The U.S. soldier accused of slaughtering 16 Afghan civilians admitted in the aftermath that he killed some men — but didn’t mention murdering women and children. Click below to read the rest of the story.
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales “indicated to his buddies that he had taken out some military-aged males,†a senior U.S. official told the Los Angeles Times.
It was only after Army base commanders discovered the charred corpses in an Afghan village that they arrested the 38-year-old veteran.
At that point, the paper reported Wednesday, Bales clammed up.
His lawyer, who said Bales could be hit with formal homicide charges as early as Thursday, insists the soldier has barely any memory of the March 11 massacre.
John Henry Browne told CBS News that he won’t mount an insanity defense but will argue that Bales suffered from “diminished capacity†due to an emotional breakdown.
He said Bales was shaken after one of his buddies had a leg blown off and that relations between U.S. soldiers and the Afghans in the area were tense.
But Bales’ statements immediately after the bloodbath could be used by Army prosecutors to argue that he knew what he was doing when he unleashed hell on an Afghan village.
They contend Bales had been drinking before he grabbed his guns and went on a shooting spree, moving from house to house and killing people as they slept.
Early reports described Bales as a patriotic, married family man with two young kids who served three tours in Iraq before he was deployed to Afghanistan.
They said Bales was upset over being passed over for promotion and having financial difficulties.
His wife later issued a statement stating Bales’ alleged actions were at odds with the man she knew.
Since then, a fuller and more disturbing portrait has emerged of the accused soldier.
Bales has been described as a “smooth talker†who defrauded an elderly Ohio couple out of their $852,000 nest egg when he was stockbroker — then fell of their radar by enlisting shortly after the 9/11 attacks.
Bales, who is being held at Fort Leavenworth, has also faced charges of assaulting a former girlfriend and being involved in a hit-and-run accident.
