The 38-year-old American staff sergeant who is suspected of killing 16 Afghan villagers had been drinking alcohol when he went on his shooting rampage.
STORY: The 411 On The Afghanistan Civilian Shootings
According to the New York Times, a senior American official said that stress related to his fourth combat tour and tensions with his wife about the deployments is what lead to the staff sergeant to killing 16 Afghan villagers.
An American official, who has been briefed on the investigation and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the soldier has not yet been formally charged said:
“When it all comes out, it will be a combination of stress, alcohol and domestic issues — he just snapped.”
The Army still has not named the soldier, but on Thursday his lawyer, John Henry Browne of Seattle, who has been retained by the family, offered some information and questioned some of the American official’s claims.
Browne said it was “nonsense” that there were exceptional marital tensions. “I know that is not true,” he said at a news conference at his office Thursday night in Seattle.
Mr. Browne added that the inaccuracy of the claim made him “suspicious” of the suggestion that alcohol and stress contributed, though he noted that virtually anyone at a remote base in Afghanistan would be under stress.
The soldier and his wife had “a very healthy marriage,” Mr. Browne said. Their two children are 3 and 4 years old.
A decorated soldier who grew up in the Midwest, the man enlisted within a week of the terrorist attacks of 2001, he said.
Mr. Browne said the soldier suffered a concussion during a vehicle rollover accident caused by a roadside bomb. He also lost part of a foot in another episode.
He confirmed that the soldier, part of the Third Stryker Brigade, Second Infantry, had served three tours in Iraq with that unit.
The soldier’s wife and children have been moved from their home at Joint Base Lewis-McChord for their protection in anticipation of the release of the sergeant’s name, the American official said.
Concern for their safety was among the reasons for initially withholding the sergeant’s identity, the official said.
The unidentified solider will arrive Friday afternoon at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
