S&S - Contractor gets probation for Afghanistan shooting

Stars and Stripes

Contractor gets probation for Afghanistan shooting


By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes

Online edition, Friday, May 8, 2009


ARLINGTON, Va. – An Army contractor who pleaded guilty to shooting an Afghan man who set one of his teammates on fire will not be going to prison.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Don Michael Ayala was sentenced to five years of probation and a fine Friday in federal court. Ayala had faced up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

Federal Judge Claude M. Hilton found that the attack on Ayala’s teammate, “Did provide provocation and would have provided provocation for anyone who was there at the time.”

Hilton also cited Ayala’s military record and the fact that the incident occurred in a hostile area as mitigating factors in the case.

Family of Ayala and Paula Loyd, the woman who was set on fire, wept when the verdict was read."

&

"On Nov. 4, 2008, Ayala was working for an Army Human Terrain Team about 50 miles west of Kandahar when Loyd was attacked by an Afghan man named Abdul Salam, who lit a container of flammable liquid and threw it on her.

Loyd suffered severe burns over most of her body. She died on Jan. 7 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Ayala helped subdue Salam. When he learned how badly Loyd was burned, he shot Salam in the head, even though Salam was technically a prisoner at the time."

S&S - Defense contractor charged with murder

From my archive of press clippings:

Stars and Stripes

Defense contractor charged with murder

By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes

Mideast edition, Saturday, November 22, 2008

ARLINGTON, Va. — An Army Human Terrain Team member has been charged with murder in connection with the killing of an Afghan man who set another team member on fire.

Note: Paula Lloyd is recently reported to have died of the wounds received in this attack.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Don Michael Ayala, a contractor working for the Virginia-based firm Strategic Analysis Inc., allegedly shot Abdul Salam while the man was restrained in U.S. custody, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.

On Nov. 4, Ayala was on a patrol about 50 miles west of Kandahar along with two other team members and a platoon of soldiers.

During the patrol, Salam lit a container of flammable liquid and threw it at one of the team members, Paula Loyd, the affidavit said.

Salam tried to get away, but Ayala forced him to the ground, where he was cuffed."

"Human Terrain Teams are made up of civilian experts, such as social scientists, who advise brigade and battalion commanders on the political and cultural environment they face."

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"In addition to the attack on Loyd, two team members have been killed in the last year.

Michael Bhatia, a social scientist, died in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan in May.

The second, Nicole Suveges, was killed in Iraq in June when a council meeting in Sadr City was bombed."