Military sources late Friday identified Army Staff
Sgt. Robert Bales as the name of the 38-year-old suspect accused of
killing 16 Afghan civilians in a Sunday rampage. Bales was flown to the
U.S. military maximum security prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas from
Kuwait Friday.
His Seattle-area celebrity lawyer, John Henry Browne, told reporters
earlier this week that the decorated soldier wasn't happy that he had
been deployed a fourth time despite sustaining two injuries, including
a traumatic head injury and the partial loss of his foot in Iraq.
Browne dismissed rumors that the soldier had marital troubles, and said
he had two young children.
"He did not want to deploy," Browne says.
"In fact he was told he was not going to go. Then, really almost
overnight, that changed." Browne told the paper that a soldier in his
unit had lost a leg in combat the day before the alleged shooting.
A senior American official says the young soldier was reportedly drinking before the rampage."When
it all comes out, it will be a combination of stress, alcohol and
domestic issues — he just snapped," the anonymous official told the
paper.
The soldier was one of 4,000 soldiers in the 3rd (Stryker) Brigade,
2nd Infantry Division stationed at Lewis-McChord in Washington state.
The base's medical center is being investigated for allegedly
down-grading post traumatic stress diagnoses to other mental illnesses
that do not prevent deployment or qualify soldiers for disability
payments.
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