The Fort Lewis PAO reports:
Fort Lewis, Wash. — Army Sgt. John M. Russell was moved from the pre-trial confinement facility in Kuwait to the Butner Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, last Friday. SGT Russell was found to be currently unable to conduct or cooperate intelligently in his own defense by a panel of doctors. Once Russell is capable of assisting in his own defense the court martial proceedings will continue.
Charges against Sgt. Russell include five specifications of premeditated murder and one specification of aggravated assault related to the killing of five U.S. service members at the Liberty Combat Stress Center on Camp Liberty in Baghdad, May 11, 2009.
The incident is still under investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command.
Comments for "Army Sgt. John M. Russell update" (2)
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Canard said on Nov. 17, 2009 at 8:46am
Do you think the book should be thrown at Sgt Russell? How about the shooter at Fort Hood?
Do you think they should be prosecuted as vigorously as Lt Calley was prosecuted? At Mai Lai hundreds of innocents were shot down, at least 22 by Lt Calley, who received a life sentence for his misdeeds. (He served 4 1/2 months, and was released.)
Oh well, it does depend on how the wind blows.
Mike Hanna said on Dec. 28, 2011 at 10:55am
I served with Sgt. Russell in Ramadi, Iraq 05-06. That was his second tour and already I could tell his screws were loosining. In my opinion he never should have joined the military to begin with, especially being in the combat unit we were in. It takes a mentally strong alpha male to survive life in the alpha strong batallion our 54th Engineers were. I'm building up to an across the board statement that Soldiers get bored a lot, no one can possibly occupie themselves 100% of the time all the time but is doesnt mean they don't try; a great way to fill the void is to make fun, berate and pick on the weak, eg. John Russell. Imagine getting picked on in the real world for a day, I'm sure it would suck. Now imagine getting picked on 24-7-365 with no escape for three years, that would drive even the most sane insane. I'm not in anyway trying to justify what this sick bastard did, only attempting to paint a picture of the crazy which his brain had transformed into. Hopefully this made sense, it's hard to type coherently for over a sentence on my iPhone- Hout
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