Fort Drum Shooting Left Wife and State Police Officer Dead

UPDATE WZZM News
Friends recall West Michigan ties of soldier accused of double murder

Multiple friends and acquaintances tell WZZM 13 that Walters was expelled from West Ottawa Middle School after he made a bomb threat against the school and apparently had a "hit list" of people at the school. This would have been in the late 1990s. 

"They searched his locker and they found a hit list with a list of people to kill," says one person who did not want to be identified.

UPDATE
Suspect in Trooper's killing served 2 12-month deployments in Afghanistan
Posted: Jul 10, 2017
FORT DRUM, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) - A Fort Drum soldier accused of killing his wife and also a State Trooper on Sunday night served two year-long deployments in Afghanistan, the base said on Monday.

A native of Zeeland, Mich., 32-year-old Justin Walters is listed as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army.

Walters has been stationed at Fort Drum for 10 years.

An infantryman, he served in Afghanistan from January 2009 to January 2010 and from March 2011 to March 2012.
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The Latest: Police: Combat Veteran Killed Wife, NY Trooper

Authorities say an Afghanistan combat veteran fatally shot his wife in the driveway of their northern New York home then gunned down a state trooper who had responded to reports of gunfire at the couple's rural property.

July 10, 2017, at 2:14 p.m.

THERESA, N.Y. (AP) — The Latest on the death of a New York State Police trooper (all times local): 2:10 p.m. 

Authorities say an Afghanistan combat veteran fatally shot his wife in the driveway of their northern New York home, and then gunned down a state trooper who had responded to reports of gunfire at the couple's rural property. 

State Police Superintendent George P. Beach II says Monday that 32-year-old Army Staff Sgt. Justin Walters shot his 27-year-old wife, Nichole, on Sunday night outside their home in the town of Theresa. 

Beach says 36-year-old Trooper Joel Davis was shot once in the torso after getting out of his cruiser about 75 feet from the home near Fort Drum. Another trooper arriving on the scene found Davis in a roadside ditch. Davis died about an hour later at a hospital. 

Walters was charged with first-degree murder in Davis' slaying and second-degree murder in his wife's killing.
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More details on fatal shooting of NYS Trooper

By BETH ADAMS & ASSOCIATED PRESS • 2 HOURS AGO

A friend of a young mother slain along with a state trooper in northern New York says she was devoted to her son and always willing to help people. 

Jerry Mikels says he was shocked when he heard Army Staff Sgt. Justin Walters was charged in the shooting death Sunday night of his 27-year-old wife Nichole and New York State Trooper Joel Davis. Mikels said he didn't think Justin Walters would be capable of killing his wife. 

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Funeral For Heroic Vietnam Veteran Otha Orr

Funeral for murdered Vietnam veteran held Saturday
WXIA
Tim Darnell
July 8, 2017

ACWORTH, Ga – The funeral for a Vietnam veteran who was shot and killed last week was held Saturday.

Otha Orr, 73, was murdered on Thursday while helping his niece move away from a man that her family called an abusive ex-boyfriend.

On Thursday, Orr and his younger brother arrived at an apartment on Peeples Street in Atlanta to help their niece move out of an apartment she shared with her ex-boyfriend, 57-year-old Donald Ray Woods.

The family said the three were confronted by Woods when they tried to enter the apartment. According to an arrest warrant, the niece told police he "quickly ran inside and emerged with a weapon."

That's when witnesses said Woods pistol-whipped her uncle. That uncle told police he saw Woods take the safety off of the gun and fire one shot. He said Orr came over to help get the gun away from Woods.
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New Army Second LT Murdered in Maryland

Death of graduating college student killed at U of Maryland investigated as hate crime
ABC 7 WJLA
by Ryan Hughes, John Gonzalez and Anna-Lysa Gayle
Sunday, May 21st 2017

Collins’ pastor Darryl Godlock says not only was he days away from graduation, but he was recently commissioned into the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (ABC7) — Bowie State University’s vice president for student affairs, Dr. Artie Lee Travis, expressed outrage Sunday night.

“Hate has no place in America. Hate has no place on a college campus,” said Travis. “We have no doubt that Sean Urbanski, with a knife, stabbed Richard W. Collins III,” said UMPD Chief David Mitchell. “He said to the victim ‘step left if you know what’s good for you’.”

