JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD — An Army medic says a soldier accused of masterminding the murders of three Afghan civilians last year boasted about one of the killings.
The News Tribune newspaper reports that Pvt. Robert Stevens told an investigating officer during a hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord on Friday that Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs of Billings, Mont., acknowledged participating in the February 2010 killing.
The victim previously has been described as a random civilian target, but Stevens, of Portland, testified Friday that Gibbs reportedly suspected the unarmed man was involved in the Taliban and that Gibbs was “sick of picking him up and letting him go.”
Gibbs is one of five soldiers charged in the killings in Kandahar province. He’s also charged keeping fingers severed from the dead and other misconduct.
He denies the charges.
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