Dayton Paper: Soldier Who Killed Handcuffed Iraqi Is Freed

An American soldier convicted in the fatal shooting of a handcuffed Iraqi cow herder in 2004 was freed from a military prison in Oklahoma on Friday, more than a year before his sentence was up, the Dayton Daily News reported today.

Army Spec. Edward Richmond Jr., 22, of Gonzales, La., was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced in August 2004 to three years in prison for the April 28, 2004, shooting death of Muhamad Husain Kadir in the village of Taal Al Jal, which is about 40 miles southwest of Kirkuk.

Richmond was released on parole, his attorney said Friday.

"He told me this morning it feels good to be free," said Richmond's father, Edward Richmond Sr.

The shooting was one of two of Iraqi civilians during a 10-day period by members of the same Hawaii-based platoon, the HHC 1/27th Mortar platoon.

Richmond Jr. said that he shot Kadir because he thought he lunged at the soldier who was holding him, Sgt. Jeffrey D. Waruch of Olean, N.Y., and that he wasn't aware Kadir's hands were bound.

Waruch was accused in the other shooting, in which a 13-year-old girl was killed and her mother and sister wounded. Waruch was discharged without being accused of a crime. Army officials determined it was unlikely they would find sufficient evidence against him.

Both shootings were examined by the Dayton Daily News late last year in a special report.

The Ohio newspaper reported then that dozens of soldiers were accused of crimes against Iraqis since the first troops deployed for Iraq, but despite strong evidence and convictions in some cases, only a small percentage resulted in punishments.

"As with the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman and the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians by Marines in Haditha, the military did not immediately conduct a criminal investigation into the shooting of the three women by Waruch. The Army Criminal Investigation Command did not begin a formal investigation until more than a year after the Feb. 18, 2004, shootings, after official requests for records from both the Dayton Daily News and Richmond's father.

"The Daily News reported that in the months leading to Waruch's deployment in Iraq, two women alleging domestic abuse obtained temporary restraining orders against him — each order requiring him to surrender his firearms to police.

"During an interview, Waruch's supervisor, Staff Sgt. Marcus Warner of New Iberia, La., called him 'a cancer to my soldiers,' and he unsuccessfully tried to prevent him from going to Iraq."