Staff Sgt. Robert Bales named as suspect in Afghan massacre
Pentagon officials had previously offered only a few details of the suspect’s life: a 38-year-old married father of two, a 10-year Army veteran who served three tours in Iraq, who deployed to Afghanistan in December with the Army’s 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.
Records also list a Doral address for him, 9600 NW 25th St., Ste. 5E, from September 2000 to March 2001. The office building, called the Overseas Tower, is a six-story, modern, beige building with about 25 or so tenants listed on a directory. The tenant listed in 5E is now BP Media and Partners
In the complex portrait that emerged from public records and Internet postings Friday following the release of his name, Bales was angry about being passed over for a military promotion, and as a civilian had brushes with the law and spent time in anger management. He pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge in 2002 and was cited for a misdemeanor hit-and-run incident in 2008, for which he paid a $250 fine and received a deferred 12-month sentence.
He also was portrayed, on his wife Karilyn’s blog, as a caring father who was on military duty when his first child, a daughter, was born in December 2006. He was apparently eager to know the baby’s gender before birth, and teased his wife about withholding phone calls from abroad unless she told him.
“Bob on the other hand cannot stand to wait for anything,” Karilyn wrote on her blog in May 2006. “Patience is not one of his virtues, especially when it comes to surprises. He simply cannot wait for the surprise to come.”
In March 2011, Bales wrote that her husband Bob didn’t get a promotion to “E7,” which in the Army is the rank of sergeant 1st class. “It is very disappointed (sic) after all of the work Bob has done and all the sacrifices he has made for his love of his country, family and friends. I am sad and disappointed too, but I am also relieved, we can finally move on to the next phase of our lives.”
The family was getting ready to move that summer 2011 and hoped that the Army would allow them some say over where they went. The couple was hoping to be stationed in Germany, Italy, Hawaii or Kentucky to “be near Bob’s family” or Georgia “to be a sniper teacher,” she wrote.
Records in Pierce County, Wash., show that Bales and his wife Karilyn listed their home in the Lake Tapps area for sale four days ago, on March 12. Bales was believed to be headed Friday to the maximum-security prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., a frequent destination for suspects in high-profile military cases. Pentagon officials wouldn’t confirm the site, citing security concerns in a high-profile case. The suspect’s identity was first reported by CNN.
The dearth of information provided by the U.S. military since the massacre in the southern province of Kandahar took place last Sunday has fed the fears and theories of Afghans, with Afghan President Hamid Karzai accusing the United States on Friday of withholding details and refusing to cooperate with Afghan investigators.
Records state that Bales was spotted on Oct. 11, 2008, running from an accident scene shortly after midnight on the Sumner-Tapps Highway. It was a single-car rollover accident, records state. No other drivers were involved.
Witnesses reported seeing “a white male wearing military-style uniform, shaved head and bleeding,” fleeing on foot and running into nearby woods. A police officer spoke to Bales, the owner of the car, who said he had fallen asleep behind the wheel.
Bales last Iraq deployment was Aug. 9, 2009, according to a statement on his wife’s blog. In a 2009 article on the Army website that was erased online — but still available in a cached Google version — a Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is quoted describing the Battle of Zarqa, a January 2007 operation to recover a downed Apache helicopter south of the city of Najaf.
Bales, identified in the article as a team leader in C Company’s 1st Squad, describes a battle remembered both for its humanitarian component as well as its military execution.
