Cherie Cullen/ Department of Defense
Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates met with Sgt. Kimberly D. Munley at a hospital in Ft. Hood, Texas, on Tuesday.
Not to take anything away from Sgt. Munley, who is indeed a hero, more information each day is coming to light. From the NYTimes, we have this eyewitness account of the actions of Munley’s fellow officer that day:
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.’ ”
~~~ 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.”
Thank you Sgt. Todd!
I think it speaks volumes to his character, not only in his actions that day, but in his inaction after that day, in not seeking the limelight and the pats on the back. A true hero.
Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
Senior Sgt. Mark Todd, of the Killeen Police Department, was outside the visitors center at Fort Hood on Thursday morning.
Soldiers present were also heroes, of course, with reports of shielding others from the danger as well as treating the wounded.
The petite police officer, who stands 5 feet 2 inches tall, said she was hit by three bullets. One struck the knuckle of her right hand; one passed through her right knee, then hit her left leg; and one pierced the femoral artery in her left thigh.
“I knew from the amount of blood and the color of the blood that was coming out” of the thigh wound that it was gravely serious, Munley said, sitting in a wheelchair with a blanket spread over her legs.
The soldiers who ran to help her knew it, too; even as she urged them to get pressure on the wound, they were fashioning a tourniquet.
Bleeding stanched, Munley immediately entered what “Today” hosts Ann Curry and Meredith Viera — themselves working mothers — dubbed “Mommy Mode.” She located her cellphone and arranged for someone to pick up her 2-year-old daughter (an older daughter, age 12, presumably gets home from school on her own).
“So the balancing act of motherhood and being a police officer did not end, even at that moment, for you,” said Curry.
“Absolutely not,” Munley said, smiling slightly. “It never does.”
Having your femoral artery cut is a life-threatening matter, and thanks to the training of our soldiers and law enforcement and the quick-action decisions they made that day, we can be grateful that more lives were not lost last Thursday.
A first responder during the Fort Hood shooting renders honors after aiding his fellow soldiers, November 5, 2009.
REUTERS/US Army III Corps/Handout
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
Sgt. Todd,
Thank you, sir.
Bless you Sgt. Todd…..thank you for your bravery and your humility and your service
Humble men make up the majority of those who perform acts of valor. Hopefully the facts will come out and show exactly what happened.
It could be that we are doing a disservice to these law enforcement officers. They are now known, and can be targeted for Muslim retribution. The depravity of this “religion” is unfathomable. Anyone capable of strapping a bomb on his own child, to die along with the “infidels” is equally capable of trying to harm these people and their loved ones.
Any suggestions as to how they can protect themselves?
I had already heard that Sgt. Todd was the one that brought Hasan down. I’m glad he is getting some attention too. Not that I want anything taken away from Sgt. Munley. She ran into a firefight, no matter who fired the shots that brought him down. They are both heroes.
Humble heroes, these are among America’s best. Thank you!
Oh who could have guessed. At what point is someone going to ask what is wrong with the military that whenever they have to opportunity to be ridiculously stupid they grasp it with both hands.
Pat Tillman, Jessica Lynch and this woman were all complete do-nothing nobodys until the military tried to manufacture them into heroes. Oh wait, no they actually were already and the all the military did was put a stain on that for some temporary daytime-soap-style drama.
Every freaking time they blow up a wedding party nothing is more certain than military pissing off everyone even more by insisting their killed relatives were all terrorists before eventually admitting the mistake months later when this counts for nothing.
What explanation is there for this other than monumental stupidity? I honestly don’t think incompetence explains it because there simply is no deviation from these instincts. They must actually think this nonsense is what’s desired.
But what’s more bizarre is that nobody has the balls that even Oprah managed to display when sold a bill of goods by one of her book club buddies. WTF already. Either military press reports all start with the line “Once upon a time” or they shouldn’t enjoy the same tolerance for storytelling as fairy tales.
Blah, what are you talking about? Would it be too much to ask you to formulate your thoughts in a coherent manner, so that we could understand you?
Thanks, Sgts. Todd and Munley. It was a team effort, because if she hadn’t taken the fire, Hasan wouldn’t have been fumbling with his weapon when Sgt. Todd came on the scene.
THANK YOU BOTH, and all others who performed so well.
@Athos
What you have witnessed from BLAH, is the result of a boy hung like a hamster, lashing out at what he will never understand, nor ever put into perspective.
He hates himself and his own self-induced failures. He has been trying to become what MTV has told him he should be, but even that has eluded him.
He takes 4 distinct and different episodes of recent history, and after filtering them all through his own pre-programmed bias, spews forth a conclusion that makes him feel “better”.
