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Marines: Sniper thought he shot insurgents

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A Marine sniper believed he was shooting at insurgents planting a roadside bomb when he killed two Syrian truckers in Iraq last year, platoon members testified in military court Tuesday.

Sgt. John Winnick II, a team leader on his fourth Iraq deployment when the shooting happened last June, is charged with voluntary manslaughter and failing to adhere to the military’s rules of engagement by firing without reasonable certainty that his targets were hostile.

Winnick, 24, also faces charges of aggravated assault involving two other men wounded when the Marine team fired on the occupants of a soda delivery truck that had stopped on a well-trafficked highway in Iraq’s western Anbar province.

Cpl. Alexander Wazenkewitz, who was manning radio communications that day, testified that the delivery truck had stopped at the same place where two unidentified men were seen apparently scoping out the area days before.

Winnick fired at a man who hopped out of the cab, took a container from a trailer compartment and began crawling on the ground, Wazenkewitz testified. Then all six Marines on Winnick’s team stormed out of a building, some shooting at the truck passengers with shotguns.

Wazenkewitz said he believed the possibility of a threat justified the use of force. “I don’t want to die. That’s why we did it,” he said.

Lt. Dominic Corabi, the platoon commander, testified he had given Winnick and his team conflicting advice about the rules governing sniper attacks after soliciting opinions from at least two superior officers who disagreed with one another. He said other war-related investigations made the Marines wary of being punished for actions they deemed legitimate.

“The general consensus was, if you take a shot, there will be a big investigation, and their main message was, ‘I don’t want to ruin my life or career by taking a shot the Marine Corps disagrees with,” Corabi said.

Corabi testified under cross-examination that investigators did not examine the truck but said investigators later told him the victims were not building a roadside bomb. The truck, which was not secured by U.S. military investigators, disappeared after the attack and was not recovered, he said.

Syrian truck drivers like the two dead men, Raid Ahmed and Rayson Muhammad, commonly use the route where the shooting took place when making deliveries, Corabi said.

Winnick, who is from San Diego, answered only procedural questions during the first day of his Article 32 hearing. At the conclusion of the hearing, Marine investigating officer Capt. Jeffrey King will recommend whether there is enough evidence to proceed to court-martial.

The charges carry a maximum 40-year sentence and a dishonorable discharge if he is tried and convicted. Several other men on the team were reprimanded after the shootings, prosecutors said.