Sgt. John Russell pleaded guilty

Iraq vet pleads guilty to killing fellow soldiers
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Monday, April 22, 2013


JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. (AP) — An Army sergeant pleaded guilty Monday to killing four other soldiers and a Navy officer in 2009 at mental health clinic in Baghdad during the Iraq War.

The plea at a military court at Joint Base Lewis-McChord means Sgt. John Russell will avoid the death sentence. His maximum sentence would be a life term.

Russell — who is from Sherman, Texas — went on a shooting spree at the Camp Liberty Combat Stress Center near Baghdad in May 2009. It was one of the worst instances of soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war.

Russell was nearing the end of his third tour when his behavior changed, members of his unit testified in 2009.

They said he became more distant in the days before the May 11, 2009, attack and that he seemed paranoid that his unit was trying to end his career.
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Sgt. John Russell example of what went wrong