KILLEEN, Texas— Sgt. Kimberly D. Munley has been applauded as a hero across the nation for shooting down Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan during the bloody rampage at Fort Hood last week. The account of heroism, given by the authorities, attracted the attention of newspapers, the networks and television talk shows.

But the story of how the petite police officer and the accused gunman went down in an exchange of gunfire does not agree with the account of an eyewitness who had gone to the base's processing center, where the shootings occurred, to conduct business before being deployed.

The witness, who asked not to be identified, said Hasan wheeled on Munley as she rounded the corner of a building and shot her, putting her on the ground. Then Hasan turned his back on her and started putting another magazine into his semiautomatic pistol.

It was at that moment that Senior Sgt. Mark Todd, a veteran police officer, rounded another corner of the building, found Hasan fumbling with his weapon and shot him.

How the authorities came to issue the original version of the story, which made Munley a national hero for several days and obscured Todd's role, remains unclear. (Military officials also said for several hours after the shooting that Hasan had been killed, although he had survived.)

Six days after the deadly shooting rampage at a center where soldiers were preparing for deployment, the military has yet to put out a full account of what happened.

At a news conference outside the post on Wednesday, Lt. Col. John Rossi refused to take questions about who shot Hasan or why the initial reports said it had been Munley rather than Todd. “;These questions are specific to the investigation and I am not going to address that,”; Rossi said.

Public affairs officials also declined to make Chuck Medley, the director of emergency services at the post, available for questions. It was Medley, who oversees the post's civilian police and fire departments, who gave the first account of how Munley stopped the gunman.

On Tuesday night, Lt. Col. Lee Packnett, of the Army's Office of the Chief of Public Affairs at the Pentagon, declined to say whether it was Todd who had shot Hasan. “;It could have been, but the final outcome will be determined by the results of the ballistics tests.”;

In an interview on Wednesday, Todd's wife, Lisa, said he had asked the Army to protect his identity in the immediate aftermath of the shootings. Her husband did not consider himself to be the real hero of the day, she said. “;They were in this together,”; she said.

Neither Todd nor Munley were made available by the military for this article, but on Wednesday on the “;Oprah Winfrey Show,”; they offered their first public comments on the shooting. They did not give a detailed chronology of what happened, nor did they say who had fired and hit the suspect.

Both are members of the civilian police force at Fort Hood. Todd said on the talk show that he and Munley had arrived at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center in separate squad vehicles about the same time.

Todd acknowledged that he had played a major role in bringing the violence to an end. He said that he had fired at the suspect, kicked his weapon away and placed him in handcuffs. It was the first time in his 25 years in law enforcement and the military, Todd said, that he had used his weapon.

“;I just relied back on my training,”; Todd said. “;We're trained to shoot until there is no longer a threat. And once he was laying down on his back, his weapon just fell into his hand and I'm, like, 'OK, now's the time to rush him and secure him.' “;

The confusion over what happened and the quickness of the military to label someone a hero seemed reminiscent of the case of Pfc. Jessica Lynch in 2003, when the Army initially reported Lynch had been captured in Iraq after a Rambo-like performance in which she emptied her weapon and was wounded in battle. It was later learned she had been badly hurt in a vehicle accident during an ambush and was being well cared for by the Iraqis.

On Friday, the day after the Fort Hood shooting, Medley said Munley had encountered Hasan, pistol in hand, chasing down a bleeding soldier. It was 1:27 p.m. She fired at him, he turned, they rushed at each other firing and both fell, Medley said.

“;He turned and charged her rapidly firing, and she did what she was trained to do,”; Medley said that day. He added, “;She is absolutely a hero.”;

Several hours later, at a late-night news conference on the post, Rossi expanded upon the story slightly in speaking to reporters. He said Todd had arrived at the scene in the middle of the gunfight and had also fired his weapon.

The eyewitness, however, offered a different account. He said he was walking in a roadway between the main building, known as the Sportsdome, and five smaller buildings. Hasan was headed toward the main building, the witness said, when Munley came around the corner of a smaller building.

Hasan wheeled on her and shot her several times, the witness said. It was unclear whether she squeezed off a shot or not, but she fell over backward, disabled with wounds in her legs and one of her wrists, the witness said.

Hasan then turned his back on her and began to shove another magazine into his pistol. He did not appear wounded, the witness said. A few seconds later, Todd came around another corner of the same building. He raised his weapon and fired several times at Hasan, who pitched over backward and stopped moving.

“;He shot her, turned away from her and was reloading, when he was shot,”; said the witness, who was nearby.

On the Winfrey show, Munley, 35, said the incident was confusing and chaotic. “;There were many people outside pointing to where this individual was apparently located,”; she said. “;When I got out of my vehicle and ran up the hill, that's when it started getting bad and we started encountering fire.”;

Todd, 42, is a native of California who spent most of his adult life as a military police officer in the Army. He left the military police after 25 years to join the civilian force at Fort Hood. Like most members of the military, he has moved around a lot, serving at four bases in the United States and two in Germany.

Todd said her husband did not seem upset in the wake of shooting Hasan.

“;He say's he's OK,”; she said. “;And I have to take him at his word.”;