Published: November 06, 2009 02:36 pm      

Police officer who shot Hasan had undergone ALERRT training

San Marcos — The Killeen police officer who shot accused Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan had undergone rapid response training offered at San Marcos’ ALERRT Center.

Diana Hendricks, director of communication for the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center, said this morning that Sgt. Kimberly Munley had undergone ALERRT’s basic training in February 2008 and, in June of this year, took a breaching class, which is an advanced module.

Munley and her partner were at the scene within three minutes of reports of gunfire Thursday afternoon, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone told The Associated Press. Cone said Munley shot the gunman four times despite being shot herself.

Her condition was described as stable this morning. “It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer.”

John Curnutt, ALERRT’s director of training, said Killeen police on regular duty as well as those in a special division assigned to security at the base have had access to the specialized training.

The officers who got the training, including Munley, would then train others within their own departments.

Of Killeen, he said, “These guys would contact us pretty regularly about additional training or for us to give them tips. They don’t always have two to three days to do (the training). Sometimes they have to do it in four to six hour blocks — they would have to do whatever they could.”

Curnutt, who said he wasn’t able to follow all the developments as the story unfolded Thursday and Thursday night, says he plans to contact the Killeen PD today.

“Hopefully they can pick their heads up out of the chaos long enough” to talk with him, he said, adding from what he’s heard, “everybody that was available and present responded to this area and tried to mitigate the loss of life” as best they could.

“I heard initial reports saying one of their officers was killed in a gunfight with the suspect. That leads me to believe they went after him, trying to find him and take him down.”

The ALERRT Center is a joint project of the city of San Marcos and Texas State University founded in the wake of the massacre at Columbine High School.

As of this past spring, ALERRT had “delivered active shooter training to more than 20,000 law enforcement officers across the country.”