Soldier Held in Afghan Massacre Had Brain Injury, Marital Problems
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Hemera/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The Army staff sergeant who allegedly went on a rampage and killed 16 Afghans as they slept in their homes had a traumatic brain injury at one point and had problems at home after his last deployment, officials told ABC News.
But the soldier, who is based at Fort Lewis in Washington, was considered fit for combat duty and deployed to Afghanistan in December, officials said.
What has trickled out about the unidentified suspect is that he is 38, on his fourth combat deployment in 10 years, the first three in Iraq. He was on his first tour in Afghanistan, where he’d been since December.
When the massacre took place, he was assigned to Camp Belambay, a remote combat outpost where his job was to be protection for Special Operations Forces who were creating local militias. He was not a member of the special forces unit.
An official told ABC News that the soldier had suffered a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the past, either from hitting his head on the hatch of a vehicle or in a car accident. He went through the advanced TBI treatment at Fort Lewis and was deemed to be fine.
He also underwent mental health screening necessary to become a sniper and passed in 2008. He had routine behavioral health screening after that and was cleared, the official said.
When the soldier returned from his last deployment in Iraq he had difficulty reintegrating, which included marital problems, the source told ABC News. But officials concluded that he had worked through those issues before deploying to Afghanistan.
The shootings occurred at 3 a.m. at three houses in two villages in the Panjway district of southern Kandahar province, an area that was once a Taliban safe haven, but has recently become safer after a surge of troops in 2009.
The soldier left the base in the middle of the night and wore night-vision goggles during the alleged rampage, according to a source.
The first village was more than a mile south of the base. While there, he allegedly killed four people in the first house. In the second house, he allegedly killed 11 family members — four girls, four boys and three adults.
He then walked back to another village past his base where he allegedly killed one more person, according to a member of the Afghan investigation team and ABC News’ interviews with villagers.
All of the victims were shot in their homes, according to villagers and the Afghan president’s office.
Video from the scene show blood-splattered floors and walls inside a villager’s home and blood-soaked bodies of victims, including the elderly and young children, wrapped in blankets and placed in the backseat of a van. Some of the bodies appear to have been burned.
John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said officials “don’t know what his [soldier’s] motivation was. We are looking into that.”
After the alleged shooting spree, it’s believed the soldier returned to the base and calmly turned himself in. He remains in NATO custody. One source told ABC News that the soldier had “lawyered up” and declined to talk.
Details about the staff sergeant emerged as the Taliban vowed revenge against “sick-minded American savages” after the mass killing.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio