Fort Riley Murder Spree?

October 19, 2004

Comments

Soldier back from Iraq held in W. Side murder (CHicago Sun-Times)

A soldier who recently returned from duty in Iraq is being held in the killing of a West Side store owner — the seventh GI from Fort Riley, Kan., accused of murder in about a month, authorities said Monday.

Spec. Pierre E. Cole, 22, was on leave from his unit at Fort Riley when he and his uncle, 37-year-old Lee McGee, shot James Jung to death Thursday night in a holdup of the Best Fit clothing store in the 4000 block of West Madison, police said.

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On Sept. 15, two Fort Riley soldiers were charged with murder in the killings of two soldiers in Kansas. On Sept. 22, two more Fort Riley soldiers were charged with murder in the killings of three civilians in Iraq. Then, on Sept. 26, two other Fort Riley soldiers were charged with murder in an unrelated killing of an Iraqi civilian.

I spent six weeks at Fort Riley for ROTC Advanced Camp back in 1987, so I understand why they might be prone to want to kill people. But still, not good.

(via Jeff Quinton)

One response to “Fort Riley Murder Spree?”

LJD

October 19, 2004 at 10:52 am

I hate to see this type of story in the news, as it surely is another black eye for the military.

Soldiers are held to a much higher standard than the average citizen, have more counseling resources available, and specifically get mandatory re-integration counseling…

Yet there’s always a bad apple in the bunch. The media loves to exploit this as somehow being avoidable, or a symptom of the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. In some cases (Abu Ghraib), they even claim the behavior is the direct policy of the administration!