Reported By Emily Lampa
ORLANDO -- Orange County shares the pain in Fort Hood, Texas with its former sheriff.
Kevin Beary told News 13 his nephew is one of the solders critically wounded in the deadly shootout.
"It is absolutely gut-wrenching and it hurts the heart," Beary said.
Beary openly expressed the pain he's feeling over his nephew, Patrick Zeigler, 28.
Zeigler, a noncommissioned soldier stationed at Fort Hood, recently completed two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
He was heading off to Officer Candidate School in two weeks.
However, those plans stopped short Thursday afternoon when a soldier opened fire on him and dozens of others at the base.
Zeigler suffered multiple shots to the body and the head, and Beary admits things don't look good.
"We're hoping, doctors have said it's 50/50, so the next 72 hours will tell a lot of things, but we're praying for him and hope those prayers work," Beary said.
Beary said he was teaching a criminal justice class when he got the news about his nephew.
His priority now is helping his family get through this tough time.
"And I'm kind of like everybody else because nobody's been able to talk to Patrick and get his side of the story, since he's so critically wounded,” Beary said. “That we want him to pull through and we want him to tell us what happened because that will probably be some of the pieces that the Army, and their law enforcement division, the FBI need to know about."
Zeigler is one of 30 others injured at Fort Hood. Thirteen people were killed.
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