WASHINGTON — Born and reared in Virginia, the son of immigrant parents from a small town near Jerusalem, he joined the Army right out of high school, against his parents' wishes. The Army, in turn, put him through college and then medical school, where he trained to be a psychiatrist.

But Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, the man accused of Thursday's mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, started having second thoughts about his military career a few years ago after other soldiers harassed him for being a Muslim, he told relatives in Virginia.

He had also more recently expressed deep concerns about being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. Having counseled scores of returning soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, first at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and more recently at Fort Hood, he knew all too well the terrifying realities of war, said a cousin, Nader Hasan. "He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy," Nader Hasan said. "He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there."

Nidal Hasan was taken into custody by the Fort Hood police after the shooting rampage, in which at least 12 people, many of them soldiers, were killed, and at least 31 others were wounded or injured. The shootings occurred at a readiness center where soldiers are put through a series of medical, dental, legal and other paces in preparation for being deployed.

Though Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, reported that Hasan was to be deployed later this month, that could not be confirmed with the Army on Thursday night.

Nader Hasan said his cousin never mentioned in recent phone calls to Virginia that he was going to be deployed, and he said the family was shocked when it heard the news on television Thursday afternoon. "He was doing everything he could to avoid that," Hasan said. "He wanted to do whatever he could within the rules to make sure he wouldn't go over."

Several years ago he retained a lawyer and made inquiries about whether he could get out of the Army before his contract was up, because of the harassment he had received as a Muslim. But Nader Hasan said the lawyer had told his cousin that even if he paid the Army back for his education, it would not allow him to leave before his commitment was up. "I think he gave up that fight and was just doing his time," Hasan said.

Nader Hasan said his cousin's parents had both been U.S. citizens who owned businesses, including restaurants and a store, in Roanoke, Va. He declined to confirm reports that they were Jordanian, but said the parents, who are both dead, had immigrated from a small town near Jerusalem many years ago. The family, by and large, had prospered in the United States, with various members working in law, banking and medicine, Nader Hasan said.

Nidal Hasan is not married and has two brothers, one living in Virginia and the other in Jerusalem, his cousin said.

Nader Hasan says his family knows little about what happened, but that they want to send "our most heartfelt sympathies" to the families of the victims. He also said his family loves and is proud of their country.

Records show that Nidal Hasan had received his undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg and his medical degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.

Hasan, who earned his rank of major in April 2008, according to a July 2008 Army Times article, served eight years as an enlisted soldier. He also served in the ROTC as an undergraduate at Virginia Tech. He received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry there in 1997.

He did his residency at Walter Reed Medical Center and then worked there for several years before being transferred to the Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood this year.

While an intern at Walter Reed, Hasan had some "difficulties" that required counseling and extra supervision, said Dr. Thomas Grieger, who was the training director at the time.

Grieger said privacy laws prevented him from going into details but noted that the problems had to do with Hasan's interactions with patients. He recalled Hasan as a "mostly very quiet" person who never spoke ill of the military or his country.

"He swore an oath of loyalty to the military," Grieger said. "I didn't hear anything contrary to those oaths."

The Associated Press quoted federal law enforcement officials saying Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that mentioned suicide bombings and other threats.

In one posting on the website Scribd, a man named Nidal Hasan compared the heroism of a soldier who throws himself on a grenade to protect fellow soldiers to suicide bombers who sacrifice themselves to protect Muslims.

"If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory," the man wrote.

It could not be confirmed, however, that the writer was Hasan, and a formal investigation had not been opened before the shooting, said law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case.

One of the officials said late Thursday that federal search warrants were being drawn up to authorize the seizure of Hasan's computer.

Retired Army Col. Terry Lee, who said he worked with Hasan, told Fox News that Hasan had hoped President Barack Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Lee said Hasan got into frequent arguments with others in the military who supported the wars, and had tried hard to prevent his pending deployment.

But Nader Hasan, 40, a lawyer living in northern Virginia, described his cousin as a respectful, hard-working man who had devoted himself to his parents and his career.

He said his cousin had been a practicing Muslim who had become more devout after the deaths of his parents, in 1998 and 2001. But he said he had not expressed anti-American views or radical ideas.

"His parents didn't want him to go into the military," Hasan said. "He said, 'No, I was born and raised here, I'm going to do my duty to the country.'"

Nader Hasan added that his cousin wasn't violent, telling Fox News: "He wasn't somebody who even enjoyed going to the firing range."

Faizul Khan, a former imam at a mosque Hasan attended in Silver Spring, Md., said he got the impression that he was a committed soldier and Muslim. He attended prayers regularly when he lived outside Washington, often in his Army uniform, Khan said.

Nothing stood out about Hasan as radical or extremist, Khan said.

"We hardly ever got to discussing politics," Khan said. "Mostly we were discussing religious matters, nothing too controversial, nothing like an extremist."

But on a form filled out by those seeking spouses through a program at the mosque, Hasan listed his birthplace as Arlington, Va., but his nationality as Palestinian, Khan said.

"I don't know why he listed Palestinian," Khan said, "He was not born in Palestine."