Fort Hood soldier shot to death, jeep set on fire

Fort Hood soldier found shot dead near burning Jeep

Army Times
Kyle Rempfer
May 22, 2020

Texas police and Army CID agents are investigating the death of a Fort Hood soldier as a homicide after he was found dead from a gunshot wound roughly 13 miles from post on Monday.

Pfc. Brandon Scott Rosecrans, 27, was identifed as the victim by local police and post officials. (Army)

Harker Heights police officers identified 27-year-old Pfc. Brandon Scott Rosecrans as the victim in their murder investigation and also the owner of an orange 2016 Jeep Renegade that was found along with the deceased.

The vehicle was on fire when it was first reported to police, officers said, and it was later confirmed to belong to Rosecrans. The cause of the fire is still under investigation by the Harker Heights fire marshal, police said.
read it here

Marine veteran with PTSD pushed in front of Chicago Red Line moving train!

Man pushed in front of El train, killed was Marine who served in Afghanistan

WGN9 News
by: Tonya Francisco
Posted: Apr 8, 2020

Al Balde calls that good news, but says he can’t help but struggle with encouraging his son to join the military, saying he came back with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after his second tour in 2015.

CHICAGO — Family members say a former Marine who served two tours in Afghanistan was killed in a Chicago subway tunnel Tuesday after he was pushed onto the tracks and struck by a Red Line train.

Al Balde and his daughter came to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office Wednesday to identify the body of 27-year-old Mamadou Balde, who was killed Tuesday.
read it here

Was WWI veteran Josef Prusek's death suicide or murder?

Suicide or murder? Death of Iowa veteran in Montana in 1921 raised questions

The Gazette
December 31, 2019

“A wound made by a large caliber bullet extended clear through the skull, there were no powder marks and the coroner expressed the opinion that it would have been impossible to have held a heavy revolver far enough away from his head to have left no powder burns. The bruised condition of the man’s knuckles indicated he had been in a fight,” The Gazette reported.

This April 11, 1921, Gazette story was headlined, “Evidence points to murder of Prusek.” One of Joe Prusek’s brothers went to Montana, attempting, without success, to get more details about his brother’s untimely death. (Gazette archives)

Josef Prusek had lived in Cedar Rapids since 1890. He built a two-story family home at 1601 N St. SW, where he died April 24, 1915.

At the time, his daughters Mary, Lillian and Harriet and son Milo lived in Cedar Rapids, but his son Joseph Jr., or “Joe,” had moved to Montana in 1914.

Joe staked a claim near Briley in south-central Montana near Big Timber.

He joined the Army’s 88th Division in 1917 during World War I and went to France. He was assigned to the 77th Division, where he was part of the Lost Battalion that was surrounded by German troops in the Argonne Forest.

The battalion was rescued Oct. 7, 1918, after enduring more than four days without food or water. Attempts to get water to the soldiers were met with sniper fire, so the troops subsisted on leaves. At one point, they were targets of friendly fire until a message delivered by homing pigeon alerted the Allies they were firing on their own.

Having survived that horrendous ordeal, Joe was discharged and returned to his Montana home. That’s where he was when, at age 32, he died from a gunshot wound to his head.

His body was found April 5, 1921, outside his Montana cabin.
read it here

Sailor committed suicide after shooting civilian employees at Pearl Harbor

update Navy Commander: Motive Unknown for Pearl Harbor Shooting

Authorities say 22-year-old Gabriel Romero killed Roldan Agustin, 49, and Vincent Kapoi Jr., 30, and wounded Roger Nakamine, 36, who survived the Dec. 4 shooting. Romero's job was to stand watch and provide security for the fast attack submarine USS Columbia.

Suspect identified in shooting at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard

ABC News
By
Luis Martinez
Justin Doom
and
Mark Osborne
December 5, 2019

The shipyard commander, Capt. Greg Burton, said in a statement, "No words will convey the full measure of sorrow from today’s tragedy. This loss will be felt throughout our shipyard ‘Ohana, greater shipyard and NAVSEA family, submarine force, and the Navy as a whole."

A 22-year-old active-duty sailor opened fire on three civilian employees, killing two, before he fatally shot himself at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard near Honolulu on Wednesday, officials said.

