[Vision2020] Sergeant said kill me as leaders lay dying

[bear at moscow.com]

Tom,

A sad situation all the way around.


> --===============1577827183==
> 
> Courtesy of the April 27, 2009 edition of the Army Times.
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Sergeant Joseph Bozicevich
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/Bozicevich
> 
> -------------------------
> 
> Sgt. said ‘kill me’ as leaders lay dying
> By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
>    
> FORT STEWART, Ga. — “Just f------ kill me! Just f------ kill me!”
> 
> Sgt. Joseph C. Bozicevich was yelling as he lay facedown on the ground, 
> restrained by at least two other soldiers at Patrol Base Jurf at Sahkr, 
> Iraq.
> 
> Nearby, the two soldiers Bozicevich is accused of shooting lay bleeding as 
> medics and fellow soldiers worked furiously to save them.
> 
> Staff Sgt. Darris J. Dawson, a 24-year-old squad leader from Pensacola, 
> Fla., and Sgt. Wesley R. Durbin, who, like Bozicevich, was a team leader, 
> later died from their wounds. Durbin, 26, was from Hurst, Texas.
> 
> Bozicevich, 39, of Minneapolis, faces two counts of premeditated murder.
> 
> It was Sept. 14, 2008, at a small, company-sized patrol base inhabited by 
> soldiers from A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade 
> Combat Team, and 3rd Infantry Division.
> 
> On Monday, details of the incident were discussed publicly for the first 
> time as the Article 32 for Bozicevich began in the courthouse on post.
> 
> Several soldiers from the company testified for the prosecution Monday 
> that the shootings, which took place between 1 and 2 a.m. Sept. 14, came 
> after Dawson and Durbin planned to counsel Bozicevich for losing a 40mm 
> grenade for his M-203 grenade launcher, being disrespectful toward his 
> squad leader Dawson, and for leaving behind one of his soldiers during a 
> foot patrol.
> 
> Earlier in the day, after the soldiers, who belonged to the company’s 2nd 
> Platoon, arrived at the patrol base from Forward Operating Base 
> Iskandiriyah, several soldiers testified that they heard a commotion about 
> Bozicevich losing a 40mm grenade.
> 
> According to testimony, Bozicevich had said one of his soldiers took the 
> grenade; others thought he lost the sensitive item.
> 
> Staff Sgt. Michael Muci testified that later in the day he heard an 
> argument between Dawson and Bozicevich.
> 
> First Lt. Ryan Daly, the platoon leader, testified that the last straw was 
> when the soldiers went on a foot patrol and Bozicevich, who was supposed 
> to lead the patrol, got lost and later failed to round up his soldier, 
> Spc. David Basch.
> 
> “At the end, leaving a soldier behind, that was kind of it,” Daly 
> testified.
> 
> Basch testified that the patrol stopped at the Iraqi police station across 
> the street from the patrol base. When they arrived, Basch said Bozicevich 
> told him to pull security at the back of the building. He later realized, 
> when he saw helmeted heads walking out of the police station gates, that 
> the patrol was leaving.
> 
> “I heard Sergeant Dawson say, ‘Who is that? Who left their soldier 
> behind?’” Basch said, adding that he ran to catch up with the group.
> 
> When the soldiers returned to the patrol base after 11 p.m. Sept. 13, 
> Dawson met with Daly and 1st Sgt. Xaver Perdue, who at the time was the 
> platoon sergeant.
> 
> The three decided to counsel Bozicevich, put him on duty at the Joint 
> Security Station on the patrol base and place him on Durbin’s team.
> 
> Daly said Dawson appeared to be “fired up” and ready to counsel Bozicevich.
> 
> After 1 a.m., Spc. Michael McDaniel testified that he woke up to use the 
> bathroom when he heard what sounded like someone kicking a trash can. When 
> he realized it was gunfire, McDaniel said he woke up the other soldiers in 
> his squad and ran out toward the front gate.
> 
> “I saw Sergeant Dawson laying on the ground, I thought it was an Iraqi,” 
> McDaniel testified.
> 
> He kept running toward the gate, where he saw “someone in ACUs” and 
> realized it was Bozicevich. Another soldier was already restraining him.
> 
> “I heard Boz yelling ‘Just kill me, just kill me,’” he testified.
> 
> By this time, other soldiers had arrived at the scene and were trying to 
> help Dawson, McDaniel said.
> 
> “He was flinching from the pain,” he said. “He was moaning and yelling in 
> pain.”
> 
> Saleem Faisal Abdul-Hadi, an Iraqi soldier stationed at the JSS, testified 
> through an interpreter that he was on duty with Bozicevich at the JSS 
> before he left around 1 a.m. to wake up his replacement. During the three 
> hours the two were on duty together, Abdul-Hadi testified that Bozicevich 
> seemed tired and angry, and at one point he pounded the table with his 
> fist.
> 
> When Abdul-Hadi left to get his replacement, he heard 10 to 12 shots and 
> stepped outside his living area to see what was happening, he testified.
> 
> He said he saw somebody running and screaming from the area of the JSS, 
> and another person chasing him and shooting at him.
> 
> The soldiers’ interpreter, Hiader Hamze Muter, said he saw the two men 
> running and realized that the shooter was Bozicevich.
> 
> The man in the front fell and the shooter stood over him and shot him 
> again, Abdul-Hadi said.
> 
> That’s when two soldiers came up, with their weapons drawn, screaming at 
> the shooter to put down his weapon, he said. The shooter dropped his 
> weapon, raised his hands over his head and the soldiers pushed him to the 
> ground.
> 
> Haitham Abass Zekair, another Iraqi soldier, testified that he saw the two 
> figures running from his position in one of the guard towers to the patrol 
> base.
> 
> He also testified that the shooter fired his weapon four or five times 
> after the man he was chasing was on the ground, and the shooter was 
> apprehended shortly afterward.
> 
> “Everybody was there and everybody was screaming,” he said.
