Neighbors say Afghan attack suspect was family man

LAKE TAPPS, Wash. (AP) -- Neighbors of a Washington state man accused of gunning down 16 Afghan women and children in a nighttime rampage describe him as a family man, playing with his two kids outside his home.

Reporters swarmed a neighborhood in a rural, wooded community about 35 miles south of Seattle, as attorney John Henry Browne confirmed the suspect, his client, was Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales from Lake Tapps, Wash.

"I just can't believe Bob's the guy who did this," said Paul Wohlberg, a next-door neighbor who said his family was friends with the Bales. "A good guy got put in the wrong place at the wrong time ... I never thought something like this would happen to him."

Five days after the shooting, a senior U.S. official first confirmed Friday it was Bales, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation into an incident that has roiled relations with Afghanistan. Military officials had said throughout the week that it was policy not to release the name until charges were filed.

Kassie Holland, who lives next door, said she would often see Bales playing with his two kids and the family together at the modern split-level home.

"My reaction is that I'm shocked," she said. "I can't believe it was him. There were no signs. It's really sad. I don't want to believe that he did it."

"He always had a good attitude about being in the service. He was never really angry about it. When I heard him talk, he said, it seemed like, yeah, that's my job. That's what I do. He never expressed a lot of emotion toward it."

Bales has not yet been charged. He was flown Friday from Kuwait and arrived Friday evening at a military detention center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., the military's only maximum-security prison.

The Army said he was placed in his own cell, not a normal 4-person bay. He will get time out of his cell for hygiene and recreational purposes and religious support, if he desires

An Air Force cargo jet arrived at Kansas City International Airport, about an hour from the military prison, shortly after 9 p.m. Friday. Security was tight, with the terminal completely blocked off, and convoy of unmarked vehicles pulled off the tarmac and out of the airport.

Bales enlisted about two months after the Sept. 11 attacks and had served with the 3rd Stryker Brigade based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord since Sept 11, 2002. He became a staff sergeant in April 2008, following his second deployment in Iraq. There is no record of him receiving a Purple Heart.

He went to Iraq one more time before his fourth deployment, to Afghanistan.

"I kind of sympathize for him, being gone, being sent over there four times," Beau Britt, who lives across the street. "I can understand he's probably quite wracked mentally, so I just hope that things are justified in court. I hope it goes OK."

Browne said his client was injured twice while deployed to Iraq. He suffered a concussion in a vehicle accident caused by an improvised explosive device, and sustained a battle-related injury requiring surgery that removed part of one foot. Browne said his client was "highly decorated."

Browne said when the 11-year veteran heard he was being sent to Afghanistan late last year, he did not want to go.

"He wasn't thrilled about going on another deployment," Browne said. "He was told he wasn't going back, and then he was told he was going."

Bales and his wife purchased the Lake Tapps home in 2005, according to records. The home was placed on the market Monday, the day after the attack, and was listed at $229,000. Overflowing boxes were piled on the front porch, and a U.S. flag leaned against the siding.

Bales completed 20 hours of anger-management counseling following a 2002 arrest at a Tacoma hotel for investigation of assault. Browne said the case involved a woman other than his wife, whom he married in 2005.

Tacoma Municipal court administrator Yvonne Pettus provided a copy of the court docket, but said clerks could not immediately locate the case file, which is either in archives or destroyed. The docket shows that Bales pleaded not guilty, underwent the 20 hours of anger management treatment, and the case was dismissed.

Records also associated with Bales show that in 2009 he had a hit and run charge dismissed in municipal court in Sumner.

The staff sergeant arrived in Afghanistan in December. On Feb. 1 he was assigned to a base in the Panjwai District, near Kandahar, to work with a village stability force that pairs special operations troops with villagers to help provide neighborhood security.

On March 10, the day before the shooting spree, Browne said the soldier saw his friend's leg blown off. Browne said his client's family provided him with that information, which has not been independently verified.

Officials said Bales was wearing a NATO forces uniform when he moved through the nearby villages of Alkozai and Balandi, barging into homes and opening fire on those inside, then burning some of the bodies. Nine of those killed were children. Eleven of the dead were from a single family.

A surveillance video captured by a blimp that surveys the area around the base shows that the soldier later approached the south gate of the base with an Afghan shawl covering the weapon in his hands, according to an Afghan official who was shown the footage by his U.S. counterparts.

In the video, the man walks up to the base, lays down the weapon and raises his arms in surrender.

The sergeant's family says they saw no signs of aggression or anger. "They were totally shocked," by accounts of the massacre, Browne said. "He's never said anything antagonistic about Muslims. He's in general very mild-mannered."

The lawyer denied reports that Bales had marital problems, saying he and his wife have a solid relationship.

Alissa Cinkovich, 45, has lived in the neighborhood for seven years, and said it was scary that he was living nearby.

"I would like to think he just went off his rocker because of the war," Cinkovich said.

In a Cincinnati suburb, police were stationed around the home of someone believed to be a relative of Bales. Reporters were given a statement by police and encouraged not approach homes in the quiet Evendale neighborhood.

One police vehicle was parked on the block, while additional officers patrolled the area.

In a statement, Evendale Police Chief Niel Korte said the department was aware of information that a relative of the soldier may reside in the town. He believed that identifying the resident or address "may present a threat to their physical safety."

The identification of the shooter quickly elicited a variety of reactions throughout Twitter. Some used social media to condemn Bales and called him a terrorist. Others called him a war hero who should not have been deployed to Afghanistan after serving three tours in Iraq. Others offered prayers for him and his family.

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Johnson contributed from Seattle. Also contributing were AP National Security Writer Robert Burns in Washington, Phuong Le in Seattle, Haven Daley and Manuel Valdes in Lake Tapps, Lisa Cornwell in Evendale, Ohio, Dana Fields in Kansas City, Mo., and John Milburn in Lawrence, Kan.

Gene Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle .