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.
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