Kimberly Munley, the Texan police officer who shot Fort Hood gunman was hailed as a heroine. This is what Times Online (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6906278.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1) has to say about this report as quoted below:
A police officer who intervened to stop a shooting spree at America's biggest military base was hailed today as a heroine as she received treatment for the wounds received in a shoot-out with the gunman.
Major Nidal Hasan, an army psychiatrist due to be posted to Afghanistan, shot dead 13 people and wounded 30 others after opening fire with two handguns at Fort Hood yesterday afternoon.
But the death toll from the rampage could have been far worse had it not been for the actions of Sergeant Kimberly Munley, a civilian police officer stationed at the base who was the first on the scene as Major Hasan picked off his victims.
Sergeant Munley managed to hit Major Hasan four times but was herself hit by a bullet that passed through both her legs, according to witnesses.
Colonel John Rossi, briefing reporters at Fort Hood this morning, said that Major Hasan's victims, who were killed in a part of the base used to process soldiers for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, had all been unarmed. Sergeant Munley had been the first armed person on the scene and had immediately taken him on.
"Her efforts were superb," he said.
Colonel Steven Braverman, commander of the base hospital and Major Hasan's supervisor, said that Sergeant Munley was in a stable condition in a nearby community hospital.
She is likely to return home to a hero's welcome, although her Twitter page – which features a picture of her with the country music star Dierks Bentley at the Fort Hood "Freedom Fest" on July 4 – suggests she is not the type to have her head turned.
Her Twitter biography reads: "I live a good life ... a hard one, but I go to sleep peacefully @ night knowing that I may have made a difference in someone's life."
It emerged today that Major Hasan, a Muslim who had argued with his comrades against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and had been trying to get out of the Army, shouted "Allah akbar" – Arabic for "God is great" – as he launched the attack.
Lieutenant-General Robert Cone, the base commander at Fort Hood, said that soldiers who witnessed the rampage heard him shout out the invocation as he opened fire.
General Cone told NBC's Today programme that Major Hasan was not known to be a threat or risk at the base. Colonel Braverman said the same.
However, Major Hasan had been transferred only a few months ago from the prestigious Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington D.C., possibly after he came to the attention of the FBI over an internet posting examining the motives of Islamist suicide bombers.
Of those killed, one was a civilian and 12 were soldiers. Major Hasan is in a stable condition on a ventilator.
The Army said the gunman opened fire at about 1.30pm local time at the Soldiers Readiness Processing Centre, a group of buildings where soldiers were having medical check-ups before leaving for overseas deployments.
The gunman had two weapons, one of them a semi-automatic, and neither was a military-issued weapon. Colonel Rossi said investigators were checking to see whether the weapons had been legally registered. There were only random searches of vehicles coming on to the base.
Colonel Braverman confirmed that the gunman had been due to leave for Afghanistan. One of Major Hasan's cousins said that he had been resisting any such deployment, which would have been "his worst nightmare".
An infantry sergeant at the Fort Hood base told The Times that Major Hasan had been well know for having an "agenda" as he counselled soldiers returning from action.
He added: "Put whatever politically correct whitewash on this you like, but there is no escaping this was a Muslim terrorist attack on US soil."
In an interview with The Washington Post, Major Hasan’s aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, Virginia, said he had been harassed about being a Muslim in the years after the September 11 attacks and had wanted to leave the Army.
“Some people can take it and some people cannot,” she said. “He had listened to all of that and he wanted out of the military.”
A cousin, Nader Hasan, told The New York Times that after counselling soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder, Major Hasan knew war first hand.
“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.”
Federal law-enforcement agents ordered an evacuation of the apartment complex where Major Hasan lived in Killeen, Texas, last night before searching his home.
A local television station reported that the major had been giving away items of furniture and copies of the Koran yesterday morning.
Sergeant Munley is showing her bravery in this incident and he deserves to be hailed as a heroine.
