Mark Todd and Kimberly Munley helped bring down Nidal Hasan in the midst of his massacre at Fort Hood in 2009 that took the lives of 13 people. Despite their heroism, however, their positions at the Texas Army base are being terminated.
Mark Todd and Kimberly Munley helped bring down Nidal Hasan in the midst of his massacre at Fort Hood in 2009 that took the lives of 13 people. Despite their heroism, however, the officers have been fired from the Texas Army base.
Todd and Munley’s contracts with the Army only brought them on board for a four-year term, but the officers say that they had been told that they’d be eventually brought on full-time, especially after their courageous work in bringing Hasan’s shooting spree to a half. Now, however, they will have to find work elsewhere.
Munley, who is a member of the SWAT team and currently on unpaid leave by her own accord says she was planning on returning for full-time work after recovering from her injuries but now won’t be allowed the opportunity.
“We were told from the day we were hired that our terms would go to a permanent status,” Munley tells the Washington Post. “It’s disheartening. I had all intentions to go back in January, but then we were informed our terms would not be renewed.”
Although the bullet she fired was never recovered, Munley, along with Officer Todd, are believed to have taken down Hasan on November 5, 2009, but not before he killed 13 and wounded another 30. Hasan is paralyzed from the waist down as a result of the incident and has refused to cooperate with investigators working on the case.
Along with Todd and around 20 other civilian officers, Munley’s contract won’t be renewed and their positions will be terminated. Another 11 officers at Fort Hood are also being let go, says Jeff Zuhlke from the American Federation of Government Employee Law Enforcement Committee. Zuklke has spoken out against the termination and says it is an abomination that these federal employees that have done so much good for America are being cast away by the government.
“They are professionals who have chosen law enforcement as a career. Considering the sacrifice of these officers you would think that the Fort Hood public affairs department could correctly identify their positions while discussing their layoffs,” says Zuklke.
Officials at Fort Hood add that “the change in contract security personnel at Fort Hood is part of an Army-wide shift from contract security to civil service security.”