One could try to explain that Tillman was indeed a “somebody” before joining the Army , and being so good at it, that he was in Special-ops, But that reduces his narrative. One could even agree that SOME in the military falsified the after-action reports, but he wants to condemn ALL of the military, so as to fit his small little view of the world, and how he thinks it works.
One could try to explain that military press-releases, and PRESS press-releases have nothing to do with each other, but again, it does not fit his narrative. So if one tries to make him see the light, he will cover his ears and sing LA LA LA as loud as he can, so as to drown out the obvious.
One could even try to explain Taleban propaganda technique, but he has yet to be fully relieved of his BDS.
The bottom line is, that he is so disappointed in how Obama has turned out..yet can not come to terms with it, that he will lash out at whatever is better than him, starting with the one entity that intimidates him the most, but knows will never do him harm…The military.
My advise is to point at his little-bitty nub and laugh, while he spurts his own urine on his stomach, like a scared and inverted dachshund.
Patvann… LOL As usual, your adept tongue whip needs no additional support. My guess is blah’s disappointment in “da Won”, and his choice of military advisors’, ineptitude that you suspect is the basis for his vent is only compounded by the frustration with his own Aussie PM eunuch.
I’ve seen your condition before blah, someone falls down the outhouse hole and begs for help and when you reach out to help, he tries to pull you down in the sh*t. Try to make the bet of your pathetic little world blah, I think you are running out of people who care about your miserable life.
@Mata
He’s an Aussie?
Every OTHER Aussie male I’ve ever met didn’t have F.I.T.H. Syndrome.
Bloody half-pie poofter. I wish his dad would have settled for a BJ.
Ya guys gotta read what my brother sent me…Read the comments as well.
http://hillbuzz.org/2009/11/10/thank-you-former-president-george-w-bush-and-former-first-lady-laura-bush/
SGT TODD is a hero may GOD bless you and those you love, Athos i had to smile on what you answer that was weldone we have to realize that all kind of people join in,thank you.
It’s because he’s black.
Patvann,
Nice read. Looks like people are starting to realize what they had, to bad it is too late!
I do not wish to diminish what Sgt. Todd did because I can’t. And the presence of mind that Sgt. Munley had, directing her own first aid and calling to take care of her children is way above average. BUT if Hasan had not emptied his weapon into Munley, Sgt. Todd might have stumbled onto a much different scene. This does not diminish what he did but it does put Munley’s part, whether passive or aggressive, in a new light. If it turns out that she did not get a shot into Hasan, she did put him into a disarmed mode that was a tremendous advantage to Sgt. Todd.
Please, trolls, do not try to make this into any kind of negative hit piece because I think both of these police are true heros.
IR,
You’re right.
It doesn’t matter who shot whom. Both of those coppers were partners. Part of a team.
They both made the best out of the shitty situation that they were handed.
And more importantly, they both did what they had to do to get the job done and they both survived.
Good on both of them. And good on the rest of the people there that went above and beyond.
Can we please get Todd’s rank right: His stripes on the uniform measn E-7, or rather Sergeant First Class. He had to work pretty hard to get to E-7, pr SGC Todd. (My husband was one before retirement).
I lived, and worked with the Army for nearly 20 years, and the uinformed soldiers have special place in my heart. I hope they will expose radicals in their midst, after this Hasan cold have done more damage. Maybe as the publis leaqrns the truth they won’t be so skittish being calles racist. Who cares, the soldiers come first.
It looks to me that someone is covering their asses because they failed to protect us form islamic jihadists.
@ Athos
“Blah, what are you talking about? Would it be too much to ask you to formulate your thoughts in a coherent manner, so that we could understand you?”
Couldn’t you just read between the lines? After all, we are commenting under a story about how the hero of Ft Hood who shot the gunman actually didn’t do that…. without that even being acknowledged. That’s really the only story here, the one we won’t mention.
Like I said, this makes Oprah look ballsy.
Is this seriously beyond the brain capacity of you people? Could someone volunteer to be the nominated idiot who’ll claim he thinks Pat Tillman’s life would have made a crappy autobiography before the military started lying about him which is now the only point of someone publishing that book?
Are we unsure on the issue of whether that’s a good outcome for his legacy, to be forever a byword for a fraudulent medal and a coverup?
No? Well just continue to play dumb then and thinking it ain’t obvious you are.
@ Inspectorudy
“Please, trolls, do not try to make this into any kind of negative hit piece because I think both of these police are true heros.”
That was the entire point. If 30 members of the military get shot by a wacko gunman and survive it’s literally impossible for me to stain their names by writing anything. But I don’t have to, the military’s got that shit covered. Let’s lie about them, portray them in a completely unnecessary fictional account of what happened so that this will forever be the way they are remembered. All for 2 days worth of news bytes.
