Marine accused in two deaths ‘eager’ for Iraq

In a clear, strong voice, a Marine sniper accused of manslaughter and assault in the killing of two Syrians and the wounding of two others told a hearing officer Wednesday that he wanted to return to Iraq for a fifth deployment.

“I’m eager to actually get back in the fight and serve my country,” Sgt. Johnny Winnick said at the conclusion of a military proceeding akin to a preliminary hearing.

Winnick, 24, of San Diego, was the leader of a six-man sniper team when he gave an order to open fire on a group of men whom he thought were planting a roadside bomb near Lake Tharthar in Iraq.

A cursory investigation after the shooting discovered no bomb and no weapons either on the four men or in their truck.

The truck disappeared a day after the June 17, 2007, incident, before Marines could conduct a more thorough search, a point Winnick’s defense attorneys have stressed.

Winnick killed one man from several hundred yards away with a rifle shot.

Then, as Marines rushed toward the truck, he killed another with a close-in blast from a shotgun as the man was crawling toward a cellphone.

Winnick did not testify. His statement to Capt. Jeffrey King, the hearing officer, was unsworn.

King will provide a recommendation to Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland on whether the case should go to a court-martial.

A sniper in Winnick’s team testified that all of the team members believed the four men were planting a roadside bomb because they stopped their truck in a location that Marines had been warned was a likely location for such a bomb.

The men also seemed to be digging a hole, Cpl. Alexander Wazenkewitz said.

But Capt. Oliver Dreger, an intelligence officer whose assignment was to oversee Winnick and other snipers, said he believed Winnick acted too quickly and without sufficient information to conclude that the men were showing “hostile intent.”

“I wasn’t pleased with the judgment exercised by Sgt. Winnick,” said Dreger, who ordered Winnick relieved of duty the day after the incident.

Dreger said that a Marine has to be “pretty damn sure” before firing at a target and has to realize “that decision will be scrutinized by outsiders.”

But under tough questioning by Winnick’s attorney, Gary Myers, Dreger conceded that there is a subjective element to determining “hostile intent” and “positive identification,” phrases contained in the official rules of engagement.

Myers suggested that Dreger, who had been questioned as part of the investigation into the 2005 killing of 24 civilians in Haditha, was thinking of his own career by immediately relieving Winnick.

“The first thing you did and your battalion commander did was to get as far away from these Marines as possible,” Myers said, an accusation Dreger denied.

--

tony.perry@latimes.com