Sgt. Austin D. Pratt's family, a lesson on how to forgive

Family forgives as they learn how their son died
Sgt. Austin D. Pratt's death is 'negligent homicide'
By DONNA HICKMAN
Daily Journal Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Six and a half months ago, Sgt. Austin David Pratt was killed in Iraq in what the Army would only describe as a “non-combat related death under investigation.” The investigation is over now and Monica and David Pratt know the details of how their son died. They also know how to forgive the young soldier responsible.

Austin, 22, Cadet, had arrived in Iraq on Dec. 12, 2007. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. Three days later, his unit went out to the local police station. When there wasn’t enough room for him to travel with them, he stayed back at camp with other soldiers. They were in the Green Zone, the safe zone, in Rustamiyah, Iraq — not far from Balad. As David Pratt tells it, Austin was sitting on a cot watching a movie on his computer. Another soldier was nearby just “messing with” his gun.

“He was loading and unloading it. He did that a couple of times and loaded a magazine (a clip with several rounds of ammunition in it) and he dropped the magazine. When he dropped the magazine, the mechanism slid forward. He had chambered a round. He held the weapon in the air — not knowing he had loaded a round — and brought it down slowly and pointed it at my son and fired. ”
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