tRump Hosted many criminals at taxpayer expense at his mar a lago brothel
the taxpayer money involved, open course for a few days to the public, public play
the taxpayer money involved, open course for a few days to the public, public play
Snipers testify that Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher shot young girl and old man in Iraq
The trial of decorated Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher continued on Friday, with DNA experts and military snipers taking the stand to talk about the evidence against him — including how he allegedly shot a young girl and old man in Iraq two years ago.
The fellow SEALs said they did not witness the alleged killing, but did hear the shots coming from Gallagher’s position. They claimed that the child and man he is accused of shooting were both spotted falling to the ground, with the snipers witnessing it through their scopes.
Gallagher — a medic and the pair’s platoon leader — was holed up in a sniper’s perch at the time and allegedly confirmed the kills over the radio, the snipers testified.
“You guys missed him, but I got him,” Gallagher said of the old man, according to Special Operator Dalton Tolbert, one of the two fellow SEALs.
Tolbert told the San Diego court that he was furious with Gallagher’s behavior and reported it to members of SEAL Team 7 via text message.
“I shot more warning shots to save civilians from Eddie than I ever did at ISIS,” wrote Tolbert. “I see an issue with that.”
Special Operator Joshua Vriens, the other sniper, said he watched Gallagher, 40, shoot an unsuspecting Iraqi girl in the stomach from his perch on a different day. The child was wearing a floral hijab and appeared to be between the ages 12 and 14, Vriens added.
Once again, he and Tolbert were unable to witness the actual pulling of the trigger — but Vriens did say that he saw the wounded youngster being dragged away through the scope of his rifle.
Both shootings allegedly happened just weeks after a group of SEALs allegedly witnessed Gallagher stabbing a wounded and captive Islamic State fighter to death while he was treating him medically. The May 2017 incident was recounted Thursday by Special Operator Corey Scott — another fellow SEAL — who shockingly claimed to have carried out the killing himself.
“I knew he was going to die anyway,” Scott said of the injured fighter. “I wanted to save him from waking up to what had happened next.”
The Navy man was granted immunity to testify, according to reports.
Six SEALs have now taken the stand during Gallagher’s trial, which entered its fourth day of proceedings on Friday.
Vriens claimed during his testimony that Gallagher confessed to killing the injured ISIS fighter after being shown photos of his body later that day.
“I stabbed him in the side, then grabbed him by the hair and looked him in the eyes and I stabbed him in the neck,” Vriens recalled him saying.
Gallagher has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder for allegedly shooting the young girl and man, as well as murder for the alleged stabbing of the ISIS fighter. He will be facing a life sentence, if convicted.
Gallagher’s defense team argued in court Friday that Vriens and Tolbert’s testimony wasn’t reliable because neither of them actually saw him pull the trigger. They got Vriens to admit during their cross-examination of him that ISIS was shooting civilians that same day — and that he reported this to his superior, but not the alleged incident involving Gallagher.
DNA experts took the stand and claimed that an analysis of blood taken from the knife Gallagher allegedly used to stab the ISIS fighter had traces of DNA from a Middle Eastern person — with a biological description matching that of the victim’s.
A defense expert from Yale Medical School, however, argued against this determination and insisted that the analysis was susceptible to errors. The judge in the case eventually ruled that the testing was inadmissible after deciding that the DNA was from a “touch” sample and not blood.
Gallagher’s trial is expected to last several more weeks. The jury is made up of several military men, including one Navy SEAL and a Navy commander. Most have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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