The suspected shooter was identified as 22-year-old G. Romero. He opened fire on shipyard personnel with his M4 service rifle and then used his M9 service pistol to shoot himself, officials said.
read it here

Body of missing veteran found in ditch

Body of missing Marine veteran found in ditch in New Mexico, suspect in custody

By: The Associated Press
August 20,2019

Authorities say a body found south of Belen, New Mexico, has been identified as a Marine veteran missing since July and a suspect in his murder case is in custody.

Valencia County, New Mexico, Sheriff’s officials says detectives located a body in a ditch Friday night.

On Saturday, the Office of the Medical Investigator positively identified the body as that of 32-year-old Matthew Gurule, who was last seen on July 27 at the Isleta Resort and Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Sheriff's officials won't say what led them to the body or how Gurule died.

Belen police say 37-year-old Francisco Gomez of Los Lunas, New Mexico, was arrested Aug. 10 for allegedly using Gurule’s credit card.
read it here

Man charged after disabled Vietnam veteran's body found

New details emerge after homeless man allegedly kills Vietnam Veteran

WEAR ABC 13 News
by Amy Russo
August 15th 2019

ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. (WEAR) — New details are being released after a homeless man was charged with homicide.

The arrest report from the Escambia County Sheriff's Office says on Wednesday morning deputies were called out to a death investigation on Beverly Parkway.

Upon arrival, Jason Woodell told deputies he was working on a house at the 100 block of Beverly Parkway when Henry Vasquez told him there was a body under a white sheet at a property nearby, the report says.

Vasquez told deputies he was picking up trash when he noticed what appeared to be a human body under a sheet covered in blood, the report reveals.

It adds the body had been wrapped in a white sheet, blue furniture moving quilt, and dumped in a gravel parking lot.

The report says the victim is a disabled Vietnam Veteran. He was described as a man who could "barely get around without a cane."
read it here

Vietnam veteran confronted memories of 1st Sgt. Charles Sellers at the Wall

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Moving Wall more than names

The Chronicle-Telegram
Bruce Walton 
July 16, 2019

Gannett spent the last few hours looking over the wall to find several names, including the name of 1st Sgt. Charles Sellers, Gannett’s sergeant, who died in Vietnam. The worst part, he said, was that he died at the hands of his own soldiers. It was through his work at the wall he said, that he even remembered his name Monday.

WELLINGTON — A small but dedicated group assembled for the closing ceremony of the Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall on Monday afternoon.

Although attendance was less than for the opening ceremony Thursday, the respect was just as overwhelming.

The Amherst Veterans Military Honor Guard led the presentation of colors, followed by the last reading of the 98 Lorain County Vietnam veterans who died in the war. Brant Smith, Wellington Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6941 quartermaster and one of the main organizers of the event, gave the last words before the closing prayer.

“I truly love all of our Vietnam veterans, these men are my heroes, these men are the reason that myself and so many other young men of my generation have served our country because of these men and women that paved the way for us,” he said.
read it here

This is from the Virtual Wall

Teenager charged with murder of 70 year old Vietnam veteran

Teen arrested for murder of 70-year-old Vietnam veteran

FOX 2 News
Jun 30 2019

(FOX 2) - The teen who was charged with shooting and killing an elderly man after his granddaughter snuck him into her house has been arrested.

David Kentrell Williams was arraigned June 27. He's been charged with one count of 2nd Degree murder and the one count of a felony weapon possession.

According to police, the 17-year-old came over to the victim's house after his girlfriend snuck him inside. That's when Williams got in an argument with Jamie Mintz, a 70-year-old Vietnam veteran. Mintz asked Williams to leave.

Detroit police said the two fought over a gun, and Mintz wound being shot and killed. Police said Williams then left the home with the gun.
read it here

Arrest made after murder of Air National Guard female soldier and children

Arrested boyfriend of slain Staten Island servicewoman had violent past

New York Post
By Tina Moore, Anabel Sosa and Max Jaeger
June 23, 2019

A Staten Island military man was arrested and charged Sunday in the murder of his Air National Guard girlfriend and their two young sons, police announced.

The scene of the alleged murder (left) and Alla Ausheva Richard Harbus; CNP

The arrest came as new details emerged about accused killer Shane Walker’s violent past — and his Russian-born girlfriend’s tragic story of achieving her American dream only for her life to be cut short at 37.

