By Renee Nadeau
Boston Herald
FORT HOOD, Texas — The pistol-packing mama who won a shootout with the man accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood last week may be small in stature, but looms large in courage, according to comrades and neighbors from Newton to Texas.
“She really didn’t have a lot of fear,” said Dunn-Gaherin’s Food & Spirits owner Seana Gaherin, who was Kimberly Munley’s boss from 2003-2005, when the young cop did a stint as a waitress at the Newton pub on Eliot Street.
Munley, a 5-foot-2-inch, blond, 34-year-old civilian police sergeant, is recovering in a hospital from wounds she sustained after Army Maj. Nidal Hasan allegedly blasted her three times as she charged and shot at him. Hasan, 39, accused of shooting more than 40 people, is also hospitalized.
“We’re so proud of her. We’re just happy that she’s OK,” Gaherin told the Herald yesterday.
The small woman being hailed as a big hero was raised in Carolina Beach, N.C., where she played on the high school volleyball team and was a popular student. Munley went on to become an officer in the Wrightsville department from March 2000 to February 2002, earning three letters of commendation and a reputation for impeccable marksmanship.
“She’s vertically challenged - but she packs a lot of might in that little frame,” Munley’s former Wrightsville Beach, N.C., police partner Shaun Appler told CBS’ “Eary Show” yesterday. “And not only is she physically tough, but she’s also mentally tough.”
Appler said she once saved his life, diving on a suspect who had attacked him.
“I don’t know if you remember back when you were a kid, the ‘Mighty Mouse’ theme - ‘Here I come to save the day’? She kind of jumped up on his back, and I swear, I heard that song in my head,” Appler told “The Early Show.” He has called Munley “Mighty Mouse” ever since.
Munley left North Carolina to follow a boyfriend to Boston, and worked at Dunn-Gaherin’s from 2003 to 2005, living in Newton, Brighton and Needham, Gaherin said.
Back then, she was Kimberly Barbour and she dreamed of returning to law enforcement, Gaherin said. She even took the Boston police exam, according to Gaherin.
The waitress was known for being tough. One Halloween, she dressed as Demi Moore’s character in the movie “G.I. Jane,” and she played shortstop on the bar’s softball team.
“She was a great little athlete. She was better than half the guys on the team,” Gaherin said.
Gaherin said the bar has been flooded with calls from people who recognized Munley as their former waitress who spent her breaks reading the Boston Herald.
“We want to host a big party and bring her back. We know she touched a lot of lives,” Gaherin said. “She was just a nice spirit.”
Munley left Newton to head off to Army boot camp and eventually work at Fort Hood, where she met her husband, Matthew, a member of the Army Special Forces.
Munley left the military when she became pregnant, the Washington Post reported. The couple are parents of a 3-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old daughter from Kimberly Munley’s previous marriage.
An avid hunter and surfer, she joined the Fort Hood police force in January 2008, where she had special training for situations just like the one that erupted Thursday. She was an advanced firearms instructor, said Lee Santo, a firearms training manager, and was trained in active shooter protocol.
“She knows what she’s doing with a pistol in her hand,” Santo told the Houston Chronicle.
Munley shot Hasan within five minutes of the original 911 call.
“When they said a female officer, a little part of me just knew,” stepmom Wanda Barbour told the The Star-News of Wilmington, N.C. “She is a very great person with a great spirit.”
She also was known as a hero around the Killeen, Texas, neighborhood where she lived.
When two would-be burglars appeared to be breaking into neighbor Erin Houston’s home one night, Munley scared them off.
Munley told the intruders: “I’m armed, and if you come in, I’m going to shoot you,” Houston told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“Having her here made us feel more safe,” Houston said.
In her bio on her Twitter page, Munley reflected on her life.
“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.”
Copyright 2009 Boston Herald