Soldiers help reviewed after Ala. shootings - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Soldiers help reviewed after Ala. shootings

The deployment of 22 active-duty military police and the provost marshal from Fort Rucker, Ala., to the scene of a civilian killing spree 25 miles from post may have violated federal law.

But the deployment may also have been within the legal parameters of how the military is permitted to assist civilian authorities in cases of emergencies.

That’s what an ongoing Army investigation hopes to unravel.

Ten people died in the March 10 rampage in southeastern Alabama by a man police identified as Michael McClendon, 28, of Kinston, Ala., where the first killing took place around 3:30 p.m. The shooter took his own life less than an hour later after an exchange of gunfire with police.

Geneva County Sheriff Greg Ward at first did not respond to an offer of help from an unidentified lieutenant colonel at Fort Rucker who said he could provide generators, lights and other equipment. But with seven separate crime scenes spanning a 20-mile area and a 12-man force that was exhausted and overwhelmed, he called back later and requested the MPs.

“The lieutenant colonel called our [911] dispatch to say ‘we’re here if you need us,’” Ward told Army Times in a phone interview. “I thought, let me call them back. So I asked for MPs to come in and relieve our personnel long enough so they could get something to eat,” Ward said, explaining that most of his men and about 10 police officers from Samson and Kinston had been on the job since 7 a.m.

The soldiers, he said, were in Samson for about three hours and were assigned to direct traffic flow at five intersections. Some helped keep sightseers away from the worst crime scene, where six of the victims’ bodies lay on a porch, including an 18-month-old baby.

What Ward didn’t want, he said, was for anyone to sneak up and get a picture of the bodies, and the soldiers watching the crime scene were instructed to inform the police if that was in danger of happening.

The purpose in sending the military police, the authority for doing so, and what duties they performed are the subject of an inquiry ordered by Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of Training and Doctrine Command, which includes Fort Rucker.

“In addition to determining the facts, this inquiry will also consider whether law, regulation and policy were followed. Until those facts are determined, it would be inappropriate to speculate or comment further,” Dempsey stated in a news release March 18.

Limits on military role

The deployment of nonmedical, active-duty troops in response to a local emergency could be a violation of federal law if the soldiers engaged in law enforcement activities.

The Posse Comitatus Act, and its many exceptions, mostly restricts the military and units of the National Guard under Title 10 authority from acting in a law enforcement role within the U.S.

In general, the military can provide support to civil authorities in emergencies ranging from a fire to a major disaster such as Hurricane Katrina. The Defense Department has developed elaborate procedures and criteria for making those decisions, as contained in directive 3025.15.

Ward said the county has a historical community relationship with Fort Rucker. “There is a mutual aid agreement, a protocol that you go by, but I haven’t read it,” he said.

Ward praised the MPs.

“That lieutenant colonel was not out of place. He called to say ‘we’re here if you need us,’ ” Ward said.