Colorado Springs police say former Soldier Louis Bressler and Pfc. Bruce Bastien Jr. are the prime suspects in the Aug. 4 killing of Pfc. Robert James, 23, of the 43rd Area Support Group, whose bullet-riddled body was found in a car in a Lake Avenue bank parking lot.
Bressler, 24, and Bastien, 21, are in jail in connection with death of Spc. Kevin Shields of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, whose body was found Dec. 1 on the sidewalk in the 200 block of South 16th Street near Old Colorado City after he was shot to death. He had been out celebrating his 24th birthday.
Police say a third jailed suspect, 24-year-old former Fort Carson Soldier Kenneth Eastridge, is tied to the Shields killing and other crimes, but hasn't been charged in James' death.
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Commanders at the post have said war-related stress is possibly responsible for a sharp increase in crime on the post since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The number of Soldiers going AWOL for a month or more went from 22 in 2003 to 110 last year. Domestic violence reports rose from 21 in 2003 to 79 last year, and theft reports jumped from 68 to 179.
The above is from The Gazette's "Fort Carson Ring Linked to G.I. Deaths" (via Military.com). In other news of crime, AP reports that "eight months pregnant" Maria Lauterback (a Lance Corporal marine), reported missing by her mother on December 19th, "was supposed to testify about an on-base incident."
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