@ Patvann
“One could try to explain that Tillman was indeed a “somebody” before joining the Army…”
One could get a f**king clue and figure out that’s precisely what was said rather than dribbling on and on with the ignorant nonsense and dick references you’ve displayed. Yeah, that was impressive.
@ Inge
“It looks to me that someone is covering their asses because they failed to protect us form islamic jihadists.”
It looks like you are confusing “someone” with “everyone”, judging by the media accounts. At last count it appears to be just the ATF and the Dept of Agriculture who weren’t monitoring him.
There’s been a lot of time and effort devoted to protecting NSA surveillence from criticism over the past decade. Yet again, they intercepted exactly what they wanted and needed to ahead of time and yet again this was of absolutely no use to anyone’s safety, national or otherwise.
Not a lot of translation problems with emails between the english speaking terrorist and the english speaking radical cleric. Maybe there were some tricky fonts involved.
blah is probably a muslim.
Blah is a moron off of his meds. He isn’t even fit to shine Tillman’s boots let alone criticize him. Blah, you’re just another coward who doesn’t have the guts to serve. Not that they would take you. Want to see a liar and a “nobody”? Look in the miorror.
@Southernsue
Please don’t do that.
@Blah
There are some issues lying within you that you need to have resolved.
Untie the kangaroo sport, and let her go.
This country would be a better place with more people like Senior Sgt. Mark Todd on patrol.
It’s an enigma that those like blah insist on making a monstrous deal about whether it was Sgts Todd or Munley that shot the bastard. That both went head on into the fray to stop it is admirable. The media ran with Sgt. Munley. Sgt. Todd didn’t speak up for days. No surprise that the media gets things in error since they pass off speculation as “news” anymore.
But I wouldn’t spend much time communicating with someone who obviously functions at the level of an Oprah viewer….
@Mata
…a REALLY angry Oprah viewer at that.
Patvann, thanks for the link to the Hill piece. Absolutely amazing. At first I thought it was a spoof, but that many posters couldn’t be faked. I especially liked the “Dr. Utopia” references to our Kenyan King. It is my hope that America wakes up before we have to relive the 1930s. What is astounding is that we are going down the same road to the great depression that molded our parents (at least MY parents, that’s how old I am). It’s deja vu all over again!
@ Hard Right
“Blah is a moron off of his meds. He isn’t even fit to shine Tillman’s boots let alone criticize him.”
Hi, you’re too stupid to understand what is written. Best of luck with the rest of life which will be all be uphill from here for you.
@ Patvann
“There are some issues lying within you that you need to have resolved.”
Again, with the vague insults in lieu of actually being able to disagree what I’ve written? How very impressive you look.
In fact, what an impressive bunch you are as a whole. Despite the fact that many of you appear to want to voice disagreement with what I’ve said, none of you appear to be capable of this without getting it completely ass backwards and repeating what I’ve said.
What a very shallow pool of intelligence we seem to have discovered here. One that muslims and Oprah viewers would either be impressed by or pity.
Oh good grief…. blah… Mr. Oprah… needs to be directed to the futility of his dissertation. My my. Seems like a waste to point out he didn’t make any points except to demonstrate his low IQ. But let’s not let blah go away thinking nobody understood his hateful blubbering.
Why you believe the military was being “ridiculously stupid” is beyond comprehension. It’s an investigation. They knew Sgt. Munley was first on the scene, and that the bastard had been shot. Then ran on the preliminary information.
Arrogant and hateful. What do you know of these people personally, and their history of events and service? Nothing…. just as you demonstrate you’re an empty headed fool, sitting on the couch watching Oprah.
Quite a few wedding parties have been blown up… including jihadists blowing up their own in error. So what’s your point? Intel always has a chance to be faulty, and until they suss out who’s there, who may have been used as human shields… common for that enemy… they really don’t know. But then, I guess the world isn’t as perfect as you believe yourself to be.
It’s called investigations in progress, bozo.
I swear, I get more cogency and less attitude from my granddaughter…. You are consumed with hate for military, blah.
This is about all the attention you’ll get from me that is anything close to a conversation. Other than that, you merely deserve to be mocked, and ignored. Don’t spend much time on bitter, hate filled individuals. Life’s too short.
The real world is not an episode of NCIS where they can recreate a shooting-scene and answer all the questions in 44 minutes.
My last post to you blah. I won’t waste more time on an obvious mental patient like yourself. I understand the neurotic drivel you puked onto the site.
It says you are a loon that hates the U.S. military. So take your meds and then piss off. You don’t have the brain power to keep up.
Well, he certainly chose and appropriate handle.