The soldier accused of opening fire on Wednesday at his base of the army in Georgia, wounding five people, had suffered an incessant harassment about his stuttering almost as soon as he joined the army, the former co -workers said.
Sergeant Quornelius Radford, 28, was chosen during the approximately two months in 2018 that passed at the Advanced Individual Training School (AIT) of the Army in Fort Lee in Virginia, according to two people who served with him there.
“He was very intimidated,” said the sergeant. Cameron Barrett, 28, who became friends with Radford during that time. “It was very bad to the point that I could barely speak.”
Barrett said people would make fun of Radford by pretending to stutter. He said that the apparent impediment of speech was a “trigger” for Radford, who endured the mockery to be silent.
Even so, Radford showed no signs of anger, resentment or deeper problems, said Barrett and other fellow soldiers. And for those who met him, the reserved Radford shared a silly and playful side, they said.
Then, they said, Wednesday morning shooting at Fort Stewart was a complete shock.
When the reports of an active shooter at the base emerged for the first time, Barrett said he sent a message to Radford to Snapchat, asking if he was fine.
Radford did not respond. Hours later, Army officials identified Radford as the suspected man of using his personal gun to allegedly shoot five of his co -workers shortly before 11 am
Radford worked as a logistics sergeant assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat team, based in Fort Stewart.
Wounded soldiers were in stable conditions on Wednesday and are expected to recover. Three of the victims were released from the hospitals on Wednesday, while two more, both women, were still being treated on Thursday, authorities said.
It is not clear if the victims were subordinated or superiors of Radford. Army officials said a reason was not clear, since the investigation is ongoing.
Radford, an automatized logistics specialist assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat team at Fort Stewart, was approached and subjected by other soldiers, which ended his alleged shooting.
Radford remained in custody on Thursday and was interviewed by the Army Criminal Investigation Division.
Jacksonville’s native, Florida, joined the army in January 2018 and has not been deployed in combat, according to records.
Some soldiers who met him that year at the AIT school were shocked and confused. They said Radford seemed relaxed, despite having been bothered by his stuttering.
“It was easy for those people to make fun of him because of the way he spoke,” said the sergeant. Carlos Coleman, who was in the same training as Radford during that training. “After that, he really didn’t speak so much.”
“I just saw him shut up,” said Coleman, 27. “I’ve never seen him angry. That’s why I’m so surprised.”
Barrett and Coleman said that something else should have happened, since it had been years since initial military intimidation.
“I also have questions,” Coleman said. “I just want to know what pushed it to that point.”
Coleman, who now has its headquarters in the state of Washington, said he kept a friend of Radford on Facebook and remembers Radford’s last publication on January 28, when he expressed a deep residual anguish for losing a loved one in an incorrect accident.
“I remember that I could not speak after listening to that,” Radford wrote, according to a screenshot that Coleman shared with NBC News.
Radford wrote that he cried and drank to “make that sense of pain disappear.” He described the loved one as a safe shelter and someone who cared deeply about his present and future.
“I know you tried to stay on a good way when I was hanging out in the streets,” he wrote. “I remember the nights you were afraid when I was on that path and really regret to have gone through.”
Radford’s former co -workers described him as a normal and playful person and a working soldier.
“He was good as a soldier and a person, for me,” Coleman said. “There were never red flags about him. He did what they told him.”
In a Facebook post that has since been demolished, Quasondra Cobb, who used to work with Radford, shared a video of the two races to be the first to eat a fruit next to the snack of the foot last year.
“It was lunch time and we were just making a fool,” Cobb told NBC News. “My interactions with him were always like that.”
Cobb, who was Radford’s superior until about a year ago, when both moved to different units, said he was disconsolate and speechless. Radford, he said, showed no stress or anger and did not seem to have problems with co -workers.
“I have never obtained it from him,” he said. “He was a great worker. If he had a problem, he would come to me, I would ask for advice. I just saw that.”
Radford’s father, Eddie Radford, could not be contacted on Thursday and declined to comment on Wednesday night, telling NBC News that it was a “bad moment” to speak.
The father of the suspect told the New York Times that his son had been trying to transfer to Fort Stewart, where he had experienced racism.
Eddie Radford said his son sent a text message to his aunt on Wednesday morning, saying that “he loved everyone and will be in a better place because he was about to go and do something,” the Times said.
