http://origin.presstelegram.com/ci_7938584For five months last year, Long Beach resident Leon Ayers was among the tens of thousands of American fathers wishing for the safe return of their sons from the war in Iraq. In September, Ayers got his wish - but it wasn't the homecoming he had imagined.
Timothy Ayers, then 20, was sent back to the United States after accidentally shooting and killing his Army platoon sergeant while stationed outside Baghdad Sept. 5. The Army since has accused the young soldier of negligently discharging his weapon under Article 118 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He now is awaiting a trial by court-martial in Fort Lewis, Wash. "It's a terrible thing," Leon Ayers, a longshoreman, said this week. "But it's an accident ... a hideous accident."
According to Army officials at Fort Lewis, Cpl. Timothy Ayers fired his 9 mm pistol at Sgt. First Class David Cooper Jr. while the two were stationed at a base in southern Iraq. Both men had been assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment - one of the Army's seven Stryker Brigades. The 4,000-member brigade was deployed to Iraq last April for a 15-month tour of duty.
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Ayers, now 21, is due in court Feb. 5 for a pretrial hearing, where the panel is expected to decide whether enough evidence exists to move forward with a criminal trial. In the meantime, he is out of custody and working in his unit's rear detachment. He said he has been supported by some of his fellow soldiers and snubbed by others. "I walk around with people looking at me like I have `Murder' written on my head," he said. "I'm getting judged 24/7."
Leon said this week that his son had suffered terribly since the shooting. He said he believed his son had simply been caught up in the "John Wayne" atmosphere of the barracks that day. "There's no hostility, no animosity between these two," Leon said. "These two were friends." ..(more@link)
http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/military/2008/01/11/title_460 Reached at Fort Lewis on Thursday, Timothy Ayers said he was deeply remorseful for what had happened. He said Cooper was his friend, mentor and role model and that the two shared a sense of humor and a mutual admiration.
"I feel worse than I ever have," said Ayers, the youngest of three brothers. "I was raised not to show much emotion, but I'm shattered by this." The incident, he said, occurred on a day when his unit was set to move to another post in northern Iraq.
Ayers recalled that the soldiers were cleaning their weapons when Cooper approached him and told him to hurry up so they could head to "chow." Ayers said he began joking around with Cooper, engaging in their usual sarcastic banter. "I happened to pull (the gun) out," he said. "I pointed it at him to show him it was clean." Ayers said he immediately pulled the trigger in jest - not remembering that he had reloaded the magazine just moments before. "For some strange reason," he said, "it slipped my head."
Ayers said everyone froze. Paramedics rushed to Cooper's side, saw a hole in Cooper's arm and determined that the wound was not life-threatening. What they couldn't see, however, was that the bullet had travelled through Cooper's arm and into his torso. It had pierced his lung, Ayers said, and become lodged in his collar bone. Cooper died of his injuries on the way to the nearest hospital.
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