Paratrooper Sentenced to Death; Had Fired on His Unit, Killing 1

A misfit Army paratrooper was sentenced to death Wednesday for a fatal sniper attack on his own unit during morning calisthenics.

Sgt. William Kreutzer, 27, was convicted Tuesday at a court-martial of premeditated murder and attempted murder for killing an officer and wounding 18 other soldiers as they lined up for a four-mile jog in the dark Oct. 27.

Kreutzer showed no reaction when the military jury’s sentence was read after four hours of deliberation Wednesday.

“He got what he gave,” said Staff Sgt. Matthew Lewis, who was wounded in the attack. “The simple fact of the matter is, you’re responsible 100% for what you do.”

The attack took place as 1,300 members of the elite 82nd Airborne Division assembled on an athletic field. Kreutzer opened fire with a rifle from a foxhole in the woods, using tracer bullets and especially deadly hollow-point rounds.

Defense attorneys argued that Kreutzer had a personality defect and that he was driven to the breaking point by teasing and practical jokes played on him by others in his machine gun squad.

According to testimony, Kreutzer talked about wanting to kill members of his squad during 1994 duty in the Sinai Peninsula because they put sand in his boots and rigged cords to trip him on his way to the latrine at the night.

Army executions are now by lethal injection. The last time the Army executed a soldier was in 1961, when Pvt. John Bennett, 28, of Chatham, Va., was hanged for raping and trying to kill an 11-year-old girl in Austria. Eight other servicemen are on death row at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan.