t know all the answers yet. And I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts,” Obama said in a Rose Garden statement otherwise devoted to the economy.

“What we do know is that there are families, friends and an entire nation grieving right now for the valiant men and women who came under attack yesterday,” said the president, who later in the day visited Walter Reed Medical Center, where the suspect, Dr. Malik Nidal Hasan, worked for six years.

Aides, meanwhile, worked to make way for Obama to attend a still-unscheduled memorial service for those slain at the nation’s largest military post.

Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama would attend that service and emphasized it would take place at the families’ convenience, and that it will not be dictated by the president’s schedule.

“When a service is scheduled, the president will attend,” Gibbs told reporters.

Obama is at present scheduled to leave Wednesday on a 10-day trip to Asia.