Officials are now investigating Collins’ murder as a possible hate crime.

The FBI was brought in to assist with the investigation after detectives learned that Urbanski is a member of a racist Facebook group page.
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Belize Police Arrest Two Connected to DeVoursney-Matus Murder

MURDER IN BELIZE: Victim's mom says 2 detained
WSB News
by: Matt Johnson
Updated: May 4, 2017

BELIZE - Police in Belize have detained two people in connection with the murder of an Atlanta man and his Canadian girlfriend, the victim’s mother tells Channel 2's Matt Johnson.

Drew DeVoursney's mother says she received an email telling her about the new developments around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

His mother says the news is a positive step although it's unclear why her son was murdered.
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CRIME
American Killed in Belize with Girlfriend Left College to Enlist in Marines After 9/11: Mom
PEOPLE
BY ADAM CARLSON
POSTED ON MAY 4, 2017

In tears, Char told the Toronto Star on Tuesday that she had long feared the news that Drew was dead.

“But that was when he was in Iraq and Afghanistan,” she said. “Now he’s coming home in a way I’ve always dreaded.”

Drew DeVoursney was in his last year at Montreat College in North Carolina, on an academic and soccer scholarship, when the twin towers fell in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Feeling compelled to serve, he dropped out of Montreat and enlisted in the Marines, ultimately serving two tours in Afghanistan before returning for two more years as a contractor, his mom, Char DeVoursney, told PEOPLE.

“That says something about him,” she said of her son, a 6-foot-6-inch 36-year-old she always called her “adventure boy.”

“He wasn’t going to stay still somewhere. … He just kept pursuing the next thing he wanted to do, and he was really good at it.”

Drew’s post-military life took him across the country and outside of it, Char said. He worked stints in Charleston, South Carolina, and on solar panel farms in California — with a period in between learning how to work on oil rigs in Texas — before heading to Belize in December. He had had purchased four acres of land in the Central American country about four years ago and he planned to teach diving.

He lived in Belize’s Corozal District, bordering the southeastern tip of Mexico, Char said.

And that’s where he vanished, until nearly a week later, on Monday afternoon, when his dead body was reportedly found in a local village along with the body of his 52-year-old girlfriend, Francesca Matus.

Police said they were both strangled, according to multiple news outlets.

“You can imagine me worrying about him doing the military thing,” Char told PEOPLE of her son’s disappearance and death. “This was much more worrisome, going through this process of not knowing.”
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Fort Hood Sued For Deadly Result of Domestic Violence

Army Sued for Deadly Rampage at Fort Hood
Courthouse News
RYAN KOCIAN
February 24, 2017

KILLEEN, Texas (CN) — Surviving family members of a 2015 shooting rampage outside Fort Hood say the Army failed to protect a battered spouse and her neighbors from her abusive husband, who should not have been able to obtain the gun he used in the murders.

Karin Kristensen, Michael Farina and Christina Guzman sued the United States in Federal Court on behalf of the estates of Dawn Larson Giffa, Lydia Farina and Steven Guzman, and their six surviving minor children.

In February 2015, Spc. (Specialist) Atase Giffa was living off-base with his wife, Dawn Giffa, and her son K.L. in Killeen. Dawn and K.L. were Canadian citizens and lawful U.S. residents. Giffa was about to be transferred to Georgia, but Dawn wanted to stay in Killeen to finish nursing school.

“Spc. Giffa took this news poorly,” the lawsuit says. On Feb. 9 Giffa took Dawn’s and K.L.’s passports and identification cards, plus Dawn’s credit cards and money. In a subsequent argument, neighbors saw him slam Dawn against their truck and hold her down by the wrists. The neighbors noticed red marks on Dawn where Giffa had grabbed her, thrown her, and restrained her, according to the complaint.
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Fort Campbell soldier died protecting his fiancee's best friend

Fort Campbell soldier died protecting his fiancee's best friend
Army Times
By: Meghann Myers
February 8, 2017

When news broke that two soldiers had been killed in an off-post home near Fort Campbell, Kentucky, early reports left out the third adult in the house that night.

