Former N.C. cop hailed as a hero
By: BY JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.
Published: Sat, 11/07 @ 2:00AM
The police officer who brought down a gunman after he went on a shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army base 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 graduate of John T. Hoggard High School in Wilmington and a former Wrightsville Beach police officer - 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 Wrightsville Beach, right after graduating from high school in Wilmington. She quickly earned a reputation for fearlessness, despite her small stature. (She stands only 5-foot-4.)
Her former partner in Wrightsville Beach, 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. Her friends and family members who spoke to her Friday said she was recovering and in good spirits.
Munley 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 on the south side of Killeen.
One neighbor, Sgt. William Barbrow, said that, about a year ago, Munley chased down a burglar who had been prowling around the area.
"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 seen 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."