Highly trained sergeant brought down Fort Hood gunman

JAMES C. McKinley Jr. / New York Times News Service

Killeen, Texas -- The police officer who brought down a gunman after he went on a shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army base here was on the way to have her car repaired when she responded to a police radio report of gunfire at a center where soldiers are processed before being sent overseas, the authorities said Friday.

As she pulled up to the center, the officer, Kimberly Denise Munley, spotted the gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, brandishing a pistol and chasing down a wounded soldier outside the building, said Chuck Medley, the director of emergency services at the base.

Munley -- a petite woman with a love of hunting, surfing and other outdoor sports -- bolted from her car, yanked her pistol out and shot at Hasan. He turned on her and began to fire. She ran toward him, continuing to fire, and both she and Hasan went down with several bullet wounds, Medley said.

Whether Munley was solely responsible for taking down Hasan or whether he was also hit by gunfire from another responder is unclear, but she was the first to fire at him, the authorities said.

Munley, 34, is an expert in firearms and a member of the SWAT team for the civilian police department on the base, officials said.

Medley said she had received specific training in a tactic called active shooter protocol, which was intended for this kind of situation. "She's absolutely a hero," he said. "She had the training; she knew what to do. And she had the courage to do it -- by doing it she saved countless people's lives."

The original 911 call came in at 1:23 p.m., and five minutes later Munley had already engaged the gunman.

Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, the post commander, praised Munley on Friday for reacting so swiftly and without hesitation. "It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer," Cone told The Associated Press.

Munley began her career as a police officer in the beachside town of Wrightsville, N.C., right after graduating from high school in nearby Wilmington. She quickly earned a reputation for fearlessness, despite her small stature. (She stands only 5-foot-4.)

Her former partner in Wrightsville, Investigator Shaun Appler, recalled how Munley saved him one night when she wrestled a large man off him after the man had pinned him down and was trying to take his gun. She earned the nickname Mighty Mouse for that, he said. "She's a ball of fire," he said. "She's a real good cop."

In facing down the gunman at Fort Hood, Munley received wounds in each thigh and one to her right wrist. The base's fire chief applied tourniquets to stop her bleeding and she was taken to an undisclosed hospital. Her friends and family members who spoke to her Friday said she was recovering and in good spirits.

Munley, who has two children, joined the police force on the sprawling base in January 2008 after several years in the Army, most of them at Fort Hood.

It was there she met her husband, Matthew Munley, a member of the Special Forces. The couple was in the process of selling their house and moving back to North Carolina, where her husband had been assigned to Fort Bragg, family members said.

She lives with her husband and their 3-year-old daughter in a tidy community of ranch homes on the south side of Killeen. Her neighbors described her as quiet and friendly. She was often seen washing her SUV in front of her house, tending her neat lawn and playing with her daughter.

One neighbor, Sgt. William Barbrow, said that about a year ago Sergeant Munley chased down a burglar who had been prowling around the neighborhood.

"When she is in uniform she looks sharp and crisp, her body language says she is professional and there to handle business," he said.

She was also scrupulously honest, friends said. A year ago, she took pains to pay for the damage she caused to a neighbor's car with her sport utility vehicle, even though no one had witnessed the accident.

Munley's biography on her Twitter site reflected her sunny outlook. "I go to sleep peacefully at night knowing that I may have made a difference in someone's life," she wrote.

Medley said Munley was an advanced firearms instructor for the civilian force, which is used to assist the military police with policing the vast fort, where 150,000 soldiers and their families live and work.

Munley comes from North Carolina, where her father, Dennis Barbour, owns a hardware store in Carolina Beach and is a former mayor.

She worked as an officer in the Wrightsville Beach Police Department from March 2000 to February 2002, receiving three letters of commendation, Police Chief John S. Carey said. Her marksmanship was impeccable, Carey said.

"She was very friendly and outgoing," the chief recalled. "She was pretty fearless, considering she is such a small officer."

She developed a love of shooting as a young girl, her grandmother Monirie Metz said. She killed her first deer when she was 11 on a hunting trip with her grandfather.

She was also an avid surfer as a teenager, attacking the sport with the same verve and courage she showed in other parts of her life, her grandmother recalled.

But when she discovered police work, she found her true calling, Metz said. "She loves that work," she said.