- Title: GERMANY: U.S. SOLDIER CLEARED OF NEGLIGENCE IN SHOOTING DEATH OF ALBANIAN BOY.
- Date: 13th March 2001
- Summary: GIESSEN, GERMANY (MARCH 13, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/CU: COURT WHERE TRIAL WAS HELD (2 SHOTS) 0.07 2. MV/PAN: PRIVATE FIRST CLASS NICHOLAS E. YOUNG (IN MIDDLE) WALKING PAST WITH TWO OTHER SOLDIERS 0.15 3. CU: WINDOWS (2 SHOTS) 0.27 4. MV/PAN: PARENTS OF DEAD ETHNIC ALBANIAN BOY, MOTHER SANIJE REXHEPI AND FATHER DELI REXHEPI/ DEAD BOY'S PARENTS ENTERING BUILDING 0.41 5. CU: SIGN 0.45 6. MV/PAN: PRIVATE FIRST CLASS NICHOLAS E. YOUNG AND HIS MOTHER SHARON SPRINGS LEAVING BUILDING AND GETTING INTO CAR AFTER VERDICT/ U.S. ARMY LAWYERS LEAVING BUILDING (2 SHOTS) 1.09 7. MV: SOUNDBITE (English) U.S. ARMY MAJOR MARK JOHNSON SAYING: "I think it's fair to say that our client and his mother are pleased with the result and that's really all we'd like to say. Thank you." 1.19 UPPER SLATINA, ZLATARE, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA (FILE - JULY 10, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 8. VARIOUS: INTERIOR FAMILY HOME OF GENTRID REXHEPI/ FEMALE RELATIVES CRYING OVER GENTRID BODY (8 SHOTS) 1.48 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 28th March 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: GIESSEN, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVA61VA1QQCYDY2B6DP6I870HZYL
- Story Text: An American soldier has been acquitted by a court
martial on charges of negligently shooting dead an ethnic
Albanian boy in Kosovo last summer.
Private First Class Nicholas E. Young had been accused of
firing his machine gun while on peacekeeping duties in the
Yugoslav province last July and fatally wounding six-year-old
Gentrit Rexhepi.
In the four-day trial at a U.S. base in Germany he faced
one charge of negligent homicide and two charges of
dereliction of duty. Had he been found guilty, Young, who was
19 at the time of the shooting, faced up to three and a half
years in in jail.
Defence counsel, who had not disputed that Young had fired
the shots that killed the child, had argued that his superiors
were at fault in giving him charge of a machine gun which he
was not properly trained to use. They added that the soldier,
from Sacramento, California, suffered severe learning
difficulties.
One of his lawyers called Young "an accident waiting to
happen" since he was not qualified to use the M-249 SAW
machine gun he was assigned after his deployment to Kosovo
with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery.
The prosecution had said Young let children play with his
weapon and pulled the trigger to see if the safety catch was
on.
Peacekeepers were helping to build a fence around a school
in the southeastern Kosovo village of Gornja Slatina when
Young's machine gun went off as he stood guard and ricocheting
bullets hit and killed the boy.
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