FORT STEWART, GEORGIA — An Army sergeant charged with attempted murder in Five people were shot At the Georgia base last summer, he faces arraignment Friday before a military judge.
Sgt. Cornelius Radford, 28, is scheduled to appear in a courtroom at Fort Stewart a week after military prosecutors took his case to trial. General military courtwhich deals with cases involving the most serious crimes under military law.
Officials say Radford opened fire with a personal handgun on August 6 at members of his supply unit at Fort Stewart in southeastern Georgia, wounding four soldiers and a civilian worker who was Radford’s romantic partner, before his fellow soldiers could. Disarm and restrain On him until the military police arrive. The army initially said that all five victims were soldiers.
A week after the shooting, Army prosecutors said Radford charged With six counts of attempted murder and assault, the sixth victim was someone he shot and missed. They also accused him of domestic violence. Michelle McCaskill, a spokeswoman for the Army Attorney General’s Office, told The Associated Press that charge was added because the injured civilian worker was Radford’s “intimate partner.”
The Army did not release the names of the victims and Fort Stewart officials declined to comment on the cause of the shooting.
Under military law, attempted murder carries a potential life sentence.
Since the shooting, Radford has been held in pretrial detention at a naval base in Charleston, South Carolina. His military lawyer, Lt. Col. Dylan Mack, said last week that his office does not comment on pending cases.
Fort Stewart, the largest Army post east of the Mississippi River, is home to thousands of soldiers assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division. It is located about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Savannah.
Radford was serving as a supply sergeant in the division’s 2nd Armored Brigade. Army records show he enlisted in 2018.
Soldiers in the Radford unit said they tracked the sound of gunfire into the hallways of an office building, where they found hazy smoke from weapons in the air and wounded people on the ground and in nearby offices.
Dean. Gen. John Lobas, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, credited soldiers with saving lives by immediately providing first aid and, in some cases, using their bare hands to stop bleeding gunshot wounds.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll visited Fort Stewart the day after the shooting to award Meritorious Service Medals to six soldiers who helped restrain the gunman and treat the victims.