34-year-old cop single-handedly stopped massacre at US military base
34-year-old cop single-handedly stopped massacre at US military base
A police officer and mother of two was hailed a heroine yesterday after it emerged that she almost single-handedly ended the massacre at America's biggest military base.
Kimberly Munley does not look as if she would be much of a match for a heavily armed US soldier on a murderous rampage.
But the slightly built 34-year-old civilian officer, who is less than five feet tall, was first on the scene after Major Nidal Malik Hasan began firing on comrades at Ford Hood in Texas.
The 39-year-old psychologist killed 13 and left 31 others with serious injuries. She is now recovering in hospital.
On Thursday afternoon Munley was directing traffic for a graduation, her usual duty, when she heard gunfire and ran towards it.
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Braveheart: Kimberly Munley rushed into the building where Major Hasan was shooting, and confronted him directly. She had continued firing even after being hit. |
Munley succeeded in bringing Hasan down by shooting him four times. She continued shooting, even after being shot in both thighs and a wrist, with one injury causing serious arterial bleeding.
"It was an amazing and aggressive performance by this police officer," said Lieutenant-General Robert Cone, Fort Hood's commanding officer.
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"The critical factor here was her quick response to the situation."
US President Barack Obama will visit Fort Hood for a memorial service in the coming days.
He ordered all flags at the White House and other federal buildings to be flown at half mast until Veterans Day on November 11.
But he urged Americans against "jumping to conclusions" about the killer's motives.
Major Hasan, an expert in combat stress, survived the shooting and is now being treated in a nearby hospital, under armed guard.
Opposed to warsIt emerged yesterday that he was opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and had tried to buy his way out of the army rather than being deployed overseas. The request was turned down.
He had shouted Allah-hoo-Akbar (God is great) before opening fire.
Against InfidelsMajor Hasan (above) once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.
He also told colleagues at America's top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at a Washington hospital, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July.