Spc. Priscilla East was killed Feb. 2 by her estranged husband in an off-post home near Fort Campbelly, Kentucky

(Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle)

Spc. Dominique House had invited her best friend and fellow 101st Airborne Division soldier Spc. Priscilla East over for dinner with her and her fiancee after East called and said she didn't feel safe going home after an argument with her estranged husband.

But East's husband, Jeremy Demar, showed up at House's residence, House told Army Times in a Tuesday phone interview. Demar is accused of shooting his way into the home and killing House's fiancee, Spc. Christopher Hoch, 28, and East, 32.

"It's been a lot survivor's guilt, I guess you could say," she said. "And then reading articles -- I don't know why the police didn't mention my name."

"It feels impossible to live life without them right now," she added.
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Domestic Violence: Two Fort Campbell Soldiers Killed

2 Fort Campbell Soldiers Killed, Suspect in Custody
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OAK GROVE, Ky.
Feb 3, 2017

Fort Campbell said in a statement Friday night that East and Hoch were both specialists and that Hoch was posthumously promoted to the rank of sergeant.

East, of Missouri City, Texas, was a health care specialist who joined the Army in 2011 and began serving at Fort Campbell in 2014.

Hoch, of Ferndale, Michigan, was an infantryman who joined the Army in 2013 and arrived at Fort Campbell later that year.

A domestic dispute near Fort Campbell has left two soldiers dead and a juvenile wounded, authorities said Friday.

Jeremy Demar, 35, of Clarksville, Tennessee, forced his way into a house in Oak Grove, Kentucky, where he had tracked down his estranged wife, 32-year-old Priscilla Ann East, on Thursday night and fatally shot her and 28-year-old Christopher Ryan Hoch, Kentucky State Police said in a statement. East and Hoch were soldiers at the Army post on the Kentucky-Tennessee line, the statement said.

Demar was charged Friday with murder, murder-domestic violence, burglary and assault. He is being held at the Montgomery County Jail. Records don't indicate whether he has an attorney.
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Man arrested in cousin's slaying in Tampa

Man arrested in cousin's slaying is Army vet, may have PTSD, family reported
Tampa Bay Times
Anastasia Dawson Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 25, 2017

TAMPA — Darrell Leon Gadson's mother was concerned about her grown son's "erratic" behavior Monday morning, a detective reported.

The 38-year-old had recently moved back to her country ranch home in Thonotosassa and was going through a divorce. Family members feared the Army veteran could be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

So Marilyn Gadson, a registered nurse, asked her son's brother and cousin to visit the house at 9862 Timmons Road and talk to him.

They had just arrived and were sitting in the living room when Darrell Gadson came out of his bedroom with a gun, approached his 23-year-old cousin sitting on the couch and fired a fatal shot through his head, according to a report from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
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Remains Identified of Missing Fort Campbell Soldier

TBI: Remains identified as missing Fort Campbell soldier 
Beaver 1003 FM by Nick Fox
Posted on January 25, 2017 

ROBERTSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) – The skeletal remains found Monday in Robertson County have been positively identified as Pfc. Shadow McClaine.

The Fort Campbell soldier went missing on Sept. 2, 2016 and was never seen or heard from again. read more here

Orlando Police Increase Reward to $100,000 For Loyd's Capture

Hundreds searching for suspect in Orlando officer's death; reward raised to $100,000
WESH 2 News
Updated: 3:08 PM EST Jan 10, 2017

ORLANDO, Fla.
Authorities have increased the reward to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of a suspect in the slaying of an Orlando police sergeant.

Orlando police Master Sgt. Debra Clayton, 42, was shot by Markeith Loyd, 41, after she spotted him outside the Walmart on Princeton Street around 7:15 a.m. Monday, police Chief John Mina said.

Loyd has managed to elude authorities since the shooting, despite hundreds of Central Florida law enforcement agents joining the search.

After shooting Clayton, authorities said Loyd fled toward the Pine Hills neighborhood, where he fired shots at a deputy’s cruiser and carjacked a vehicle.

