.Rash of violence tied to brigade
Colorado Springs, Colo. —- Erica Ham was walking to a bus stop, heading for work as a nursing-home housekeeper, when a car struck her from behind.
Three men jumped out. “Get on the ground!” one with a gun ordered. Another stabbed her repeatedly, puncturing a lung and slitting her left eyelid. Police found her unconscious but alive, her cellphone at her ear.
Matthew Orrenmaa was shot as he walked to get gas for his truck; Zachary Szody as he talked with a friend in front of a Colorado Springs house. Cesar Ramirez-Ibanez and Amairany Cervantes were gunned down as they posted a garage-sale sign. Kevin Shields was shot to death on his 24th birthday; Robert James for the cash in his wallet; Jonathan Smith in an attempted robbery; Sara Sherwood by a husband who then killed himself.
Judilianna Lawrence was murdered by a rapist who slit her throat. Jacqwelyn Villagomez was beaten to death.
The victims had just one thing in common: The men accused of attacking them all went to war in Iraq with the same Fort Carson unit, the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
In three years, nine men from that single 3,700-soldier Army brigade have been charged in 10 murders and attempted homicides, all but two in or around Colorado Springs, which is just north of the Army base. Some of the attacks appear frighteningly random; victims were shot and stabbed by men they had never seen before. Four of the victims also served at Fort Carson.
Of the accused, one had been sent home early from Iraq with mental health problems. Another had been hospitalized with post-traumatic stress disorder. Another had become addicted to painkillers prescribed for his wounds.
Another was allowed to enlist despite a juvenile record of killing a 12-year-old boy with a shotgun. He was sent to a second tour in Iraq despite a head injury and a felony charge of threatening his girlfriend with a gun.
The string of killings has drawn the attention of the Pentagon, and an investigation has been ordered by Maj. Gen. Mark Graham at Fort Carson to determine what, if anything, the Army could have done to prevent the off-post killings and attacks.
Debra Shields, Kevin Shields’ mother, wonders why the Army didn’t take stronger action when one of the soldiers accused in her son’s murder was discharged after making threats against officers in Iraq.
Instead, they were “thrown out on the street —- now they’re your problem,” she said. “Well, your problem became my problem. They killed my son.”
Kevin Shields, who was on his second tour in Iraq when the Army sent him home with a traumatic head injury, was shot three times while out celebrating his 24th birthday. Police charged three other soldiers who had served with Shields in Iraq.
Other Army posts have seen returning soldiers accused of murder, but “the largest cluster that we’re aware of is at Fort Carson,” said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense. “Fort Carson is clearly the peak of the problem.”
Graham, the major general, has formed a task force of experts, including some from the Army surgeon general’s office, to investigate whether there is any “commonality” among the homicides that could help identify warning signs and prevent future cases.
“Our hearts and condolences go out to the families of those who were lost to the soldiers,” he said. “We don’t train soldiers to do things like this.”
Graham said the Army trains soldiers to quickly discern right from wrong —- when to shoot and when to hold fire. And it is striving to encourage those who have been wounded psychologically “that it’s a sign of strength, not weakness, to come forward for help.”
In the past three years, 4,000 to 5,000 soldiers have served in the 4th Brigade during two tours in Iraq. The vast majority have caused no trouble for police or MPs during their time at home, which will end again soon as they prepare for a spring deployment to Afghanistan, Graham said.
“We are very proud of our soldiers and our officers,” he said. “They’re doing wonderful things for the nation. We don’t want to see the great work these soldiers have done marred by the acts of a few.”
El Paso County jail records show that bookings of service members, largely from Fort Carson, nearly tripled in three years, from 162 in 2004 to 451 in 2007. This year’s total stands at 516 and counting. Most of the cases were minor —- traffic violations, disorderly conduct, DUIs —- but a growing number of service members have also been arrested on assault, harassment and robbery charges, restraining-order violations and property crimes, mainly theft.
The 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division has had a series of long and sometimes bloody deployments. Its soldiers had already been deployed to Korea when they were transferred to war-ravaged Ramadi in Iraq. In 2006, they went back to Iraq for a second, 15-month deployment. During the two deployments, 113 soldiers were killed in action.
Pfc. Stephen Sherwood was the first soldier in the brigade who killed after coming home. On Aug. 3, 2005, a week after he returned from Iraq, neighbors watched him take down the American flag at his northern Colorado home and remove the “support our troops” sticker from his vehicle. Hours later, he shot his wife five times in the face and neck, then killed himself with a single shotgun blast.
In one pocket of his jeans, a sheriff’s deputy found a typewritten note from Sara explaining that she loved another man. In another pocket, the deputy found an Associated Press report that 30 percent of troops returning from Iraq developed mental health problems three to four months later.
In Colorado Springs, Debra Shields has been living in a hotel room during the trial of the soldier accused of shooting her son.
These men “devastated our lives. They’ve also devastated their own families’ lives. They’re putting their families through hell,” she said.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like to have a child charged with murder, what it must feel like for them. At least they can go visit their child. I have to visit mine in a crypt.”
