Soldier Diagnosed as Homicidal Before Alleged Attack, Army Says
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
FORT CAMPBELL, KY. — An Army private charged with the slaughter of an Iraqi family was diagnosed as a homicidal threat by a military mental health team three months before the attack.
Private First Class Steven Green was found to have “homicidal ideations” after seeking help from an Army Combat Stress Team in Iraq on December 21, 2005. Mr. Green said he was angry about the war, desperate to avenge the death of comrades, and driven to kill Iraqi citizens, according to an investigation by the Associated Press.
The treatment was several small doses of Seroquel — a drug to regulate his mood — and a directive to get some sleep, according to medical records obtained by the AP. The next day, he returned to duty in the violent stretch of desert in the southern Baghdad suburbs known as the “Triangle of Death.”
In March, Mr. Green is accused of participating in a break-in at a home. The intruders shot and killed the parents and two young daughters. The older girl, 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, was raped and her body set afire.