Orange County Sheriff's Deputy Norman Lewis, an 11-year veteran, was killed in a crash as authorities gave pursuit.
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Two Fort Campbell Soldiers Charged With Criminal Homicide

Fort Campbell Soldiers Arrested Christmas Eve, Charged in Slaying
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
By ROB CANNING
DEC 27, 2016

Two Fort Campbell soldiers have been charged with criminal homicide.

Friday, at approximately 1:06 am, Clarksville Police Officers responded to a man covered in blood on the ground at an apartment complex on Royster Lane. Upon arrival, officers discovered 25-year-old Joseph Gordon deceased in the parking lot.
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Two Fort Campbell Soldiers Charged with Murder of Female Soldier

Two Soldiers Charged with Murder in Connection with Disappearance of Fellow Soldier Shadow McClaine
NBC News
by RACHAEL TROST
November 29, 2016

Shadow Branice McClaine U.S. Army

Criminal Investigation Command

Two soldiers have been charged with murder in connection with the September disappearance of Fort Campbell soldier Shadow McClaine.

Sgt. Jamal Williams-McCray and Specialist Charles Robinson, both part of the 101st Airborne Division, face charges of conspiracy, kidnapping and premeditated murder under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to NBC affiliate WSMV.

Williams-McCray is Shadow's ex-husband. It's unclear if Robinson knew Shadow.

The two soldiers are being held in pre-trial confinement pending a preliminary hearing, the station reported. Authorities have not commented on whether Shadow's body has been found.
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Five Dead After Gunman Opens Fire At Mall

Washington shooting gunman hunted by police after deadly mall rampage
CBS News
September 24, 2016

BURLINGTON, Wash. -- Police searched Saturday for a gunman authorities said opened fire in the makeup department of a Macy’s store at a mall north of Seattle, killing five people before fleeing toward an interstate on foot.

An image capture from surveillance video shows the gunman in a deadly mall shooting in Burlington, Washington, on Sept. 23, 2016. WASHINGTON STATE PATROL

People fled, customers hid in dressing rooms and employees locked the doors of nearby stores after gunshots rang out just after 7 p.m. Friday at the Cascade Mall. A helicopter, search teams and K-9 units scoured the area for a rifle-carrying man.

“We are still actively looking for the shooter,” Washington State Patrol spokesman Sgt. Mark Francis said at a news conference. “Stay indoors, stay secure.”

Francis said police were seeking a Hispanic man wearing black and armed with a “hunting-type” rifle last seen walking toward Interstate 5.
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North Carolina Iraq Veteran and Children Murdered

Family: Murdered mom was Iraq War Vet
WITN News
By Dave Jordan
August 17, 2016

Family members of the Greenville mom found murdered Tuesday say she was an Iraq War Veteran.

Garlette Howard and her children Mayana, Brianna and Ayanna were discovered in their West Pointe Townhome by Greenville police who went there for a welfare check.

Dibon Toone, father of at least two of the children, is charged with Howard's murder and police say charges in the other deaths are forthcoming.
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Man Charged With Homicide of PTSD Veteran Also Abandoned Service Dog

Montana man charged in homicide case involving missing veteran
The Great Falls Tribune
By: Andrea Fisher
August 17, 2016

The report says Craft also admitted to pawning the rifle he used, selling Petzack’s truck and abandoning the veteran’s service dog somewhere on the way to Valier.

A Great Falls, Montana, man has been charged with deliberate homicide in connection to a veteran reported missing earlier this year.

A $1 million arrest warrant was issued for Brandon Lee Craft on Wednesday morning. He is accused of killing 28-year-old Adam Petzack, who was reported missing by his mother.

Police say Craft is currently in custody in Washington state.

Court documents say Petzack was a veteran on full disability because of a traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder.

According to court records, detectives with the Great Falls Police Department were investigating Craft for suspicious financial activity involving Petzack’s VA benefits. Documents indicate Petzack lived in a rental unit on Craft’s property in Great Falls.
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Iraq Veteran Murdered in Phoenix Remembered

Family, friends release balloons for Marine veteran murdered in Phoenix park
AZ Family
Derek Staahl
August 10, 2016

PHOENIX (KPHO/KTVK)
Family and friends returned to the west Phoenix park where a Marine veteran who was murdered to share memories and release balloons Tuesday in his honor.

