Citadel Graduate Admits to Shooting

A graduate of The Citadel has admitted accidentally shooting fellow cadet Berra Lee Byrd Jr. in 1992 while Byrd was walking near some dormitories, saying it was an accident and expressing remorse at his failure to come forward. George F. Cormeny III said in a letter to a local newspaper that “the last 4 1/2 years of living with this secret and the pain I caused Berra, his family and The Citadel have been unbearable.” Byrd said officials suspected him of having shot himself in a plot to embarrass the school. The shooting of Byrd, an African American, led to an FBI probe after complaints of violence against blacks in the Charleston area.