He was trained for that., The Army officer who did the line-of-duty investigation, a copy of which was first obtained by Jack Murphy of Connecting Vets, noted several discrepancies between the statements Lavigne gave and the evidence collected, including the absence of a screwdriver. Him and my brother had similar features., Leshikar, bearded and scowling in most photos, was six-foot-four, with a square jaw, a head of light-brown hair, and tattooed shoulders. From 2020 through 2021, there were 109 active and reserve deaths among Fort Bragg soldiers, according to military records. A day after the bodies were found, an unnamed Army official leaked to CBS that both Lavigne and Dumas, at the time of their deaths, were under investigation for trafficking narcotics on Fort Bragg, and that investigators suspected a double homicide from a drug deal gone wrong. He was looking to be helpful and to be part of the team.. Sgt. deaths Billy Lavigne joined the Army right out of high school, in February 2001, to get free corrective eye surgery and money for a new dirt bike. Enrique was blind as fuck without his glasses, Romero says. Nathan Goodman, 36, of Hope Mills, died Jan. 14, 2020, in a free-fall training exercise near Eloy, Arizona. Lavigne was transported downtown, but did not remain long in the police station. Well, I got 120.. User may use CAC to register and log in. That was the only drug he was for; everything else he was against. July 17, 2021 (83 years old) View obituary. At least 44 Fort Bragg soldiers died stateside in 2020 several of them were homicides. There is a difference between death notices and obituaries, however. I did not get the impression that he was joking. Two from the 82nd Airborne were killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, and another paratrooper, a combat engineer, lost his life in a vehicle rollover in Syria, for a total of three who perished overseas. Sgt. DoD inspector general is looking into recruit deaths at military This data emerged amid increasing awareness of rising rates of drug use notably of cocaine and steroids in the Special Operations Forces. As soon as the rockets began to burst, We had to get out of there. He was getting into all kinds of legal trouble, says Tammy Mabey, Leshikars mother, hanging out with bad people, deep into drugs, and nobody said or did anything. Fort Bragg needs to be blown up, that is, exposed to scrutiny, says Tammy de Mirza, Sarahs aunt. No one I spoke to had any clue, or even a theory, who the surviving shooter or shooters were. Spc. Army Investigates Deaths of Green Beret and Veteran at Fort Bragg One day in late November, she says, she was working on a customers car when she turned around and there was Billy, wearing a black ski mask and carrying a crossbow. Dr. Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told Rolling Stone that recent medical studies showed a fast and dramatic rise in the number of fatal overdoses among active-duty military men. As the madness of 2020 settled over the country, bringing with it a nationwide wave of drug abuse and violent crime, Lavigne was also spinning out of control. Words his sister uses to describe him include gentle, spiritual, and feminist. He was a hippie, a believer in crystals, she says. The Fort Bragg soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan and Syria in support of Operations Freedoms Sentinel and Inherent Resolve. Maybe. At no time during that interaction did they mention a missing person, a spokesman for the National Park Service told ABC11. Hearing her father call her name, she went and let him inside. Sgt. WebThey are: Master Sgt. Here's who they are. Pfc. I think Billy was dealing with his own demons, she says. To date, the House Armed Services Committee seems not to have noticed the similar pattern at Fort Bragg. She believed them to be his fellow Delta Force operators because they had been introduced to her that way, because she had seen the same men drop him off in a vehicle after a training mission, and because they talked and joked about ops they had been on and constantly tried to one-up one another. Fort Bragg He told the county investigator that Leshikar had come at him with a screwdriver, leaving him no choice but to shoot in self-defense, supposedly for the protection of the children. Joseph Zygarowski, 25. To cap off a freakish year at Fort Bragg, just three weeks after Lavigne and Dumas turned up dead, a 31-year-old combat medic assigned to Special Forces named Keith Lewis shot and killed his pregnant wife, Sarah Lewis, an Air Force veteran who was due to give birth at any moment. Zygarowski, who enlisted in the Army in 2018, was a mechanic assigned to His home burned. I would see him staring off in space a lot, thinking. On the Fourth of July, he took his son to see the fireworks at Fort Bragg. Breaks Down His Killer White House Correspondents Dinner Set, Pharrells Something in the Water Fest Cancels Final Day Due to Severe Weather, Stagecoach: Kane Brown Breaks Mental Health Stigma With 'Memory,' Talks Depression. He tells me I should go smoke in the back because theres going to be a shooting.. As far as is known, the first time 2nd Lt. Bryant met Sgt. Thank you for your service. David Bragg. Lavigne was entitled to a variety of due process protections. Asia Graham, a Fort Bliss soldier who died of an overdose of fentanyl and synthetic cannabinoids after she reported being sexually assaulted by a fellow soldier. There was never no mention of this Dumas. Nicole and Laura say the same. death A Dallas County jury awarded more than $860 million to the parents of a woman killed in 2019 when a 200-foot steel crane toppled onto her apartment building from an adjacent construction site. During a cycle of wet, windy and cold weather, a local resident, Jeffrey Kostick, was found deceased Sunday, Dec. 15, near Redwood Avenue in downtown Fort Bragg. July 10, 2022 (65 years old) View obituary. The same is true in the case of a young Ohioan, a Green Beret candidate, who in March was found unresponsive in his barracks. Fort Bragg Nobody would listen., My son was the most honest, loyal, patriotic person, she continues. Get service details, leave condolence messages or send flowers in memory of a loved one in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Terry Wayne Smoot. In this one, he is sitting in what looks to be a restaurant booth, dressed in a gray vest and a purple dress shirt. August 12, 2022 (52 years old) View obituary. Fort Bragg Fort Bragg soldier found dead in barracks; mother questions death They speak Spanish with a Caribbean accent and dont know any Timothy Dumas. On a cold evening in late January, when I visit the approximate spot where he was found, the woods are perfectly still and quiet, with not even a bird chirping. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time Find an obituary, get service details, leave condolence messages or send flowers or gifts in memory of a loved one. The Army said it was investigating the deaths last week of a Green Beret and an Army veteran whose bodies were found in a training area at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Nevertheless, local officials were satisfied by Lavignes claim of self-defense. Army vet Timothy Dumas, 44, was found shot and killed alongside Lavigne. Three Fort Bragg soldiers died while deployed overseas in 2020, according to the Department of Defense. The cause of death was homicide. 3 Sarah Lewis, 34, was allegedly shot dead by her husband Staff Sgt Keith Lewis Credit: Facebook 3 Based out of a high-security compound inside Fort Bragg, it has become a covert military within the military. Sgt. Joseph Zygarowski who died during a training exercise at Fort Bragg on April 19. Fort Bragg These incidents, the letter read, indicate a problem that may be underreported, and are a call for urgent action. George Allen taught Villalon at East Aurora High School. He wasnt looking for another rank or another award, Allen said. Law enforcement still has no known suspects in the case. Families want answers. Some of them are really great. Crime-scene technicians would have photographed it on December 2nd, when they turned aside the nylon blanket he was wrapped in and saw him barefoot and shirtless, shot multiple times in the chest. The police came and he was arrested in possession of cocaine, a digital scale, a crack pipe, a revolver, a hunting rifle, a snub-nosed pistol, and a pump-action shotgun. But neither JSOC nor USASOC responded to repeated requests for comment. And he fell down on the ground and Uncle Billy kept shooting him. Though the offense was a felony, he was not charged. Pentagon Finally Stops Hiding Military Overdose Epidemic Its known from postmortem toxicology that Leshikar was taking Valium, tramadol, MDMA, and cocaine. After releasing news of his death, LaVignes unit focused on his military service, which included multiple deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq in support of the Global War on Terrorism while assigned to U.S. Army Special Operations Command. Special operation forces induct members into regiments at Fort Bragg. But my brother was murdered back in May. It was out of control, says his best friends wife, Laura Leshikar. That he would take care of him permanently. The cause of death is listed as homicide and the case is being investigated by the Army Criminal Investigation Command. The DA, Billy West, did not respond to requests for comment but told the Fayetteville Observer that two other people whod been at Lavignes house took responsibility for the drugs. As she lay dying, her baby girl was born; she was going to be named Isabella, but she did not live. Not only was he a decorated Green Beret with dozens of badges and patches and medals from 14 different deployments, he was also a member of Delta Force, the most elite military unit in the United States. Half of those deaths have been ruled suicides. In early 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic descended on the United States, his run-ins with the law became more frequent. Tier 1 operators have ascended so high in the lethal bureaucracy that they no longer exist. He changed dramatically in a short period of time, says his father, who came from Michigan to stay with him after the shooting. Report No. DODIG-2020-131: Evaluation of Medical The discovery of Lavignes and Dumas bodies also raised hard questions for local law enforcement in Fayetteville, which may be home to Fort Bragg, the largest Army base in the U.S., but remains a relatively small Southern town, whose red-brick historical center, built around a white clock tower, quickly gives way to the strip-mall sprawl of discount supermarkets, hamburger drive-throughs, gun stores, and Baptist churches. Miguel Angel Villalon, 21, of Joliet, Illinois, was killed in the same incident. Joseph Zygarowski, 25. Ive seen it. Editors picks It's a tremendous loss for all of us,Carroll said. Posted 2023-04-21T13:30:09+00:00 - Updated 2023-04-21T23:20:10+00:00 Ruth Sparks, a native of San Jose, California, and resident of Fort Bragg, California, passed away on December 1, 2022, surrounded by her family. By the end of the year, there had been 21 suicides at Fort Bragg, more than at any other U.S. military post. When a friend or babysitter could be found to look after the kids, the group of five parents, all in their mid-thirties, went out on the town in Fayetteville. - Page 2. Fort Bragg 25 Years On, Paratroopers Remember The Green Ramp Joseph Zygarowski who died during a training exercise at Fort Bragg on April 19. In total, a staggering 83 active-duty soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg died in the 18 months ending June 2021, according to data obtained by Rolling Stone. The 172,000-acre Fort Bragg base is one of the world's largest military complexes with approximately 57,000 military personnel, 11,000 civilian employees and 23,000 family members. Goodman completed four deployments to Afghanistan, one to Iraq, two to Africa, and one to Kyrgyzstan, the statement said. These are highlights of a significantly lengthier list. Even though its a closed case, Laura says, they told us the investigation doesnt see the public eye.. And there have been several murders in the last few years around Fort Bragg with apparent links to drug-trafficking by elite soldiers, or distribution networks run by ordinary enlisted men in the 82nd. William J. LaVigne II, 37, was found dead near a Fort Bragg training area close to the body of Army veteran Timothy J. Dumas, 44, Dec. 2. He was deployed to Saudi Arabia when he read on Facebook that Roman-Martinez, whom hed known since middle school, had gone missing.