The Shooter and the Hero

  Who is the alleged shooter Nidal Malik Hasan?



- 39 years old. 

-- Born in Arlington County. Raised primarily in southwestern Virginia, where he graduated from William Fleming High School in Roanoke. Also attended Arlington's Wakefield High School for a year.

-- U.S. Army psychiatrist.

-- Graduated from Virginia Tech in 1995, receiving a bachelor's degree in biochemistry with honors and minors in biology and chemistry. Had previously studied at Barstow Community College in California and Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke, where he earned an associate degree in science in 1992.

-- Entered the Bethesda campus of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 1997. Graduated in 2003 as a medical doctor.

-- From 2003 through last summer, was an intern, a resident and then a fellow at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District.

-- Transferred to Fort Hood this summer.

-- Enlisted in the Army after high school. Commissioned as a captain, he was promoted to major in May.

-- Was awaiting deployment to Afghanistan, which was to be his first Army service overseas.

-- Single with no children. No signs of physical or mental problems in examinations as recently as September.

-- Listed by the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress as a fellow for disaster and preventive psychology.

-- As of Oct. 13, had less than a year of clinical practice.

-- Attended the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring and is devout, according to Faizul Khan, former imam at the center. Attended prayers at least once a day, seven days a week, often in his Army fatigues, Khan said.

-- Both parents dead, buried in Falls Church. Has two brothers: one in Sterling and the other in Jerusalem.

SOURCE: Army records and officials, Virginia high school and university officials, Uniformed Services University officials, Washington Post staff writers

~ Via The Washington Post.


The New York Times charts his Milestones here, which presents an interesting picture.


KansasCity.Com reports the following:
 
Dr. Val Finnell was a classmate of Hasan's at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Both attended a master's in public health program in 2007 and 2008.

Finnell says he got to know Hasan in an environmental health class. At the end of the class, students gave presentations. Finnell says other classmates wrote on subjects such as dry cleaning chemicals and mold in homes, but Hasan's topic was whether the war against terror was "a war against Islam." Finnell described Hasan as a "vociferous opponent" of the terror war.

Finnell says Hasan told classmates he was "a Muslim first and an American second."

Via another story at KansasCity.Com:

Relatives said he was terrified of a scheduled deployment to a war zone and had asked for a discharge. They and others said he was deeply opposed to fighting Muslims. He was called a loner by co-workers, allegedly referred to suicide bombers as brave heroes on a Website and reportedly once replaced a lecture on the treatment of soldiers with a warning about the horrible deaths awaiting those who don’t believe in the Qur’an.





Via WND:  

 Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter in yesterday's massacre at Fort Hood, played a homeland security advisory role in President Barack Obama's transition into the White House, according to a key university policy institute document.

The Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University published a document May 19, entitled "Thinking Anew – Security Priorities for the Next Administration: Proceedings Report of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force, April 2008 – January 2009," in which Hasan of the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine is listed on page 29 of the document as a Task Force Event Participant.

Who is the Hero?


Sgt. Kimberly Munley -- a civilian police officer who took down Hasan.


ABC News on Kimberly-- A must-see video!


Via The Washington Post:

Police officials say after arriving at the scene of Thursday's gunfire, Sgt. Kimberly Munley saw the suspect and started firing at him.

Munley's boss, Chuck Medley, told The Associated Press on Friday that Hasan then spun around and charged at her with a gun in each hand. 

Medley says Munley shot the alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, in the upper torso, allowing officers to take him into custody. Medley says in the exchange of gunfire, Munley was shot in the thighs and wrist.

The 34-year-old Munley is from Pennsylvania, used to be in the Army and is married to a Fort Bragg, N.C. soldier. 

This from Time:


Munley, who worked as a police officer for five years in North Carolina where her father, Dennis Barbour, once served as mayor of Carolina Beach, is a talented shooter and member of the base's Special Reaction Team which trains for the possibility of events like Thursday's shooting rampage. She also is a passionate fan of Twitter and once news of her actions spread, her followers began to blossom in number — among them country singer Dierks Bentley who posed for a photo with the petite police officer at the fort's annual July Fourth FreedomFest. The photo is posted on her Twitter page along with a brief biographical quote: "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."

Go here to read the full article.

My favorite article: She stood ground, even as bullets struck her

After reading several articles and watching these videos, I'm still not sure what really motivated the alleged murderer Nidal Malik Hasan to perform these horrendous acts -- was he stressed out to the max, was he terrified that what had happened to his patients might also happen to him, or was he indeed a terrorist? Why did he enlist in the Army in the first place if he didn't want to go to war? Why was he promoted to major? Why wasn't he investigated sooner than this with his history of problems? Who conducted his psychological evaluation in September? (They missed a few things.) What is Barack Obama's relationship to Nidal Malik Hasan? Why was he assigned to Homeland Security with his obviously troubled background? There are many unanswered questions, but there's one thing of which I am certain -- Sgt. Kimberly Munley is a true American hero and I thank God for her courage. If she had not been there, who knows how many more casualties there might have been.


My heart and prayers go out to all the victims and their families in this sad and tragic event.