- The mother of a private first class from Boise accused in the Stryker “rogue platoon” case said she blames the Army “for putting psychopaths in charge of the unit.” The soldier was due in court today. [via The Olympian of Olympia, Wash.]
- Three Fort Carson, Colo., soldiers in masks broke into a medical marijuana dispensary and locked themselves in. Colorado Springs cops surrounded the store — Rocky Road Remedies — let them out and arrested them. Surveillance video shows their frantic and comical efforts to escape. [via KMGH-TV]
- The trial of three people accused of selling weapons to a white supremacist “White Wolves” begins today in Connecticut. A Virginia soldier who aided in the sale pleaded guilty in August and is awaiting sentencing. [via New Haven Register/Middletown Press]
- An Army officer is suing the city of Pittsburgh over his arrest during last year’s G-20 Summit of world leaders. The 2nd lieutenant, a military police trainee at the time of the arrest, claims he was swept up in “de facto martial law.” He has since had the charges dropped. [via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
- A Tennessee man charged with killing a soldier at a recruiting station in Arkansas wrote letters to a newspaper saying that he had planned a large-scale attack before his arrest. The suspect wrote in the letters from prison that he was planning multiple attacks that included sites in Nashville and Florence, Ky. [via Associated Press/WREG-TV]
- Maj. Nidal Hasan’s defense team will have the chance today to present evidence at a probable cause hearing on last year’s massacre at the nation’s biggest military post. The hearing resumes after being recessed in mid-October. [via Associated Press/Google]
- A man who kicked a lieutenant colonel’s homeless son to death in an Anchorage park was sentenced to 70 years in prison. The killer faced the victim’s parents in court and apologized, saying he was high on drugs at the time. The victim’s sister, an Army sergeant, spoke fondly of her brother in court and cursed the defendant. [via Anchorage Daily News]
- The funeral of an Iraq vet turned cop who was gunned down in Riverside, Calif., will be broadcast on the internet via memorialwebcasts.com on Tuesday. He was honored at a country music festival and a local race. [via KTTV-TV and the Press-Enterprise of Riverside County, Calif.]
- Police have few leads in the shooting death of a 26-year-old father who worked in the commissary at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif. The victim has spent time in prison but was “getting his life together,” according to an uncle. [via Monterey County Herald (California)]
- An Iraq War combat veteran who broke into three Madison, Wis., homes during a 15-hour period was sentenced on Veterans Day to court program for veterans. The Wisconsin guardsman, 26, will also get treatment for PTSD. [via Wisconsin State Journal]
- A top Armenian army official has promised justice after a spate of suspicious deaths that have caused nationwide outrage and an online video showing an officer brutalizing young conscripts. A young conscript went on a shooting spree and killed himself after a bitter dispute with an officer. [via Radio Free Europe]
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A Note About the Blotter: I want to make a crime blotter a regular or semi-regular feature of the blog, but I’ve got to help put out a newspaper too, so let’s just see how this goes. Also, if you see something we missed, send me a link and I’ll do my best to get it into the blotter.
