Misplaced Grenade Results In Double Murder

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Officials: Soldier used M4 to gun down peers - Navy News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Navy Times


FORT STEWART, Ga. — A 1 a.m. counseling session at a small outpost in Iraq took a fatal turn Sept. 14, Army officials say, when the soldier being counseled opened fire with his M4 on a fellow team leader and their squad leader.

Both the team leader and squad leader died that night despite efforts to save them.

The incident took place at a joint security station in Jurf as Sakhr, a town about 15 miles southwest of Baghdad on the Euphrates River, where soldiers with A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, were on duty.

The two soldiers killed were identified as Staff Sgt. Darris J. Dawson, 24, of Pensacola, Fla., a squad leader, and Sgt. Wesley R. Durbin, 26, of Hurst, Texas, a fellow team leader.