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Woman who stopped Fort Hood rampage is Hoggard grad, former Wrightsville Beach officer
Those who know Kimberly Barbour Munley said they aren’t surprised the Carolina Beach native is the female civilian police officer credited for stopping the deadly shooting at Fort Hood, where 13 people were killed and several others injured.
Munley herself was injured, but she managed to shoot the gunman four times within three minutes of reported gunfire Thursday afternoon, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said Friday morning.
“She was not afraid of anything,” said Wrightsville Beach Police Chief John Carey, who knew Munley when she worked for the department from 2000 to 2002.
“She is very small, but she had no fear,” he said.
Cone lauded Munley for encountering suspected gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is hospitalized on a ventilator. “In an exchange of gunfire, she was wounded but managed to wound him four times,” Cone said. “It was an amazing and aggressive performance by this police officer.”
Munley, 34, is the daughter of former Carolina Beach mayor Dennis Barbour. She grew up in Carolina Beach and graduated in 1993 from Hoggard High School.
Her father and stepmother, Wanda Barbour, were busy Friday afternoon trying to get a flight to Fort Hood so they could visit Munley in the hospital, where she remained in stable condition. They were also fielding calls from local and national media, including CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Inside Edition, according to workers at Island Tackle and Hardware in Carolina Beach, which is owned by the Barbours.
“We’re just so grateful and thankful to the Lord that she’s safe,” Wanda Barbour said. “Our hearts just ache for the loss of others, too, and hers, too. She’s still upset about that.”
Barbour said she and her husband found out Thursday afternoon Munley was involved in the attack, but they didn’t find out until later she was the one the top commander at Fort Hood credited with stopping the shooting.
Like others, Barbour wasn’t surprised it was Munley who helped stop the shooter. “When they said a female officer, a little part of me just knew,” she said.
“She is a very great person with a great spirit,” she said.
Ron Strickland, a retired teacher from Hoggard High School, coached Munley’s volleyball team and remembered her as a fearless athlete who was interested in law enforcement.
“This doesn’t surprise me at all,” Strickland said of Munley’s heroism. “She was always very matter of fact.”
Munley graduated in 1999 from Cape Fear Community College’s Basic Law Enforcement program, said David Hardin, public information officer for the college.
Carey said the Wrightsville Beach Police Department was Munley’s first law enforcement job. She was first employed March 1, 2000 as a reserve officer and later worked as a beach patrol officer and as an officer in the Uniform Patrol Division. She left the department in February 2002.
Munley received three letters of commendation and recognition for her performance as a Wrightsville Beach police officer.
“The Town of Wrightsville Beach expresses our most sincere condolences to the families of the soldiers that were killed and wounded in the shooting that occurred yesterday at Fort Hood Texas,” a news release from the police department states. “The Town of Wrightsville Beach and the Wrightsville Beach Police Department are proud of Officer Munley’s quick action and her dedication to the highest ideals of police service and wish her a speedy and full recovery.”
On Friday afternoon, many people sent messages to Munley’s Twitter account, expressing gratitude and wishes for a speedy recovery.
In the biography section of Munley’s Twitter account, she summed up her life with the following message: “I live a good life … a hard one, but I go to sleep peacefully @ night knowing that I may have made a difference in someone’s life.”
Military hails 2 heroes in Fort Hood rampage
The top commander at Fort Hood is crediting a civilian police officer for stopping the shooting rampage that killed 13 people at the Texas post. Lt. Gen. Bob Cone also hailed a young Army nutritionist who helped wounded victims.
Both women heroically intervened despite being shot.
Cone said Friday that Fort Hood police Sgt. Kimberly Munley and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfire Thursday afternoon. Cone said Munley shot the gunman four times despite being shot herself.
Officials said Munley was in stable condition.
Cone said, "It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer."
On Munley's Twitter page, Munley is pictured with country music star Dierks Bentley at the Fort Hood "Freedom Fest." Her Twitter bio read: 'I live a good life. ... a hard one, but I go to sleep peacefully @ night knowing that I may have made a difference in someone's life."
Munley's father, Dennis Barbour, was making plans to travel to Fort Hood to see his 34-year-old daughter on Friday, Starnewsonline.com in Wilmington, N.C., reported. Barbour is a former mayor of Carolina Beach, a barrier island town near Wilmington.
“We're just so grateful and thankful to the Lord that she's safe,” Munley's stepmother, Wanda Barbour told the newspaper Web site. “Our hearts just ache for the loss of others, too, and hers, too. She's still upset about that.”
Munley is a native of Carolina Beach and served as a police officer in Wrightsville Beach, Starnewsonline.com reported.
Cone also hailed Amber Bahr, 19, as an "amazing young lady."
The commander told NBC's TODAY show that the nutritionist put a tourniquet on a wounded soldier and carried him out to medical care. And only after she had taken care of others did she realize she had been shot, he said.
In and out of pain
On Thursday, her mother, Lisa Pfund, told the Sheboygan Press that she spoke briefly to Bahr after she was taken to a community hospital.
"I actually got to talk to Amber and I talked to her for about 30 seconds and she was in a lot of pain," Pfund said. "She couldn't tell me nothing, either."
Later that night, she was able to speak with her recovering daughter, she told the Sheboygan Press. She was "in and out of pain" and on medication but in good spirits, adding that she tried to help others during the rampage, the Sheboygan Press reported.
The suspected gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is hospitalized on a ventilator.
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Sources: Star News Online, MSNBC, US Army, Google Maps
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