The killing, and the end of the killing

From the London Sun, here is the first account of the attack I’ve seen, and of the policewoman—the only armed person in the vicinity other than the shooter—who came to the rescue and put an end to it. For all their ability to defend themselves from an armed killer, the soldiers at Fort Hood might as well have been Christians in church.

Hasan launched his attack at the “Soldier Readiness Facility” where troops are prepared for deployment overseas.

A graduation ceremony was just about to start. Shocked George Stratton said his son George Stratton III was five feet away when Hasan opened fire—and took a bullet in his left shoulder.

He went on: “He said all of a sudden someone came through the door, walked behind the desk and just started shooting.

“About 15 rounds went off and people started dropping to the floor. My son peeked up over the desk and that’s when he was shot. He just went down again.

“He said he saw one of his NCOs get badly shot. He told me, ‘Dad, I got up, held my arm and took off running’.

“It’s hard to believe something like this happened even before he was deployed. He’s probably had his fill of war already.”

Officials said Hasan had used two pistols, one of them semiautomatic which could explain the high death rate. Neither were military-issued.

Soldiers at Fort Hood do not carry ANY weapons unless they are doing training exercises.

Soldier Jerry Richard, 27, who works at the centre said: “I was confused and just shocked. Overseas you are ready for it. But here you can’t even defend yourself.”

Two other soldiers were arrested but released while a fourth suspect remained in custody.

Authorities now believe though that there was only one shooter.

Local congressman John Carter said: “I had a man on the scene, my regional director and former chaplain at Fort Hood, waiting to go to the ceremony.

“A soldier came running up to him saying, ‘Sir, don’t go over there. Somebody is shooting over there’. When the soldier ran by him he saw he was wounded, but the soldier didn’t know it. They stopped him, because he had been shot in the back.

“My man said he heard small arms and some rifle fire while he was there.”

The base was immediately put into “lockdown” with no one allowed in or out and helicopters hovering overhead.

Mum Lisa Pfund said her 19-year-old daughter Amber Bahr had been hit.

She added: “We know nothing, just that she was shot in the belly.”

From the beginning of the same article, here is an account of the female police officer who shot Hasan and stopped the attack:

A HEROIC policewoman gunned down an army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 people and wounded 30 at a huge US military base.

Despite being injured herself, brave Sgt Kimberly Munley shot Major Nidal Malik Hasan four times and brought an end to his horrific rampage.

She was on a routine traffic patrol in the area when she stumbled across the bloodbath and engaged in a gun battle with the devout Muslim….

The base commander at Fort Hood said soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage reported that the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar!”, which is Arabic for “God is great”, before opening fire….

Hasan was finally cornered by security officer Kimberly. He survived and is in a stable condition in hospital.

Base Commander Lt Gen Bob Cone said of the shooter: “I would say his death is not imminent.” [LA wonders: Bob? A Lieutenant General named “Bob”?]

Sgt Munley, who has a daughter, was shot in the leg during her heroic battle, but was said to be doing well in a local hospital and calling friends and colleagues.

“She was quite effective, one of our most impressive young policemen,” Lt Gen Cone said.

“She walked up and basically engaged him. I think, certainly, this could’ve been far worse.”

He added: “Often you circle the building and wait for back-up. But the thinking is if you act aggressively and take-out the shooter you have less fatalities.

“She happened to catch him as he walked around the corner and she engaged in gun fire where she shot the suspected assailant four times and she was shot herself.”

Sgt Munley says on her Twitter page: “I live a good life…. a hard one, but I go to sleep peacefully at night knowing that I may have made a difference in someone’s life.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 06, 2009 04:38 PM | Send