An Army sergeant was sentenced to life in a military prison on Tuesday after he was convicted of attempted murder in the shooting of five people at a base in Georgia last year.
The soldier, Sgt. Quornelius S. Radford, from Jacksonville, Fla., was given six life sentences with the possibility of parole by a military judge, the Army said in a statement. He will also forfeit all pay and allowances, be demoted in rank to private and be dishonorably discharged, the Army said.
After an argument with his then-fiancé, Sergeant Radford, 29, drove to his unit at Fort Stewart with a loaded gun on Aug. 6, according to the statement. Fearing that Sergeant Radford was suicidal, his fiancé, Raekwon Smith, followed him to the installation, about 40 miles southwest of Savannah, and caught up to him in a parking lot.
Witnesses in the trial testified that Sergeant Radford, wearing a black hoodie and camouflage pants, shot Mr. Smith and then entered the building where the sergeant worked as an automated logistics sergeant, according to television station WSAV. Sergeant Radford shot four soldiers and shot at a fifth before he was subdued by members of a unit in the building, the Army said. All five who were shot survived.
Military lawyers for Sergeant Radford, who in March pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault and domestic violence, said he did not intend to kill any of the people he shot at — and that he had wanted the police to kill him, according to the WSAV report.
The sergeant’s father, Eddie Radford, told The New York Times last year that his son did not have a history of serious mental health issues, though he sometimes dealt with depression tied to the death of his mother, which happened when he was a child.
Sergeant Radford had joined the military because several of his uncles were veterans, his father said.
Shortly after the shooting, Army officials said that Sergeant Radford, who had not served overseas, had no known history of disciplinary issues in the military. He will serve his sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
At the time of the shooting, officials at the base had sought to find out how Sergeant Radford had concealed the weapon that was used in the shooting. Firearms have been strictly regulated at Fort Stewart and on other bases.
But in April, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, citing the shootings at Fort Stewart, authorized off-duty service members to carry private firearms on military installations. The reason, he said, was so that service members could better protect themselves. Incidents like the one at Fort Stewart “have made clear that some threats are closer to home than we would like,” he said.
Eduardo Medina and Chris Cameron contributed reporting.
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