U.S. Navy photo by Doug Davant Sgt. Mark Todd talks to Dahlgren School.

At Fort Hood, Texas, the shout of ‘‘Allahu Akbar” pierced the din of a noisy predeployment center.

It was followed by more than 100 louder blasts from an FN Five-Seven, a 9-mm, semiautomatic pistol nicknamed ‘‘cop killer” that is popular with urban gangs because it can fire armor-piercing bullets.

Thirteen people died in the fusillade at the military base, and 38 were wounded. A 39-year-old Army psychiatrist who was identified as an Islamic extremist is believed to be the sole perpatrator of shootings.

Responding to the 911 distress calls that immediately went out from the center was the DoD police team of Sgt. Kim Munley and Sgt. Mark Todd. They recognized the gunman as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. Both were forced to open fire to stop the shooting suspect when he turned his weapon to face them. Munley was the first to get some shots off at Hasan and originally was credited by the news media as the one who took him down. However, she was wounded in the encounter and a later probe found that she probably did not hit him. Todd was not wounded and his shots were the ones that stopped the gunman.

Todd later told newsmen of the account.

‘‘He fired at me, and I fired back. I was about 15 yards away. I could see into his eyes, and he was calm. We did what we had to do, I wish we could have got there sooner,“ Todd said.

Todd was at the Dahlgren School recently and related also a little bit of his life and a bit about the terrible tragedy that day to students in grades 5-8 here.

He reported that he and Munley ‘‘just happened” to be teamed that day and were nearest to the incident when the call came in.

‘‘She’s a SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactical) officer and I’m a K-9 handler,” he said. ‘‘We had never been partners before and haven’t been since we just happened to be filling in together on the road that day,” he said.

He also recalled the blur of activity after they got the call.

‘‘Really, everything happened so fast when we got there,” he said. ‘‘Then our attention was on those who were hurt.”

However, Todd said he was not at liberty to go into more detail about the shooting.

‘‘It hasn’t come to trial yet,” he explained, ‘‘and I can’t say much more about it or the alleged shooter.”

Instead he focused on his job as a police officer and took questions from the students about his chosen career. Most of the questions were about the dogs he usually teams with and trains.

‘‘What is your favorite thing about a dog?” one student asked.

‘‘His ability to smell things a person cannot detect,” Todd replied. ‘‘When you go into a pizza parlor, you smell pizza and probably are hungry. When a dog goes into a pizza parlor, they can smell everything in that pizza ... the tomatoes, the cheese, the different toppings, the flour used, even the hands that made the pizza,” he said.

Todd said he did not have a dog with him on that fateful day at Fort Hood but indicated that when he did have a K-9 partner, he always had a real good friend he could always count on.

‘‘The best thing a dog has ever done for me was when I was investigating this building a long time ago. It was real dark and I couldn’t see much. We went up to a door and my dog immediately sat down, indicating that there was something bad behind the door. We called in extra people and discovered that a bomb had been placed there,” he said.

The police sergeant also admitted to being very scared in situations such as probing dark buildings and facing down armed individuals, but pointed out to the children ‘‘you still have to do what you gotta do and what you’re trained to do.”

He also admitted to ‘‘being nervous” when being barraged by television appearances and famous dignitaries afterward. He has been on several news segments across the country as well as the Larry King and the Oprah shows. He also has met the governor of Texas, congressmen, senators, and the president of the United States.

‘‘President Obama was when I was most relaxed though,” he told the Dahlgren students. ‘‘He acted just like another person who puts his pants on just like me, one leg at a time.”