The 32-year-old staff sergeant U.S. soldier, who allegedly shot and killed 16 Afghan civilians Sunday, may have suffered from a rare mental state of derangement classified as a blind killing rage.
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According to military medical experts, the solider had a total disregard of pain and danger, with a disconnection from his fellow troops.
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The Unknown Soldier had served three tours in Iraq according to military officials, and arrived in southern Afghanistan in January to help support a small Special Forces team in Kandahar.
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According to ABC News, the solider suffered a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the past, either from hitting his head on the hatch of a vehicle or in a car accident. He went through the advanced TBI treatment at Fort Lewis and was deemed healthy.
He also underwent mental health screening necessary to become a sniper and passed in 2008. He had routine behavioral health screening after that and was cleared, the official said.
Studies have shown that the link between combat stress and outbursts of violence was well documented, even before troops began routinely serving three, four or more combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade.
According to a recent U.S. Army study, about 472,000 troops who served in Iraq or Afghanistan may have some form of PTSD.
Officials at the U.S.-led military command in Afghanistan said Monday they had detained a lone suspect in the shooting, a U.S. Army staff sergeant, a conventional soldier rather than one of the highly trained, elite Special Forces or Green Berets with whom he was assigned.
According to CNN, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that the soldier could face the death penalty – although he hasn’t been charged yet.
A father of two, he had been based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, outside Tacoma, Wash. Headquarters of numerous Army and Air Force combat units, Lewis-McChord has been plagued by high rates of suicide and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and is the home base of the notorious “kill team” of soldiers accused of killing three Afghan civilians for sport two years ago.
The GI newspaper Stars & Stripes once called Lewis-McChord “the most troubled base in the military.”
Officials said the alleged shooter gave himself up after the killings Sunday.
