Posted on 12/07/2019 7:54:47 AM PST by yesthatjallen
The U.S. Navy sailor who fatally shot two people at Pearl Harbor before killing himself was unhappy with his commanders and had been undergoing counseling, a military official said Friday.
Gabriel Romero, 22, also faced non-judicial punishment, which is a lower-level administrative process for minor misconduct, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters not made public. He used his two service weapons in the attack, the official said.
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Romero, who was from Texas and enlisted in the Navy two years ago, was dead when authorities arrived, and he was armed for his job standing watch and providing security for the fast attack submarine USS Columbia, which is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for maintenance, officials said.
Retired Army Col. Gregory Gross, a former military judge, said that just because Romero faced non-judicial punishment doesn’t automatically mean he should have been taken off watch duty. “It could have been something as simple as you were late for work,” said Gross, who presided over part of the court-martial for the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood in Texas.
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It was not known if Romero knew his victims, Roldan Agustin, 49, and Vincent Kapoi Jr., 30. Agustin was born in Laoag City, Philippines, and moved to Hawaii when he was 2, according to his mother, Aida Agustin.
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(Excerpt) Read more at mail.com ...
As a retired sailor it just boggles my mind that someone, hell ANYONE at that command did not think to refrain from giving that kid loaded weapons and put him in a place where he could do that. Did they not want to offend him or was he the only one available to stand watch while others were off on liberty!
WHY THE HELL was he still inSecurity while going thru counse,ling??
23 seconds?
they had teams filming the murders.
the setup time was significant.
the protection from ABOVE is salient.
What had Romero done that he was facing non-judicial punishment?
At Pearl? Wasn’t that Pensacola?
“ they had teams filming the murders.
the setup time was significant.”
The Navy had teams filming?
Wrong shooting maybe?
Different mass shooting event.
It’s been a rough week for the Navy.
mea culpa. still fuming.
One of each. Sad day for our military.
I just knew he’d have an Amish last name.
We continue to offer young male dysfunctionals from foreign lands or from migrant families the immediate opportunity to trade military service for automatic U.S. citizenship. We are probably the only country on the planet doing this. People understand intuitively you don’t open your country’s military to foreign nationals and then expect any other result than what happened here. They can make all the excuses they want. This has happened before and it will continue so long as the policy is in force.
There were co-religionists filming at Pearl Harbor? I thought that was only Pensacola.
We had a rowdy crew on my ship, occasionally they would bring someone up for Captain’s Mast for fighting and general mayhem,but we didn’t get too upset and want to hurt anyone. The Captain was the best, we did our extra duty like good scouts, not go crazy fool on everybody. Most of us somehow received our Good Conduct Medals and became very very old model citizens.
Unstable armed SP’s...lovely. But yet...I for example..a retired field grade officer with a carry permit best not get caught trying to enter a military facility armed. Obama stench lingers on.
Giving an angry person a weapon doesn't seem like a good idea and yet that's what happened.
Hopefully the Navy re-evaluates their staffing policies.
"He used his two service weapons in the attack, the official said."
There is something strange about this story. I server on an SSN (same type) and it's been a long, long time but this just doesn't sound right. Usually in an friendly (US Naval ship yard in this case, heavily protected) shipyard setting the usual top side watch is not generally posted onboard (for lots of reasons), but would be located in the temporary crew living quarters (birthing barge in the old days), but near to and in-line with the ultimate access to the boat on the pier.
Additionally, the TS watch would only have a single side arm with a minimum number of shells in the loaded and mounted clip. So why did this guy have 2 service weapons for a watch in a well protected government facility. There has got to be a whole lot more to this story I would think.
Wrong killing. That was in Pensacola.
Yes, it’s very strange, particularly since all the other non-angry people on a military base can’t carry arms. So why expose them to the wrath of some angry nut?
In any case, his disciplinary error was not simply being late to work, as they suggested, but his attitude even before this. He’s Hispanic from Texas, though, and they were probably afraid to discipline him. I don’t know if they would have let an angry Anglo have his gun back...possibly but I think less likely.
Making the military get into ethnic stuff, which happened first under Clinton and then was really extended under Obama, was a big mistake.
I agree.
The facts are still trickling out. I'm not calling this a cover-up but I get the feeling there are missing pieces we're not being told about.
Unless he's a hot-head who snapped.
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