Robert Bales linked to 2008 drunken fight; no charges filed

The suspect in the shooting deaths of at least 16 civilians in southern Afghanistan has been linked to a second incident of drunken violence near his home base in Washington state — a fight at a bowling alley in 2008.

The Pierce County prosecutor’s office confirmed that Robert Bales, a 38-year-old staff sergeant assigned to a Stryker brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, was questioned by police after a scuffle but no charges were filed.

A police report on the incident, obtained by the Associated Press, said a woman at the scene told police that Bales, who had been drinking heavily, grabbed her hand and put it in his crotch, setting off the fight with the man who was accompanying her.

“Both of the two men were drinking, basically,” Rebecca Stover, spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, told the Los Angeles Times.

She said prosecutors reviewed the police file but decided not to file charges.

“Basically it was a mutual scuffle between two drunk adult males, and it couldn’t be determined who started the fight. So no charges were filed,” she said.

In an earlier case, Bales was charged with criminal assault in 2002 when he was said to have threatened another customer after a night of drinking at a casino bar in Tacoma, Wash. He refused to leave, then attacked a guard with a garbage can lid and struck him in the chest with his fist, according to court records.

Bales paid a $300 fine and underwent anger management training to have that charge dismissed.

A U.S. official has said Bales was drinking the night of the shootings in Afghanistan, when at least 16 people in two villages near a U.S. Army outpost in Kandahar province were killed in their homes in the middle of the night. Charges in that case are expected to be filed Friday.

Bales is being held in solitary confinement at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan.

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