Cops charged Walker, 36, with murder, manslaughter, arson and criminal possession of a weapon for killing US Air National Guard Airman 1st Class Alla Ausheva along with the couple’s sons Ivan, 2, and Elia, 3.

Ausheva was found bludgeoned to death in her home Saturday near the bodies of their children, who appear to have been drowned.
read more here

Who killed Army veteran Everett Palmer Jr.

Family claims US Army vet was murdered in police custody

New York Post
By Tamar Lapin
June 12, 2019

They claim that when his body was returned to them, his throat, heart and brain were missing.

The family of a US Army veteran who died last year in Pennsylvania police custody are claiming he was murdered, according to published reports.

The last time relatives of Queens-born Everett Palmer Jr., 41, heard from him was in April 2018, when he said he was going to Pennsylvania to resolve an outstanding DUI warrant from two years earlier, the family said.

Palmer, a dad of two who lived in Delaware, was booked into a single cell at the York County Prison on April 7, 2018.

Two days later, he was dead.

“The most frustrating part is my son being murdered and not having any answers to how he was murdered,” Rose Palmer, Everett’s mother, said during a Tuesday press conference, according to CBS News.

“Since April 9, I have not had a good night sleep since I think about my child and the possible scenarios. It is torture. He didn’t deserve this,” she said. “He went there to check on his license and he never made it out.”
read more here

Army veteran-mailman killed helping protect woman

Mailman fatally shot by teen was father of four, Army veteran

KOAT
Kay Dimanche
Reporter
Jozelyn Escobedo
Digital Editor
April 23, 2019

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

A U.S. Postal Service mailman was gunned down Monday afternoon and police believe a 17-year-old boy is the one who shot him. According to an arrest warrant, 47-year-old Jose Hernandez was trying to intervene in a fight between the teen and the teen’s mother at the time of the shooting.

Hernandez's Bishop tells KOAT he was an Army veteran, husband and father of four.

The shooting happened in the 700 block of Terracotta SW, which is near Tower Road and 98th Street.

Xavier Zamora's mother told police Hernandez was trying to help her, but Zamora became "aggressive" with the mailman because he tried using Mace on the teen.
read more here

Video of Afghanistan veteran being stabbed to death regarded as "trophy"

Fugitive captured in fatal stabbing of Cherry Hill war veteran

Philly.com
by Robert Moran
April 23, 2019

A 26-year-old man wanted in the fatal stabbing in Chinatown of a 28-year-old Afghanistan War veteran from Cherry Hill was captured by authorities Tuesday morning in Southwest Philadelphia.

Victor Yan has been accused of killing Brett Berdini, who was attacked by a group in the 1000 block of Race Street shortly before 2 a.m. last Oct. 14.

The attack, including the stabbing, was recorded on a camera phone by one of the assailants and shared among the attackers and others for their amusement, said Anthony Voci Jr., chief of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office homicide unit.

“We have a generation that is apparently obsessed with recording just about everything, and that includes violent crimes,” Voci said.

Voci said the defendants regarded the video as a “trophy.”
read more here

Spc. Kamisha Block's family did not settle for what military told them

Army reopens case of 2007 murder-suicide that was originally called 'friendly fire'

STARS AND STRIPES
By ROSE L. THAYER
Published: April 19, 2019

AUSTIN, Texas – One gunshot wound to the chest from friendly fire — that’s the story Spc. Kamisha Block’s family was told about her death in Iraq.

Spc. Kamisha Block was buried in her hometown of Vidor, Texas. Twelve years after she was murdered by a fellow soldier at Camp Liberty, Iraq, the Army has reopened the investigation into her death. Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes

Her family had no reason not believe the two soldiers who arrived at their home in Vidor, Texas in August 2007 to break the bad news to them.

But when Block’s body arrived at their local funeral home with five gunshot wounds, including one in the head, her family started asking questions.

“It’s just lie after lie after lie after lie!” Shonta Block

Shonta Block said family members have questioned the Army about her sister, waiting six months to get the report on her Aug. 16, 2007 noncombat death. The family learned while she was deployed at Camp Liberty, Iraq, the 20-year-old soldier was shot to death by her 30-year-old boyfriend, Staff Sgt. Paul Brandon Norris, who then turned his weapon on himself.

