At Fort Hood, Witness Credits Second Officer

[LongWire]

New York Times
November 12, 2009
Pg. 1

At Fort Hood, Witness Credits Second Officer

By James C. McKinley Jr.

KILLEEN, Tex. — Sgt. Kimberly D. Munley has been applauded as a hero across the nation for shooting down Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan during the bloody rampage at Fort Hood last week. The account of heroism, given by the authorities, attracted the attention of newspapers, the networks and television talk shows.

But the story of how the petite police officer and the accused gunman went down in an exchange of gunfire does not agree with the account of an eyewitness who had gone to the base’s processing center, where the shooting occurred, to conduct business before being deployed.

The witness, who asked not to be identified, said Major Hasan wheeled on Sergeant Munley as she rounded the corner of a building and shot her, putting her on the ground. Then Major Hasan turned his back on her and started putting another magazine into his semiautomatic pistol.

It was at that moment that Senior Sgt. Mark Todd, a veteran police officer, rounded another corner of the building, found Major Hasan fumbling with his weapon and shot him.

How the authorities came to issue the original version of the story, which made Sergeant Munley a national hero for several days and obscured Sergeant Todd’s role, remains unclear. (Military officials also said for several hours after the shooting that Major Hasan had been killed, although he had survived.)

Six days after the deadly shooting rampage at a center where soldiers were preparing for deployment, the military has yet to put out a full account of what happened.

At a news conference outside the post on Wednesday, Lt. Col. John Rossi refused to take questions about who shot Major Hasan or why the initial reports said it had been Sergeant Munley rather than Sergeant Todd.

“These questions are specific to the investigation and I am not going to address that,” Colonel Rossi said.

Public affairs officials also declined to make Chuck Medley, the director of emergency services at the post, available for questions. It was Mr. Medley, who oversees the post’s civilian police and fire departments, who gave the first account of how Sergeant Munley stopped the gunman.

On Tuesday night, Lt. Col. Lee Packnett, of the Army’s Office of the Chief of Public Affairs at the Pentagon, declined to say whether it was Sergeant Todd who had shot Major Hasan. “It could have been, but the final outcome will be determined by the results of the ballistics tests.”

In an interview on Wednesday, Sergeant Todd’s wife, Lisa, said he had asked the Army to protect his identity in the immediate aftermath of the shootings. Her husband did not consider himself to be the real hero of the day, she said. “They were in this together,” she said.

Neither Sergeant Todd nor Sergeant Munley were made available by the military for this article, but on Wednesday on the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” they offered their first public comments on the shooting. They did not give a detailed chronology of what happened, nor did they say who had fired and hit the suspect.

Both are members of the civilian police force at Fort Hood. Sergeant Todd said on the talk show that he and Sergeant Munley had arrived at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center in separate squad vehicles about the same time.

Sergeant Todd acknowledged that he had played a major role in bringing the violence to an end. He said that he had fired at the suspect, kicked his weapon away and placed him in handcuffs. It was the first time in his 25 years in law enforcement and the military, Sergeant Todd said, that he had used his weapon.

“I just relied back on my training,” Sergeant Todd said. “We’re trained to shoot until there is no longer a threat. And once he was laying down on his back, his weapon just fell into his hand and I’m, like, ‘O.K., now’s the time to rush him and secure him.’”

The confusion over what happened and the quickness of the military to label someone a hero seemed reminiscent of the case of Pfc. Jessica Lynch in 2003, when the Army initially reported Private Lynch had been captured in Iraq after a Rambo-like performance in which she emptied her weapon and was wounded in battle. It was later learned she had been badly hurt in a vehicle accident during an ambush and was being well cared for by the Iraqis.

On Friday, the day after the Fort Hood shooting, Mr. Medley said Sergeant Munley had encountered Major Hasan, pistol in hand, chasing down a bleeding soldier. It was 1:27 p.m. She fired at him, he turned, they rushed at each other firing and both fell, Mr. Medley said.

“He turned and charged her rapidly firing, and she did what she was trained to do,” Mr. Medley said that day. He added, “She is absolutely a hero.”

Several hours later, at a late-night news conference on the post, Colonel Rossi expanded upon the story slightly in speaking to reporters. He said Sergeant Todd had arrived at the scene in the middle of the gunfight and had also fired his weapon.

The eyewitness, however, offered a different account. He said he was walking in a roadway between the main building, known as the Sportsdome, and five smaller buildings. Major Hasan was headed toward the main building, the witness said, when Sergeant Munley came around the corner of a smaller building. Major Hasan wheeled on her and shot her several times, the witness said. It was unclear whether she squeezed off a shot or not, but she fell over backward, disabled with wounds in her legs and one of her wrists, the witness said.

