Sarkozy vows punishment after soldier shoots 17 PEOPLE

[WhiteFeather]

NEVER POINT YOUR "EMPTY" FIREARM AT.............

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080630...litaryaccident

Sarkozy vows punishment after soldier shoots 17

CARCASSONNE, France (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised swift and severe punishment Monday after a soldier used real bullets instead of blanks and wounded 17 people at an army base open day.


The sergeant fired his assault rifle into a crowd of hundreds of visitors watching parachute commandos simulate an assault to free hostages Sunday at the base near the southwestern city of Carcassonne.

A three-year-old boy, who took bullets in the heart and in the arm, and both his parents were among the victims, officials said.

An eyewitness told AFP that "suddenly, people were falling, we thought it was part of the exercise, and then we saw blood".

Sarkozy said after he visited some of the wounded in a Carcassonne hospital that the shooting did not appear to be criminal but that it was the result of "unacceptable negligence" for which he promised a "rapid and severe response."

Five children were among the 15 civilians wounded.

The three-year-old boy was operated on overnight and was in a stable condition, hospital officials said, adding that two of the victims were in a "serious" condition but all were stable.

Two soldiers were also wounded.

The sergeant who fired the shots from his FAMAS assault rifle was described as an experienced soldier with no history of behavioural or psychological problems.

He is in custody and prosecutors said they will ask judges to charge him with unintentionally inflicting wounds. Three other soldiers detained after the incident were released.

The eyewitness who spoke to AFP and asked not to be named, said there were seven or eight soldiers with guns taking part in the simulation, with one of them in the middle of the hundreds of spectators pretending to be a terrorist.

Immediately after the real shots were fired, "an official shouted out over the loudspeakers "Cease fire!", he said.

Military and civilian investigators have opened probes into the events at the Third Marine Parachute Regiment barracks.

The use of the live rounds was "99.9 percent" likely to be "an unintentional fault," said Colonel Benoit Royal, the head of the French army's information service.

Defence Minister Herve Morin said the shooter had first fired a magazine of blanks and then loaded a fresh magazine but this time with live bullets.

"Why did he have it in his pocket?" asked Morin, who accompanied Sarkozy on his visit to the Carcassonne hospital and to visit other victims taken to another hospital in the nearby city of Toulouse.

The senior official for the Aude region where Carcassonne is located, Bernard Lemaire, said that investigators believed the deadly ammunition was loaded by mistake.

"The question being asked is 'Did the soldier engage in a criminal act or not?'," Lemaire said. "For now, no one can answer that, but the theory being worked on is one of error."

The Third Marine Parachute Regiment based outside of Carcassonne numbers 1,200 troops.

[ungawa]

Can you fire both blanks and live ammo from a FAMAS without reconfiguring the rifle? All the US gas operated semi/full autos I have seen required either a blank adapter or a Hollywood Barrel to fire blanks and cycle properly.

Doesn't make sense to me.

[Autonomous]

I read about this incident this morning...It is sad so many people were injured in this incident...My thoughts and prayers go out to them and there families... This is one of those things that never should have happened...
-A

[Brown-Bear]

IBTFB. In Before The French Bashing.

[ReefBlue]

I'd be on the verge of suicide if I did something like that.

I wonder what punishment is going to show the guy that what he did was wrong.

[NY Refugee]

What a shame. Maybe he should have stuck to traditional french military tactics and just surrendered.

[yetidave]

What a shame. Maybe he should have stuck to traditional french military tactics and just surrendered.

Well played.

[tes151]

What a shame. Maybe he should have stuck to traditional french military tactics and just surrendered.

I knew that was coming.

[King 5.45]

We may be picking up most of the tab, but that isn't to say that they aren't buying the occasional round:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4rAzYcRbQs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXMALh4ilQs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OldzXXTUg-k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcCywfxkcjw

[goon]

I'd be on the verge of suicide if I did something like that.

I wonder what punishment is going to show the guy that what he did was wrong.

Me too.
If he's a decent man, there isn't any punishment worse than what his own conscience is doing to him already.