In August, Shonta Block, who works with a remodeling company, said they finally got a glimmer of hope when a phone call from the Inspector General of the Army Criminal Investigation Command informed her that the investigation into her sister’s death was reopened.

“I was on a job painting a door,” Shonta Block said about the call. “I said, ‘Oh my God, thank you.’ I couldn’t stop saying it. I just kept saying thank you.”
read more here

Marine faces charges of killing another Marine

Marine shot and killed at Beaufort air station, another Marine in custody

Marine Corps Times
By: Shawn Snow
April 13, 2019

A Marine was shot and killed aboard the Beaufort, South Carolina, Marine air station at 9:30 p.m. Friday, according to Marine officials.

Another Marine is a suspect in the shooting and currently is in custody, according to Lt. Kevin Buss, a spokesman with the Beaufort air station.

The Marine killed in the deadly shooting belonged to Marine Aircraft Group 31, or MAG-31.

The incident is under investigation and the Corps provided no other details.

MAG-31 and the Beaufort air station are also home to Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, an F-35B training squadron.
get updates here

Vietnam Veteran gunned down in his home

Family: Vietnam Vet Shot to Death by 16-Year-Old Boy His Granddaughter Snuck into Detroit Home

FOX 35
April 8, 2019

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A 70-year-old man was killed in an altercation overnight at a home in Detroit.

A family member tells us the man's granddaughter lives with him, and that she snuck a boy into the house. The boy and the grandfather got into an argument and we're told the boy shot and killed the man.

This happened at a home in the 9900 block of Mansfield, which is on the city's west side near Greenfield and W Chicago. We're told the argument happened after the grandfather had asked the boy to leave.

Detroit police tell us the suspect, a 16-year-old, left the home with the gun.
read more here

Unsolved Mysteries "Gabby's Bones" given proper military funeral in Wyoming

Murdered WWII vet's body found in Wyoming, given military funeral

KGWN News
April 3, 2019

The story also got national attention on the former NBC-TV true crime series "Unsolved Mysteries" during a February 1993 episode, featuring "Gabby's Bones."

Wyoming Army National Guard Military Funeral Honors team members conduct a flag ceremony for Technician 5 Joseph Mulvaney, who received long-overdue honors March 29, 2019 at a memorial service in Cody, Wyoming.

Mulvaney, an Illinois Army National Guard member when he deployed to the Pacific Theater for World War II, was murdered in Iowa in 1963. His remains were discovered in Thermopolis, Wyoming in 1992. It was not until 2017 that he was identified, through DNA testing, as the grandfather of Waukee, Iowa resident Shelley Statler. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jimmy McGuire)

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (WYANG) - The Wyoming Army National Guard Military Funeral Honors team conducted full military rites, which included a 21-gun salute, during a long-overdue memorial service in Cody, Wyoming, for Joseph Junior Mulvaney.

Mulvaney was an Illinois Army National Guard Technician 5 when he deployed to the Pacific Theater during World War II. His story has been an interesting one, and some key players in discovering it were in attendance at the March 29 service including a granddaughter and her family, homicide investigators and a DNA analyst.

The rest of the story, gleaned from various sources, follows.

In 1987 a man named John David Morris, also known as Gabby, left an old military padlocked footlocker in a shed at Newell Sessions' Thermopolis, Wyoming property. Morris said he would return for it when he settled down.

About five years later and still no sign of Morris, curiosity got to Sessions. He cut through the padlock with a torch and opened the trunk. In it, he found a human skeleton, wrapped in a piece of plastic, a belt and a rotting grocery bag.
read more here

He planned to propose, but had to plan funeral instead

Fatal shooting began with an accidental bump in city club, victim's boyfriend says

New Hampshire Union Leader
By TODD FEATHERS
Mar 5, 2019

MANCHESTER — Tanya Hall and Jeremy Winslow were having a “picture perfect” night Saturday.

Jeremy Winslow, right, planned to propose to Tanya Hall on a trip to Barbados in four weeks. Hall was fatally shot outside a Manchester bar on Saturday.

He picked her up at her home in Hudson, right on time at 6 p.m., but she joked that he was late. He noticed that she hadn’t put her lipstick on yet and she explained that she had waited so she could kiss him without smearing it, Winslow said.

They laughed through dinner and martinis, then decided to go dancing at Club Manchvegas.