> 
> Muter later identified the soldier on the ground as Dawson. However he 
> said he did not hear Bozicevich fire any shots after Dawson fell down.
> 
> Sgt. Darren Brown said the soldiers initially thought their patrol base 
> was being attacked and it wasn’t long before he heard screams for a medic. 
> When he got to the scene, Brown said he saw Bozicevich on the ground and 
> another sergeant sitting on top of him to hold him down.
> 
> Brown said he went to help subdue Bozicevich, putting zip cuffs on his 
> legs and tightening the one around his wrists. Brown said the other 
> sergeant continued to straddle Brown, who is about 6-feet-2-inches, while 
> he put one knee on Bozicevich’s upper back and the other knee on the back 
> of his neck.
> 
> “People were walking up and yelling questions to Boz,” Brown said. “‘Why 
> did you do it, Boz?’ The accused smiled and said, ‘You know why.’”
> 
> Four or five times, Bozicevich said, “My career is over with,” Brown 
> testified.
> 
> About 10 feet away, medics continued to work on Dawson, Brown said.
> 
> Staff Sgt. Anthony Matekovich, the sergeant of the guard at the patrol 
> base, said he heard Dawson speak.
> 
> “Sergeant Dawson was saying, ‘Why? Why? Why did you do that?’” Matekovich 
> testified.
> 
> “I saw Sergeant Dawson bleeding to death,” Basch testified.
> 
> In the midst of the commotion, the interpreter, Muter, ran up to the group 
> and told them another soldier was wounded and he was in the Joint Security 
> Station.
> 
> Daly, Perdue, Matekovich and a couple other soldiers ran to the JSS, where 
> they found Durbin slumped in the corner of the front room.
> 
> Durbin was curled up, almost in a fetal position “like he was trying to 
> protect himself,” Perdue said.
> 
> Matekovich said Durbin was lying in a “big puddle” of blood and there was 
> battery acid from one of the Iraqi radios all over the floor.
> 
> “He was on the floor and non-responsive,” Daly said. “He lost an 
> incredible amount of blood. He was in very bad shape so we were very 
> scared.”
> 
> Matekovich said Durbin had a gunshot wound to his lower left chest and 
> appeared to be bleeding from the artery on the right side of his neck. The 
> soldiers felt a faint pulse in Durbin and gave him CPR, put an IV into his 
> chest and put gauze and applied pressure to his neck, Matekovich said. 
> They also tried putting a tube down his throat to help him breathe, but 
> they couldn’t properly insert the tube, he said.
> 
> Outside the JSS, Dawson appeared to be responding to the medics and seemed 
> to be in good shape, Matekovich said.
> 
> By this time, Perdue back outside with Bozicevich, who was still being 
> restrained by his fellow soldiers.
> 
> “This guy just killed two of my soldiers,” Perdue testified. “I snapped.”
> 
> Bozicevich was yelling “kill me,” so Perdue said he put his weapon to 
> Bozicevich’s head and said, “I’m going to give you exactly what you want.” 
> Bozicevich went silent, Perdue said.
> 
> Perdue broke down in tears on the witness stand as he described how one of 
> his soldiers pushed the muzzle away from Bozicevich’s head and asked 
> Perdue to think about his wife and children before he pulled the trigger.
> 
> “In my eyes, once he killed Sergeant Dawson and Sergeant Durbin, he became 
> the enemy,” Perdue said when questioned by defense attorney Charles 
> Gittins. “[Bozicevich] knew martial arts, he’s a bigger guy, he was still 
> fighting. I didn’t think he was going to stop, so I was going to stop him.”
> 
> Perdue said he decided to give his weapon to Matekovich and asked soldiers 
> from 3rd Platoon to guard Bozicevich.
> 
> “I knew if I was that emotional, the rest of the platoon, once they knew 
> what had happened, they were going to kill him,” Perdue said about 
> Bozicevich.
> 
> Meanwhile, the soldiers were unable to get a medevac helicopter to the 
> patrol base because of bad weather and poor visibility, so they loaded 
> Dawson and Durbin into MRAP vehicles and drove them to FOB Iskandiriyah, 
> about 30 minutes away, according to testimony.
> 
> Durbin died shortly after the shooting, and Dawson died after he was taken 
> from FOB Iskandiriyah to the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad’s 
> Green Zone.
> 
> The soldiers put Bozicevich in a makeshift holding area they had built 
> using concertina wire, where he stayed until a scout platoon arrived from 
> FOB Iskandiriyah to take him away.
> 
> Bozicevich has been in confinement since the incident.
> 
> At the hearing, Daly described his platoon’s reaction to the shootings.
> 
> “We thought someone tried to rush the gate,” he said, “but it was one of 
> our own guys.”
> 
> The Article 32 resumes at 8 a.m. Tuesday. After the Article 32, Hargis 
> will submit his recommendations to Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo, commanding 
> general of 3rd Infantry Division and the convening authority for the 
> proceedings, who will decide if Bozicevich will face a court-martial.
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
> 
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>  
> "Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the 
> tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime." 
>  
> -- Adlai E. Stevenson,
> Jr.
> 
> ---------------------------------------------
> This message was sent by First Step Internet.
>            http://www.fsr.com/
> 
> 
> 
> --===============1577827183==
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> Content-Disposition: inline
> 
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet, 
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
>                http://www.fsr.net                       
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
> --===============1577827183==--
> 





---------------------------------------------
This message was sent by First Step Internet.
           http://www.fsr.com/