KILLEEN, Texas — Sgt. Kimberly Munley has been applauded as a hero across the nation for shooting down Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood last week.
The account of heroism, given by the authorities, attracted the attention of newspapers, the networks and television talk shows, but the story of how the petite police officer and the accused gunman went down in an exchange of gunfire does not agree with the account of an eyewitness.
The witness, who asked not to be identified because it could damage his military career, has been interviewed by the Defense Criminal Investigative Division. He said Hasan wheeled on Munley as she rounded the corner of a building and shot her, putting her on the ground. Then, 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, found Hasan fumbling with his weapon and shot him.
How the authorities came to issue the version of the story that made Munley a national hero and obscured Todd’s role remains unclear. (Military officials also said for several hours after the shooting that Hasan had been killed, although he had survived.) Six days later, the military has yet to put out a full account of what happened.
At a news conference at the post Wed nesday, Lt. Col. John Rossi refused to take questions about who shot Hasan.
The New York Times
