Fort Bragg Shooting Suspect Dies

Fort Bragg Public Affairs

FORT BRAGG, N.C. – Army Spc. Ricky G. Elder, the subject of a criminal investigation surrounding the June 28 shooting here of two soldiers with the 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade, has died.

Elder, an infantryman from Hutchinson, Kan., died of self-inflicted injuries on June 29 after receiving treatment at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville, N.C.

Elder, who was 27 years old at the time of his death, allegedly shot Army Lt. Col. Roy L. Tisdale, commander of the 525th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade, during a June 28 safety briefing near the unit’s headquarters in the historic district of Fort Bragg around 3:30 p.m., according to installation officials.

Tisdale, 42, of Alvin, Texas, was killed immediately, officials said. Elder reportedly turned the weapon upon himself, causing life-threatening injuries.

Army Spc. Michael E. Latham, 22, a signal support system specialist assigned to the Battlefield Surveillance Brigade, had received a minor, non-life threatening wound during the June 28 shooting. Latham, a native of Vacaville, Calif., who joined the Army in October 2009, was released from Fort Bragg’s Womack Army Medical Center and is expected to make a full recovery.

Special agents from the Army Criminal Investigation Command are conducting an investigation of the shooting, officials said.

Elder had been charged with larceny of a toolkit valued at $1,700 and was pending court martial for that charge. Charges had been referred but his trial had not been scheduled.

Elder enlisted in the Army in 2004 and was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment, Fort Richardson, Alaska; and 1st Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment, Fort Benning, Ga., before being assigned to the 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade in June 2010.

Elder deployed to Iraq from October 2006 to November 2007 and to Afghanistan from September 2010 to July 2011.