A Fort Lewis soldier has been charged with murder in the September shooting death of his platoon sergeant in Iraq, officials said Tuesday.
Cpl. Timothy Ayers, 21, is accused of killing Sgt. 1st Class David A. Cooper Jr., a 36-year-old tanker and longtime Fort Lewis soldier who died Sept. 5 in Baghdad.
A Fort Lewis spokesman said Cooper’s death was the result of “a suspected negligent discharge.” At the time it was announced, the Department of Defense said Cooper died of a noncombat injury that was under investigation.
Post spokesman Joseph Piek said Ayers is charged under Article 118, subsection 3 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which defines a killing as murder when an accused person “is engaged in an act that is inherently dangerous to another and evinces a wanton disregard for human life.”
Piek said Army prosecutors do not believe the killing was premeditated or that Ayers intended to kill Cooper.
The charge says Ayers shot the platoon sergeant with a pistol at Forward Operating Base Falcon in Baghdad.
Army authorities released no other information about the circumstances of the shooting.
“Anything about the incident is still part of the ongoing investigation of the case and we can’t provide any details,” Piek said.
The two men were tankers in the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division that deployed to Iraq last April.
The battalion has since moved from Baghdad to the Baqouba area in Diyala province and is scheduled to return home next summer.
Ayers was sent home to Fort Lewis in early October and is working in his unit’s rear detachment. Piek said his commanders do not consider him a flight risk and have not placed him in pre-trial confinement.
The charge was filed Nov. 8. The case was not disclosed until The News Tribune inquired about the investigation Tuesday.
An Article 32 hearing – a pre-trial hearing to determine whether there’s evidence to support the charges and a court-martial – is scheduled for Feb. 5, 2008, at Fort Lewis, Piek said.
Ayers is originally from Long Beach, Calif., and joined the Army after graduating from high school in 2004. He was trained as an armor crewman and arrived at Fort Lewis in March 2005, Piek said. This was his first deployment.
Cooper, a native of State College, Pa., served four years in the Army Reserve and then 15 in the active-duty Army, starting out in supply and then moving into armor.
He was stationed at Fort Lewis for 10 years in various units and was among the first tankers to receive the Stryker Mobile Gun System, a variant of the wheeled armored vehicle that features a 105mm cannon.
Cooper was assigned to train soldiers in the use of the MGS when it arrived at Fort Lewis in the summer of 2006.
He is survived by his wife, Michelle, and twin 16-year-old sons from a previous marriage.
Shortly after her husband’s death, Michelle Cooper told The News Tribune that he was “a true leader of men and was deeply respected by his men and his peers. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body.”
She had been preparing to see him in six weeks when he was scheduled to come home on leave.
Cooper was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Michael Gilbert: 253-597-8921
mike.gilbert@thenewstribune.com
blogs.thenewstribune.com/military
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