SPOKANE VALLEY -- A 62-year-old man who grew up in Spokane was one of the victims of the shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army Base in Texas Thursday.

Michael Cahill was a civilian contractor who was working as a physician's assistant for the Army checking out soldiers preparing to deploy overseas to Iraq or Afghanistan Thursday when gunfire erupted at the Fort Hood Readiness Center. Cahill and 12 others were killed and 30 more were wounded.

Michael spent his childhood in Spokane; he graduated from Rogers High School and Eastern Washington University and was married here 37 years ago as well.

His sister, Marilyn Atterbery, lives in Spokane Valley and spent Thursday glued to the TV while waiting for a phone call to assure her that Michael was okay. Marilyn said that Michael was the type that would have rushed around helping everyone who was injured in the shooting.

Marilyn got the call at 10 p.m. Thursday that Michael was among the dead. The family is devastated and livid at the man who did this.

“There's got to be options that you don't have to do that so I'm sure everyone's angry,” Marilyn said. “We'll never know a 'why?' There's no sense of it to make for that.”

Michael's daughter -- who lives with her husband in Cameron, Texas -- says her father was larger than life and a boisterous man who loved his life and his job. She said that he loved working with soldiers and helping them with their physical and mental health issues. She also said that he was a wonderful father and a terrific grandfather to her two year-old son.

The family says they have very few details about what exactly happened to Michael, but they hope someone at the rampage can tell them what exactly happened in his last minutes on Earth.

The family has been told that Michael's body is being flown to Dover Air Force Base.