AJC
Three men jumped out. “Get on the ground!” one with a gun ordered. Another stabbed her repeatedly, puncturing a lung and slitting her left eyelid. Police found her unconscious but alive, her cellphone at her ear.
Matthew Orrenmaa was shot as he walked to get gas for his truck; Zachary Szody as he talked with a friend in front of a Colorado Springs house. Cesar Ramirez-Ibanez and Amairany Cervantes were gunned down as they posted a garage-sale sign. Kevin Shields was shot to death on his 24th birthday; Robert James for the cash in his wallet; Jonathan Smith in an attempted robbery; Sara Sherwood by a husband who then killed himself.
Judilianna Lawrence was murdered by a rapist who slit her throat. Jacqwelyn Villagomez was beaten to death.
The victims had just one thing in common: The men accused of attacking them all went to war in Iraq with the same Fort Carson unit, the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
In three years, nine men from that single 3,700-soldier Army brigade have been charged in 10 murders and attempted homicides, all but two in or around Colorado Springs, which is just north of the Army base. Some of the attacks appear frighteningly random; victims were shot and stabbed by men they had never seen before. Four of the victims also served at Fort Carson.
Of the accused, one had been sent home early from Iraq with mental health problems. Another had been hospitalized with post-traumatic stress disorder. Another had become addicted to painkillers prescribed for his wounds.
Another was allowed to enlist despite a juvenile record of killing a 12-year-old boy with a shotgun. He was sent to a second tour in Iraq despite a head injury and a felony charge of threatening his girlfriend with a gun.
The string of killings has drawn the attention of the Pentagon, and an investigation has been ordered by Maj. Gen. Mark Graham at Fort Carson to determine what, if anything, the Army could have done to prevent the off-post killings and attacks.
Debra Shields, Kevin Shields’ mother, wonders why the Army didn’t take stronger action when one of the soldiers accused in her son’s murder was discharged after making threats against officers in Iraq.
Instead, they were “thrown out on the street —- now they’re your problem,” she said. “Well, your problem became my problem. They killed my son.”
Kevin Shields, who was on his second tour in Iraq when the Army sent him home with a traumatic head injury, was shot three times while out celebrating his 24th birthday. Police charged three other soldiers who had served with Shields in Iraq.
Other Army posts have seen returning soldiers accused of murder, but “the largest cluster that we’re aware of is at Fort Carson,” said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense. “Fort Carson is clearly the peak of the problem.”
Graham, the major general, has formed a task force of experts, including some from the Army surgeon general’s office, to investigate whether there is any “commonality” among the homicides that could help identify warning signs and prevent future cases.
“Our hearts and condolences go out to the families of those who were lost to the soldiers,” he said. “We don’t train soldiers to do things like this.”
Graham said the Army trains soldiers to quickly discern right from wrong —- when to shoot and when to hold fire. And it is striving to encourage those who have been wounded psychologically “that it’s a sign of strength, not weakness, to come forward for help.”
In the past three years, 4,000 to 5,000 soldiers have served in the 4th Brigade during two tours in Iraq. The vast majority have caused no trouble for police or MPs during their time at home, which will end again soon as they prepare for a spring deployment to Afghanistan, Graham said.
“We are very proud of our soldiers and our officers,” he said. “They’re doing wonderful things for the nation. We don’t want to see the great work these soldiers have done marred by the acts of a few.”
El Paso County jail records show that bookings of service members, largely from Fort Carson, nearly tripled in three years, from 162 in 2004 to 451 in 2007. This year’s total stands at 516 and counting. Most of the cases were minor —- traffic violations, disorderly conduct, DUIs —- but a growing number of service members have also been arrested on assault, harassment and robbery charges, restraining-order violations and property crimes, mainly theft.
The 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division has had a series of long and sometimes bloody deployments. Its soldiers had already been deployed to Korea when they were transferred to war-ravaged Ramadi in Iraq. In 2006, they went back to Iraq for a second, 15-month deployment. During the two deployments, 113 soldiers were killed in action.
Pfc. Stephen Sherwood was the first soldier in the brigade who killed after coming home. On Aug. 3, 2005, a week after he returned from Iraq, neighbors watched him take down the American flag at his northern Colorado home and remove the “support our troops” sticker from his vehicle. Hours later, he shot his wife five times in the face and neck, then killed himself with a single shotgun blast.
In one pocket of his jeans, a sheriff’s deputy found a typewritten note from Sara explaining that she loved another man. In another pocket, the deputy found an Associated Press report that 30 percent of troops returning from Iraq developed mental health problems three to four months later.
In Colorado Springs, Debra Shields has been living in a hotel room during the trial of the soldier accused of shooting her son.
These men “devastated our lives. They’ve also devastated their own families’ lives. They’re putting their families through hell,” she said.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like to have a child charged with murder, what it must feel like for them. At least they can go visit their child. I have to visit mine in a crypt.”
AJC
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