Do Not Rush To Judgement

Soldier accused of killings was family man

As reporters swarmed Bales' neighborhood late Friday, Holland and other neighbors shook their heads, trying but failing to reconcile the man they thought they knew with the allegations against him. Military officials say that at about 3 a.m. last Sunday, the 38-year-old staff sergeant crept away from the Army base where he was stationed in southern Afghanistan, entered two slumbering villages and unleashed a massacre, shooting his victims and setting many of the bodies on fire. Eleven of those killed belonged to one family. Nine were children.

"I can't believe it was him," said Holland, recalling a kind-hearted neighbor. "There were no signs. It's really sad. I don't want to believe that he did it."

Why do they always say, "There were no signs"? The man was deployed to acombat zone. The neighbor wouldn't have known anyway.

There are Afghani officials who are saying there had to be more than one shooter, claiming one man could not commit the acts alleged in the time frame reported.

I don't know. I do know I will not rush to judgement on this until I've seen more.