Minnesota solider wounded in Fort Hood massacre

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A soldier who now calls Otsego home was shot and wounded during the attack at Fort Hood in Texas, but was doing well Friday, according to family members.

U.S. Army Reserve Spc. Keara Bono Torkelson, 21, was shot in the back of the shoulder Thursday while she was at Fort Hood's Soldier Readiness Center preparing paperwork for an upcoming deployment to Iraq, said her grandmother Margaret Neal, 70, of Kansas City.

Thirteen people were killed, and 30 others injured in the shooting rampage at the Texas Army post. The suspected shooter is an Army psychiatrist; his motive remains unclear.

Neal said her granddaughter also "scraped her head" and that one of Bono's army friends removed the bullet from Bono's back while she was on the floor of the building where she had been shot.

Bono's husband, Joe Torkelson of Otsego, was on the phone with his wife when the shooting erupted, Neal said.

"Her husband was talking to her right before it happened, and he all of the sudden heard the bullets, and then her phone went dead," Neal said. "It was all pretty scary yesterday."

Bono's aunt, Cindy Neal of Kansas City, said her niece has already been released from the hospital in Killeen, Texas. Bono's mother, Peggy McCarty, flew to Texas but had not yet been able to see her daughter Friday morning, Cindy Neal said.

"Her mom hasn't been able to touch her yet. So she's going a little nutsy," Neal said.

At Keara and Joe Torkelson's home in Otsego, yellow ribbons are tied to the front porch and a tree in the front yard.

A neighbor said Joe tied the ribbons on for Keara before she left for training.

"He called me this afternoon and he was with her and I could hear her talking in the background," said Tom Reger, who lives across the street from the newlyweds.  "She sounded good.  Joe sounded good, concerned.  It's emotional right now."

Margaret Neal said the family was surprised that Bono had decided to join the Army after graduating in 2006 from Olathe South High School in suburban Kansas City instead of going to college.

It is also unclear if she would stay in the Army after the shooting, Margaret Neal said.

"I don't really know what's going to happen now," she said. "But I have a feeling she may want to stay (in the Army)."

Cindy Neal said her niece is "fantastic" and that the family had last seen her on Halloween when she came home to trick-or-treat with her younger siblings. Bono and her husband were both dressed as vampires, Cindy Neal said.

"I tell people she's cute, but if she had had her gun this wouldn't have happened," Cindy Neal said. "She's cute. But she's deadly."

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