Officer praised for taking down gunman

By Patrick George

Cox News Service

Fort Hood, Texas -- The head of Fort Hood's emergency services says Kimberly Munley, the Army police officer credited with shooting the gunman in Thursday's mass shooting, was shot in the legs and the wrist but is expected to make a full recovery.

He also offered new details of the shootout between Munley and the accused shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.

Chuck Medley, the director of emergency services at Fort Hood, said he visited Munley, 35, in the hospital Friday and she was in good spirits.

"She's got some surgeries (ahead) but she's stable," he said. "She's the most upbeat injured person I've met."

He said the military is flying her husband, who is stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., to see her soon.

Munley is a civilian police officer with the Department of the Army and serves as a SWAT team member and firearms instructor for the department, Medley said. He said she joined the police force in January 2008 after serving in the Army.

Medley said the Army police department had been doing 'active shooter training' as a precautionary measure since the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech University in which a student killed 32 others before taking his own life.

"When you have an active shooter hurting people, our protocol is to move to the threat and eliminate it. That takes some courage and skill," he said. "If there was a person there to respond, Kim Munley is the one we would want to be there."

Medley said Thursday's shooting began in a medical area of the Soldier Readiness Center building around 1:20 p.m. By 1:27 p.m., Munley had arrived, he said, and was outside the building when the shooter, who he identified as Hasan, emerged from the building, gun in hand.

Medley said Hasan ran toward Munley, firing at her. He said Munley returned fire with her pistol, hitting him. Munley was shot in both legs and one wrist, he said. He did not know how many times she was shot.

Some of Munley's training in how to respond to a mass shooting came from instructors from a Texas State University-San Marcos program called Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training.

The program, known as ALERRT, teaches police officers and first responders how to engage "active shooters," gunmen whose only intention is to kill.

Commander Terry Nichols of the San Marcos Police Department, who is also an ALERRT instructor, said Munley was part of a group of U.S. Department of the Army police officers who were trained by ALERRT instructors in Killeen. He said Munley attended a class in San Marcos as well.

"First responders have to be ready to engage the shooter, that's what she did," Nichols said of Munley. "She almost sacrificed her life to save others."

ALERRT has trained about 20,000 officers in building entry techniques and rescue and survival strategies, how to deal with explosive devices and in other methods to take on active shooters.

Patrol officers are taught the kind of tactics usually given only to SWAT and the military, including how to get past a barricaded door safely and how to work in low light. Part of the training simulates what it's like to be fired upon in combat -- something many police officers never encounter until it's actually happening,

The idea behind the training was to teach patrol officers how to to take on such shooters or at least minimize the damage until SWAT teams arrive. The methods were developed by members of the Hays County Sheriff's Department, who joined with Texas State in 2004 for research support.

ALERRT has a training facility near the San Marcos Municipal Airport. Officers take classes, fire weapons at a shooting range, practice breaching various types of doors and train in a makeshift house, complete with old furniture and wall decorations. Tuition for the two-day, 16-hour basic course in San Marcos is free, thanks to grant money.

"The training we started in San Marcos was able to help this police officer stop violence, we're very proud of that," Nichols said.