From the lobby of the courthouse, Winslow said the trouble began when he accidentally bumped into another man in the club’s bathroom.

Winslow said the man he bumped into was wearing a jacket identifying him as a member of the biker organization BRO and demanded that Winslow say ‘Excuse me.’

Winslow left the bathroom and returned to dance with Hall, but he noticed several other men wearing BRO jackets, and as he grabbed his coat to leave the club, one of them again told Winslow to say ‘Excuse me.’ Winslow said that man was Moura.

Three of the men wearing BRO jackets followed Winslow and Hall outside the club and to their car, Winslow said.

“As soon as the car door shut, someone had punched her side of the window. It didn’t break, but someone punched my side as well, who I identified as Justin Moura,” he said. He quickly pulled out of the parking lot and onto Old Granite Street. “As I passed these two guys who were standing right there on the corner, I heard my back window break and I thought to myself it was a rock.”

Hall told him “They hit me,” Winslow said, but he didn’t understand what she meant at first. She laid her head on his shoulder and they kept talking as he drove to a nearby police station. But Hall began to go limp, and when Winslow lifted her head up she slumped forward and he saw the bullet hole in her back.
read more here

Alabama Disabled Veteran's Body Found in Trash Bags

update ‘He was thrown on the side of the road like garbage’: Clues sought in murder of veteran

Disabled Alabama veteran's body found in trash bags

by WPMI Web Staff
February 12th 2019

LIPSCOMB, Ala. (WPMI) — Authorities now saying the body found wrapped in trash bags in Lipscomb, Alabama last week was a disabled veteran.

According to our sister station in Birmingham the body of Fredrick O'Neal Harris was found 30 miles away from his home in Centerpoint.

A Fed-ex driver found his body wrapped in garbage bags taped together near train tracks in Lipscomb.
read more here

Newlywed Marine Bride Dead, Husband Charged

A WOMAN FOUND DEAD IN VIRGINIA AND THE MAN CHARGED WITH HER MURDER ARE BOTH U.S. MARINES

News week

BY JAMES LAPORTA

11/7/18

U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Natasha Rivera, 20, poses for a photograph in August 2017. Her husband, U.S. Marine Corporal Rodolfo Rivera, 24, has been charged with murder in connection with her death on November 3. FACEBOOK

A woman found dead in a Virginia hotel room on Saturday and the man arrested in connection with her murder are both U.S. Marines, Newsweek has learned.

Marine Corporal Rodolfo Rivera, 24, is being held without bond at the Arlington County Jail in Virginia, following a domestic-related homicide investigation at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Washington, D.C.

At roughly 9:40 a.m. on November 3, police responded to the hotel after a report of a possible death, according to a press release from Arlington County Police. Officers found the body of Marine Lance Corporal Natasha Rivera, 20, whose maiden name was Natasha Soto.

Local news outlets in Virginia and The Washington Post reported on the murder but did not say that the alleged suspect and victim were U.S. Marines. Both Task and Purpose and Newsweek confirmed their active-duty status on Wednesday.

Two U.S. Marines familiar with the incident, who asked for anonymity due to Pentagon restrictions told Newsweek that the two Marines were married and that on November 2, Rodolfo, who was alleged to be heavily intoxicated at the time, strangled his wife after the couple had returned to their hotel room.
read more here

Innocent Georgia man released after murder conviction

Man charged with killing girlfriend released from jail when police find new suspect by chance

WSBTV.com
By: Rikki Klaus
Oct 18, 2018

CLARKSON, Ga. - A Georgia man accused of murdering his girlfriend two years ago is now out of jail after a shell casing led police to a very different suspect.

Kendra Roberts was found shot to death on the side of the road in Macon, Georgia, in 2016. Authorities thought her boyfriend did it but discovered that shell casings found near the crime scene matched a gun belonging to the suspect in another crime.

Daniel Hall, then 22, was arrested in the 2016 shooting death of Kendra Roberts, 27, in Bibb County. Police say Roberts was found shot to death on the side of the road near Macon.

Hall spent two years in jail accused of Roberts’ murder.

A man arrested in Clarkson days after the killing has now been charged with her murder.

According to federal documents, Bell has been treated by Veteran's Affairs and has a history of PTSD and homicidal and suicidal thoughts. He was charged with firing a gun in Pine Lake in 2015 and for shoplifting this year.
read more here