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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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August 31st,
2007 - Some Copter Crash Victims were Murder Case Witnesses |
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Some Copter Crash Victims
were Murder Case Witnesses By Honolulu Advertiser August 31, 2007 The Army has confirmed that
"several" of the 10 Schofield Barracks soldiers who died in an Aug.
22 helicopter crash in northern Iraq were witnesses in a murder case
involving two other Schofield soldiers accused of shooting an Iraqi detainee. "Their tragic deaths do
not affect the prosecution of the cases, which will proceed as planned,"
said Lt. Col. Michael Donnelly, a spokesman for Task Force Lightning in
northern Iraq. None of the soldiers who
died in the Black Hawk helicopter crash was in any way implicated in any
misconduct related to the Iraqi man's death, Donnelly said. Sgt. 1st Class Trey A.
Corrales, of San Antonio, and Spc. Christopher P. Shore of Winder, Ga., were
charged with one count of premeditated murder in the death of the
unidentified man. The shooting occurred June
23 in Al Saheed near the northern city of Kirkuk, according to a charge sheet
previously obtained by The Advertiser. Corrales is accused of
shooting the Iraqi detainee multiple times with his rifle, and then directing
Shore to also shoot the man. Shore also is accused in the charge sheet with
shooting the detainee multiple times. The soldiers are assigned to
Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment
- the same unit involved in the helicopter crash. The military said a
mechanical malfunction, and not enemy fire, caused the crash. The 2-35 battalion
commander, Lt. Col. Michael Browder, was relieved of his command in
connection with the murder investigation although he was not a suspect and
was not charged, the military said. Military officials approved
a defense request for a delay in Article 32 hearings, which were expected to
be held in Iraq, Donnelly said. The military hearing is similar to a civilian
grand jury proceeding, and will determine whether the case moves to
court-martial. The defense request to delay
the Article 32 hearings will result in the court proceedings being held at
Schofield after the unit redeploys back to Hawaii, Donnelly said.
Tentatively, the hearings are set for mid-October, but that date also could
change. Corrales was moved to
Forward Operating Base McHenry, about 30 miles southwest of Kirkuk, while
Shore was at Kirkuk Airbase. Both were assigned limited duties and were under
supervision. Shore, 25, said in an e-mail
to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in August that he was being punished for
being honest with his superiors about a mission he felt was morally wrong. "I'm not a
murderer," Shore wrote. "This isn't fair to me or my family." Army officials have declined
to discuss the details of the case. While on a night mission in
al Saheed, a village near Kirkuk in northern Iraq, Shore says he and his
fellow soldiers were ordered by Corrales, their patrol leader, to "kill
all the males" in a house where soldiers of Company A of the 2nd Battalion,
35th Infantry Regiment, were allegedly trapped by insurgents. During the
mission, Shore said he heard shots. He ran toward the sound and
found Corrales standing over a badly injured man on the ground at the
backdoor of the house. Corrales, 34, ordered Shore
to "finish him," but Shore said he purposely missed the man when he
fired his M-4 carbine. "It was an intense,
complicated mission," Shore said. "We had to be switched on.
Everything was split-second decisions." The wounded man was treated
by medics and evacuated to a combat hospital, where he died two days later
from gunshot wounds. Shore's attorney, Michael
Waddington, said bullets fired from his client's weapon did not hit the man.
An autopsy showed the five gunshots that killed the man were fired from a
distance rather than at close range, Waddington said. Hours after the incident,
Shore and four other soldiers agreed to tell their supervising sergeants
about the shooting. They felt what happened was wrong. Shore is barred from carrying
his weapon or riding out in a Humvee onto Iraq's battlefields. If he's found
guilty, he could get the death penalty. Corrales' attorney, Frank
Spinner, previously said after reading the Army's charge sheet that he wanted
to see the facts and the evidence of the case. Corrales' brother, Jeffrey,
who lives in San Antonio, in July said his brother is a decorated war hero
who would never kill without justification. Trey Corrales is a 14-year
Army veteran who earned two Bronze Stars and an Audie Murphy award for combat
performance in Afghanistan, his brother said. "This is ridiculous
what they're doing to him," Corrales said at the time in a telephone
interview. "Of course I stand behind my brother 100 percent." Corrales said his brother's
wife, Lily, is an Army veteran and that the couple lives on the Aliamanu
Military Reservation with their two children. External link: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Aug/31/br/br8569201374.html |