The Globe and Mail March 14, 2007
Dead soldier's family bemoans severity of charges against 'amigo'
Experts say rifle's safety could have been switched off accidentally
By Alex Dobrota
OTTAWA -- The safety on the rifle that killed Master Corporal Jeffrey Walsh could have been flicked off accidentally when the gun rubbed against a piece of equipment, military experts said yesterday.
Those comments came as Mr. Walsh's relatives decried the charges of manslaughter and negligence brought against MCpl. Robbie Fraser as exceedingly harsh. In a tearful phone call Monday, Mr. Walsh's wife, Julie Mason, consoled Mr. Fraser.
The two men were sitting side by side in the backseat of a G-wagon on a bumpy Afghanistan road last August, when MCpl. Fraser's C-7 rifle discharged, killing his comrade and close friend.
The rifle's safety switch had to have been off, in violation of Canadian Forces standard operating procedures. But a retired general said MCpl. Fraser could have inadvertently activated the roughly two-centimetre-long switch in the cramped space of the vehicle.
"There are things that can knock it off for you," retired major-general Lewis MacKenzie said. "You've got your personal kit, you've got straps, you've got Velcro, you're carrying equipment."
Soldiers are issued a tactical vest, with multiple chest and side pockets to hold such gear as bullet clips, fragmentation and smoke grenades, and a bayonet.
Mr. MacKenzie said a piece of equipment like a radio antenna could have slipped into the trigger guard, causing the weapon to discharge. "That's not hypothetical, that's practically possible," he said.
Military regulations require soldiers to load their weapons upon exiting the base in Kandahar. But they must keep the safety on while riding inside a vehicle, unless they are in the midst of a battle, said Captain Ken Allan, a Defence Department spokesman.
A soldier can activate the lever with his thumb, pressing it forward in an arc-of-circle rotation, which sets the weapon in shot-by-shot mode.
While he didn't exclude the theory of a piece of equipment activating the trigger, Scott Taylor, editor of the military magazine Esprit de Corps, said MCpl. Fraser could have inadvertently discharged his gun fiddling with it or gripping the trigger during a jolt on the road. Soldiers usually keep their rifles between their knees when inside a vehicle, he said.
Last week, a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan was killed by a shotgun blast inside a tent on the Kandahar base. Officials ruled out enemy fire.
Accidental weapon discharges killed at least a dozen U.S. soldiers in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, according to GlobalSecurity.org. Dozens of others died from unspecified non-hostile gunshot wounds.
MCpl. Fraser faces life in prison if convicted of manslaughter in MCpl. Walsh's death, and two years of detention if convicted of negligence.
The two men and a third soldier serving with them in Afghanistan knew each other so well that their comrades had nicknamed them the "three amigos," said Ms. Mason.
"When I heard manslaughter, I literally fell apart for Rob," she said.
Ms. Mason said she first met MCpl. Fraser about a month ago, when a close acquaintance told her the bullet that killed her husband came from MCpl. Fraser's rifle. The two became friends, united in their common grief.
"I just wanted to tell him that I know that it's not his fault," Ms. Mason said.
MCpl. Walsh's father, Ben, characterized the charges as "very harsh."
In 2000, Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Atkinson was fined $5,000 for negligence after he accidentally set off the turret-mounted machine gun on a tank by bumping into it with his helmet while visiting troops in Kosovo.
In 1993 in Somalia, a Canadian soldier cleaning his rifle accidentally discharged the gun, killing one of his comrades. A military court sentenced MCpl. A. D. Smith to four months imprisonment for criminal negligence.
© Copyright 2007, CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc.
