A US soldier pleaded guilty on Monday to killing five of his colleagues in Iraq four years ago, in a plea deal to escape a death sentence, a military spokesman said.
Army Sergeant John Russell was accused of the May 2009 murders at a clinic for soldiers suffering from war-related stress at Camp Liberty, the largest US base in Iraq.
Russell, who has previously denied responsability, “said ‘I killed these people,’ he acknowledged that,” said Gary Dangerfield, a spokesman for the Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), south of Seattle.
After pleading guilty, Russell gave an account of the killings for the first time on Monday, the reported. The victims were three soldiers receiving care at the clinic and two medical officers.
“I just did it out of rage, sir,” he told the military judge, Colonel David Conn, describing how he walked from room to room firing at mental health workers and patients.
“I was upset. I do not remember being angry, but I know that everyone who witnessed me outside the combat stress clinic said I looked angry,” the quoted him as saying.
“What I remember most was I just wanted to kill myself. One hundred per cent, I had decided to kill myself.”
