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http://www.bellinghamherald.com/256/story/383593.html
"I don't know," Ayers replied when the judge, Col. John Head, asked why he fired. "I guess I felt so comfortable pulling the trigger when it wasn't loaded before, that I just did it."
NEWS UPDATE Apr, 17, 2008
MILITARY
Fort Lewis soldier sentenced for shooting sergeant
Guilty plea leaves unanswered questions
UPDATED AT 8:08 A.M.
TACOMA -- It wasn't the first time he'd pointed his pistol at a fellow soldier, Cpl. Timothy Ayers told the judge at his court martial Wednesday. But this time, he said, he pulled the trigger, and this time, the gun was loaded.
The Fort Lewis soldier was sentenced to 28 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of his platoon sergeant at their forward operating base in Baghdad.
Army prosecutors originally charged Ayers, 21, with murder in the killing of Sgt. 1st Class David Cooper, Jr., last Sept. 5 at FOB Falcon.
But they accepted the soldier's guilty plea to the reduced charge in exchange for his agreement to serve whichever was less: six years in prison, or a term that a judge would hand down after a sentencing hearing.
The maximum penalty for the crime under military law is 10 years in prison.
Wednesday's hearing at Fort Lewis stretched from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Ayers could offer little explanation when the judge asked why he pointed his loaded pistol at Cooper – a man he said he looked up to as a mentor and second father – and fired. They were just inches from each other in their tent.
"I don't know," Ayers replied when the judge, Col. John Head, asked why he fired. "I guess I felt so comfortable pulling the trigger when it wasn't loaded before, that I just did it."
But later he made a tearful apology to Cooper's family and friends.
"They surely do not deserve this heartbreak and loss ... that I have brought upon them," he said. "... I can only hope that those who loved Sgt. 1st Class Cooper will find a small amount of forgiveness, forgiveness that I cannot have for myself."
Cooper, 36, was a 16-year Army veteran. In Iraq with the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, he was responsible for the performance and well-being of a dozen or so men in his Stryker Mobile Gun System platoon.
In deciding the sentence, Head may have taken into consideration Ayers' claim that Cooper also carried his pistol loaded on the base, in violation of regulations, and Ayers' belief that he was acting under Cooper's guidance that it was acceptable conduct.
Army prosecutors did not dispute the claim.
Fellow soldiers and family members said Cooper was a beloved friend and leader. Before deploying to Iraq in April 2007 with the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, he’d been assigned to train soldiers on the new Stryker gun truck – the eight-wheeled armored vehicle with a 105mm cannon.
"He was in the top 10 percent of the armor community, easily," said his friend, Staff Sgt. David Heard, testifying by telephone from Baqouba, Iraq. "He loved being in the hatch. He loved tanking.
"He made you laugh, could turn anything around and made you see the bright side,” Heard said. "It's not here now. It's been a long year for us, we really could use his laughter now."
Cooper's parents, David and Wanda Cooper of Jersey Shore, Pa., said their son wanted to be a soldier from the time he was a little boy. He enlisted in high school, and spent 10 years stationed at Fort Lewis.
He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Also testifying Wednesday were his wife, Michelle, of Puyallup, his brother, Sgt. 1st Class Michael Cooper, stationed in Germany, his ex-wife Tracy Cornwell and their 16-year-old twin sons, Drake and Gage.
The boys said although their parents divorced when they were very young, their father maintained a strong relationship with them by phone and e-mail and in occasional visits back home to Pennsylvania.
They would talk like best friends all the time, about sports, movies, video games, girls, the future.
Like other family members who testified Wednesday, they said they couldn't believe the news that their father had been killed – that it had to be some kind of mistake.
"It never crossed my mind that he wasn’t coming back," Gage Cooper said. "He was one of my best friends, and now I don’t have that any more."
The family appeared to be bitterly disappointed and dismayed at the announcement of the sentence, and left the courtroom afterward to speak with Army prosecutors.
Cooper’s family said Ayers' negligence had cost them dearly.
"I won't be able to live knowing there's no justice," Wanda Cooper said. "It was no excuse."
Ayers told the judge the men in his platoon had spent the afternoon cleaning their weapons and were getting ready to go to dinner when Cooper walked up to him in their tent.
He said he pointed his 9mm pistol at Cooper's chest, from about an inch away. Cooper made no reaction. Ayers moved the weapon toward Cooper's shoulder, and while looking at other soldiers across the tent, pulled the trigger.
Ayers' wife, Jennifer, of Federal Way, said her husband loved Cooper "and looked up to him like he was a father."
His mother, Taralee Ayers, agreed.
"He lost a part of his soul," she said, fighting back tears as she looked at her son across the courtroom. "Nobody could punish him worse than he's going to punish himself. He will never forgive himself."
Michael Gilbert is a reporter for The News Tribune in Tacoma
That, coupled with a range story about how he and other persons would fire one round out of the pistol and then try to shoot the ejected case while it was still in the air made me less than eager to be anywhere around him.
