At the risk of seeming insufficiently cynical, I’m not sure that I understand the change in accounts from the initial (female officer, wounded, shoots shooter) to later (both wounded officer and second officer shoot, second officer’s shots may have been what dropped him). Maybe Sgt. Munley didn’t know that Sgt. Todd arrived on the scene. We’re talking about a live gun battle, not a choreographed scene in an action movie. Things happen real fast. One second you’re doing nothing out of the ordinary, the next second you’re shot. In the case of Sgts Munley and Todd, one second they arrived on the scene, the next second they were shot at, the next second they were running. Hasan allegedly chased and shot Munley, she shot back, Todd showed up from around a corner, shot at Hasan. See
James C. McKinley’s careful account in the The New York Times , Second Officer Says He Brought Fort Hood Gunman Down – NYTimes.com.
…. the initial story of how she and the accused gunman went down in an exchange of gunfire now appears to be inaccurate.
Another officer, Senior Sgt. Mark Todd, 42, said in an interview Thursday that he fired the shots that brought down the gunman after Sergeant Munley was seriously wounded. A witness confirmed Sergeant Todd’s account.
In the interview, Sergeant Todd said he and Sergeant Munley had pulled up to the scene in separate cars at the same time. He said they began running up a small hill toward the building that held the processing center where unarmed soldiers reported for check-ups and vaccinations before deployment. The gunman was already outside, Sergeant Todd recalled.
“That’s when the bystanders were pointing in his direction,” he said. “And when we popped up, he was standing there, and we shouted our commands — ‘Police, drop your weapons!’ — and he just opened fire on us.”
Sergeant Todd said he was slightly in front of Sergeant Munley on the hill. “Once we took fire, she broke right and I broke left,” he said.
…..
Sergeant Todd said he did not see Sergeant Munley get shot. He said he started to circle around the building, but then backtracked as panicked bystanders told him of the gunman’s movements.
“As it unfolded, I went a different direction and he went a different direction, and we met up in the front of the building,” he said.
Sergeant Todd said he then saw Sergeant Munley on the ground, wounded. He shouted again at the gunman to drop his weapon.
“Once I came around the front of the building, I caught his attention again, started shouting commands, and then he opened up a second time,” Sergeant Todd said. “And that’s when I returned fire, neutralized him and secured him.”
Citing the ongoing investigation, Sergeant Todd declined to give more details about the precise positions of Major Hasan, Sergeant Munley and himself during the gunfight. He also would not say how many times he shot Major Hasan with his 9 mm pistol, or what Major Hasan was doing. The whole encounter lasted only 45 seconds, he said.
Sergeant Todd’s account agrees with that of a witness who was at the processing center when the shooting occurred.
Given the initial events (military officer/physician starts shooting people, for whatever reason, reasons, or lack thereof), these two police officers achieved an excellent outcome in a short time – possibly under a minute after arriving at the scene. Again, assuming the initial events, the only undesirable outcome is that Sgt. Munley was wounded – but she’s apparently already out of the hospital. What they achieved, in a short time, was stopping the attack and the attacker, without
- Friendly-fire casualties;
- innocent-party casualties;
- prolongation of the incident, including hostage-taking
One hopes that this doesn’t lead to hysteria about Muslim Americans, in the service or out. And we don’t know yet what, if anything, could have prevented this. But the police response seems near-perfect.
See also
CNN, Investigators look for missed signals in Fort Hood probe
New York Daily News, Army brass promoted Fort Hood gunman Nidal Malik Hasan even after attempt to contact Al Qaeda