Major Hasan then turned his back on her and began to shove another magazine into his pistol. He did not appear wounded, the witness said. A few seconds later, Sergeant Todd came around another corner of the same building. He raised his weapon and fired several times at Major Hasan, who pitched over backward and stopped moving.

“He shot her, turned away from her and was reloading, when he was shot,” said the witness, who was nearby.

On the Winfrey show, Sergeant Munley, 35, said the incident was confusing and chaotic. “There were many people outside pointing to where this individual was apparently located,” she said. “When I got out of my vehicle and ran up the hill, that’s when it started getting bad and we started encountering fire.”

Sergeant Todd, 42, is a native of California who spent most of his adult life as a military police officer in the Army. He left the military police after 25 years to join the civilian force at Fort Hood. Like most members of the military, he has moved around a lot, serving at four bases in the United States and two in Germany.

Ms. Todd said her husband did not seem upset in the wake of shooting Major Hasan.

“He say’s he’s O.K.,” she said. “And I have to take him at his word.”

Liz Robbins contributed reporting from New York.

[Five-O]

This could very well be another case of the Big Army attempting to make a hero...maybe not. In my experience, 10 witnesses that observed the same event can and will give 10 different answers and view points when questioned. Eye witness accounts of events are notoriously inconsistent if not inaccurate. Now with many of the witnesses being military...that would increase accuracy a little but to what level I obviously don't know. As the article mentioned, the ballistics results will help clear things up a little.

I wonder if major hassan will assist in the investigation (ie...his contacts) once he is able...

[akv]

How about we give both officers medals and hang Hasan?

[Team Sergeant]

1st mistake is reading or believing anything the "New York Times" prints.
Sgt. Kimberly D. Munley & Sgt. Mark Todd are heros.

I personally don't give a rats ass who shot the muslim asshole shrink. Both LEO's went head to head with the dirtbag and did what they were supposed to....
And, if the report is true than I have that much more respect for Sgt. Kimberly D. Munley for going head to head with the shitbag "first". Kimberly D. Munley has the heart of a lion.

Team Sergeant

[levinj]

TS, thanks for posting what I was thinking.

Does it matter which of them landed the disabling shots? To Sgt. Todd's credit, if this is correct, it didn't seem to matter to him.

Another case of media sh*t-stirring?

[Utah Bob]

Makes no difference who put him down. She engaged him first. While he was shooting at her ha wasn't killing unarmed people. Both officers showed they have what it takes.

[Dozer523]

"Sergeant Munley, 35, said the incident was confusing and chaotic. “There were many people outside pointing to where this individual was apparently located,” she said. “When I got out of my vehicle and ran up the hill, that’s when it started getting bad and we started encountering fire.”
When she moved toward the firing is when she acted heroicly. Doesn't matter if she got him or not. She took bullets that could have been used on the unarmed.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

1st mistake is reading or believing anything the "New York Times" prints.
Sgt. Kimberly D. Munley & Sgt. Mark Todd are heros.

I personally don't give a rats ass who shot the muslim asshole shrink. Both LEO's went head to head with the dirtbag and did what they were supposed to....
And, if the report is true than I have that much more respect for Sgt. Kimberly D. Munley for going head to head with the shitbag "first". Kimberly D. Munley has the heart of a lion.

Team Sergeant

My only issue is that they stopped shooting before the threat was completely neutralized.

They both moved to the sounds of the guns and did their duty.

TR

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by Dozer523

"Sergeant Munley, 35, said the incident was confusing and chaotic. “There were many people outside pointing to where this individual was apparently located,” she said. “When I got out of my vehicle and ran up the hill, that’s when it started getting bad and we started encountering fire.”
When she moved toward the firing is when she acted heroicly. Doesn't matter if she got him or not. She took bullets that could have been used on the unarmed.

Excellent point Dozer ......................

Big Teddy

[Utah Bob]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

My only issue is that they stopped shooting before the threat was completely neutralized.

They both moved to the sounds of the guns and did their duty.

TR

I agree but neutralizing the threat has different connotations in law enforcement training than military training. They did what their training had ingrained in them, shooting to stop the immediate threat but not to necessarily kill the perpetrator. Sgt. Todd said they he told himself to remain calm and do what his firearms instructor had told him.

In the Army you close with and kill the enemy.
In law enforcement you close with the enemy and read him his rights.

I assume they'll do ballistics on the rounds they pulled out of Hasan. Doesn't really matter to me though.

[chance]

Just like everyone else said, I don't care who shoot that piece of shit. If I ever run into either one of them on the street, I'll buy them so much booze it'll take a week for them to recover. Good for them It's nice to see that the sheep dog's are still stronger then the wolves.