A soldier reportedly dressed in Ninja-like attire fired live rounds from a .357-caliber Magnum into a physical training formation at Fort Campbell, Ky., this morning. No one was hurt in the 7 a.m. shooting and the soldier, who has not yet been identified, was arrested by military police.
“Military police apprehended the solider and brought him into custody. He did have a weapon, it was a handgun, nonmilitary issue,” said Fort Campbell spokeswoman Cathy Gramling.
Charges have not been filed and Fort Campbell officials declined further comment, but according to a soldier in the area at the time of the alleged attack, the suspect fired three shots at a group of soldiers in formation for PT in front of the division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team headquarters.
After firing the first volley of shots, he ran behind the headquarters building of 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry, where several troops were at work, said the soldier, who spoke on the condition his identity not be revealed.
He said that when a soldier from the 2-327 opened a back door, the armed soldier allegedly fired another round of shots, which ricocheted off the ground and the building, then continued running.
After evading soldiers at the 2-327, the gunman allegedly ducked into a building of the 3rd Battalion, 327th Infantry, shed a tactical holster, black jacket and balaclava mask, then walked out of the building and allegedly pointed to an area away from the building and told MPs at the site he had seen a man running in that direction, the soldier said.
The MPs arrested the soldier on the spot and placed him in confinement.
The 101st Airborne Division is in the process of deploying for its second rotation in Iraq and the Thursday shooting harked to a deadly incident two and a half years ago. According to the source, the suspect in Thursday’s shooting is a member of 326th Engineer Battalion, the same unit of former Sgt. Hassan Akbar, who was convicted of a grenade attack that killed two soldiers and wounded 14 others in the 1st BCT. The fragging incident took place March 23, 2003, in Kuwait, hours before the division crossed the berm into Iraq. In April, a jury of soldiers at Fort Bragg, N.C., sentenced him to death.
Almost 10 years ago to the day of Thursday’s incident, Sgt. William Kreutzer opened fire on hundreds of paratroopers in formation at Fort Bragg, killing one injuring 18 others. He was captured by Special Forces soldiers performing PT nearby. Kreutzer was convicted and sentenced to death, but the sentence was overturned.
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