BAGHDAD — A U.S. soldier who allegedly gunned down five fellow troops at a combat stress clinic in Baghdad recently had his weapon taken away because of concerns about his behavior, a senior U.S. military official said Tuesday.
The military identified the suspect as Sgt. John M. Russell, 44, of Sherman, Texas, a communications specialist with the 54th Engineer Battalion based in Bamberg, Germany. Russell was due to complete his third tour of duty in Iraq in August, and previously had served in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.
The military has charged Russell with five counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault.
The shooting Monday represents the deadliest case of soldier-on-soldier violence among U.S. personnel since the war began and has drawn attention to the growing strains placed on troops by repeated long deployments to Iraq.
Although it was not known whether Russell, a 21-year Army veteran, had any history of mental problems, something about his recent behavior had concerned his superiors enough that they had taken his weapon away and referred him to counseling “approximately a week beforehand,” military spokesman Maj. Gen. David Perkins told a news briefing in Baghdad.
“Either by his actions or things he had said, there was a concern that he should not have a weapon,” he said. “And so the chain of command had confiscated his weapon, which is not something done routinely with average soldiers.”
Russell had been receiving counseling within his unit and possibly at the clinic for at least a week, Perkins said, adding that the military is still investigating how he allegedly managed to gain access to a gun.
The five victims were two members of the clinic’s medical staff and three enlisted soldiers.
The Pentagon identified Navy Cmdr. Charles Springle, 52, of Wilmington, N.C., as one of the victims of the shooting. The mother of Michael Edward Yates Jr. said two men from the Army came to her Federalsburg, Md., home early Tuesday to tell say her 19-year-old son was killed.
A psychiatrist from Amarillo, Texas, Dr. Matthew Houseal, also was confirmed among the dead, according to the director of a Texas mental health clinic where Houseal worked.
Other details of the incident are still being investigated, Perkins said, declining to confirm accounts out of Washington, D.C., that the suspect had visited the clinic earlier in the day, had an altercation there, then returned later and managed to wrestle a weapon from his escort before opening fire.
As a matter of policy, Perkins said, soldiers do not walk alone on the base, and Russell “was not traveling alone.” All soldiers normally carry weapons and a small amount of ammunition in case of emergencies.
The Army also has opened an inquiry into the availability of behavioral health services and counseling to see if there were steps that could have been taken to prevent the killings.
It was unclear exactly what duties Russell had been performing in Iraq, but an engineer battalion typically would be responsible for clearing routes of roadside bombs, repairing roads and building military and civilian facilities, said Maj. Gen. Dan Bolger, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad.
“If we’ve learned anything from this war, or relearned … it is that not all injuries are physical,” he said.
Associated Press
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