Dozens came out to remember the life of Dustin Shirk. (Source: KPHO/KTVK)

The ceremony was held on what would have been Dustin Shirk’s 31st birthday. The Iraq war veteran was killed July 26 in Cielito Park while jogging after his late-night shift at UPS, according to his mother. Police have not identified a suspect.

Many of the people who gathered Tuesday were Shirk's co-workers at UPS, where he worked before and after his military service.

"He was kind of, I guess my inspiration," said Mitchell MacKenzie, a UPS employee who worked in the finance department with Shirk. "He kind of helped me move along to join the Navy."
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Two Soldiers Shot To Death Trying To Help Stranger

Two South Carolina Soldiers Killed Defending Woman at Bar, Suspect Charged 
NBC News 
by CORKY SIEMASZKO 
JUL 26 2016 

The military was mourning two soldiers Tuesday who were fatally shot while trying to protect a woman from a gun-toting man in a South Carolina bar. 

Staff Sgt. Charles Allen Judge Jr., 40, and Sgt. First Class Jonathan Michael Prins, 29, "were acting as good Samaritans when they were shot," said Capt. Adam Myrick of the Lexington County Sheriff's Department. 
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Afghanistan Veteran Shot, Killed Then Robbed in San Antonio

Man killed in South Bexar County was veteran, father
KSAT ABC 12 News
By Courtney Friedman - VJ, Reporter
July 07, 2016

"Just the idea that it could be somebody who was staying with him, that he tried to help, that they would turn around and do this to him, whether it be for money or for any other reason," she said, crying.

Days after Macias’s death, Pereyra said someone broke into her son's house and stole everything.

SAN ANTONIO - Mark Anthony Macias Jr., 25, was found dead Friday on the side of a rural road in South Bexar County after being shot several times.

Macias’s mother opened up about her son and what she thinks may have led to his death.

As soon as Macias was old enough, he joined the Army. He went straight from boot camp to Afghanistan.

"He was in combat, where he lost half of the battalion there. He couldn't understand why his friends didn't make it, and he did," said Elizabeth Pereyra, Macias’s mother.

Pereyra said her son came back home with post traumatic stress disorder.

"It was very difficult when he came back, definitely. The army changed him. He came back with some struggles,” she said. “He was overcoming them. He was doing great. He had enrolled in Brown Mackie College. He was trying to make himself better.”

Pereyra said what deployment never changed about her son was his compassion.
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Iraq Veteran Killed in North Carolina

Mother says man shot to death was 31-year-old Iraq war vet
WBTV 3 News
By WBTV Web Staff
Wednesday, July 6th 2016

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV)
A man was shot and killed at a home in Charlotte's Wesley Heights community early Wednesday morning.

Javarius Roberts, 31 (Photo provided to WBTV by a friend)

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say officers were called by a neighbor who heard commotion in an adjacent apartment on Grandin Road. When officers got to the scene at 3:18 a.m. they found 31-year-old Javaris Roberts shot. Medic pronounced the him dead on scene.

Roberts' mother identified her son on scene to WBTV, police confirmed his name around 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. She said her son is a disabled veteran who fought in Iraq.

"He graduated high school and went to college and decided after one year he wanted to join the military," said Roberts' mother.

She says he was stationed at Fort Bragg before being sent overseas to Iraq.

His mother was very emotional since the family had just been together over the 4th of July weekend.
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OEF OIF Veteran Survived Combat, Killed in Hometown

Purple Heart veteran survives two tours in Middle East, murdered in hometown
WTVM News 9
Lauren Bale Reporter
Friday, June 24th 2016

A man served two tours in the Middle East only to be shot and killed back in his hometown. (Source: Family)

DECATUR, AL (WAFF)
A man served two tours in the Middle East only to be shot and killed back in his hometown.

Friday family members remembered Josh McLemore, a decorated war veteran killed after a dispute in Decatur.

Police arrested Scott Dutton and charged him with murder. Investigators said Dutton punched McLemore in the face and fired one round at the victim's feet before firing a fatal shot into his abdomen.

Josh was a decorated war veteran. He served a tour in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"They hit an IED in Iraq,” his mother Janice McLemore said. “And he had some shrapnel go through his head."

Despite his injuries, Josh pulled his fellow soldiers to safety.
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