Do you believe it was only an accident?

[Kris_J]

Condolenses to the Kovko family & no disrespect to those who have been in the army & their families is intended.

To cut to the chase am I the only one with suspicions about how this soldier died?

Accidental shooting


Private Kovco's body is now expected to arrive in Australia on Saturday morning.
The 25-year-old died on Friday in an accident in Baghdad.
It has been widely reported that he accidentally shot himself while cleaning his weapon.
Dr Nelson says that is wrong and Private Kovco's family is quite distressed about the reports.
But Dr Nelson told Macquarie Radio there is no evidence that the death was anything other than an accident.
"He wasn't in fact cleaning his weapon. It was near him, in his vicinity and he made some kind of movement which suggests that it discharged," he said.
"There was obviously a live round in it which there should not have been and that's as much as I should probably say at the moment."


http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1624901.htm

 

[Brownsy]

Bit hard to tell- in my experience, weapons don't just randomly fire on their own. If he was cleaning it, I would expect an experienced and trained soldier would have unloaded and cleared his weapon before pointing it near himself or anyone else. This is about as basic as weapon training gets in the army.

That being said, the browning 9mm (which I believe is the weapon in question here) is old, and although I'm no expert I suppose it is possible that if the weapong was for some reason loaded and it was dropped or something it MAY have discharged. Seems unlikely, but strange things happen.

Finally though, I can only hope that no-one in either army HQ or the government has tried to cover up faulty eqipment or something by painting an Aussie soldier as incompentent or negligent, this would be simply unacceptable, not to mention un-Australian.

I'm sure time will tell the full story

Blessings to you all

 

[HotToast]

I must agree that the whole affair is odd (what with the wrong body being sent and all). But I don't want to comment on how the story seems to be changing (and what they may or may not be suggesting).

However it was good to see that for the first time they are going to let his wife be involved with the inquiry.

 

[swordsman]

I agree that this whole ordeal does indeed sound very suspect. An experienced soldier shooting himself while cleaning his gun?... I'm sure an experienced soldier would clean an unloaded weapon, or at least a gun with the safety on. Sounds too careless for an "experienced soldier".

They don't say where he has been shot either...whether it be his head, or chest.

 

[HotToast]

I agree that this whole ordeal does indeed sound very suspect. An experienced soldier shooting himself while cleaning his gun?... I'm sure an experienced soldier would clean an unloaded weapon, or at least a gun with the safety on. Sounds too careless for an "experienced soldier".

They don't say where he has been shot either...whether it be his head, or chest.

I heard that it was in the head, and they are now saying that he wasn't cleaning his weapon, but rather it was "near him".

 

[Lil'_Miss_Princess_Aimz]

yea, i was listening to the radio this morning and they said somehow the old gun fired...

but i dunno wot to think really... but i dont think an experienced soldier would have a gun ready to go off...

 

[Neenie1]

I was watching sunrise this morning, and they were saying that the mother of the soldier was saying there is absolutely no way that he would have committed suicide or anything like that, so some people are thinking it is either murder or suicide.

I am very emotional about this because I saw on somewhere where the little boy has been making a calendar of days when his dad is coming home and this mans kids are the same sex and around the same age as mine so it does hit close to home.

 

[little_wing]

Experienced soldiers are sometimes killed in firearms accidents. We lost a guy in Timor to accidental discharge of an Austeyr(this weapon is especially prone to such incidents, I have heard). We should find out shortly what exactly happened.

 

[Brownsy]

Experienced soldiers are sometimes killed in firearms accidents. We lost a guy in Timor to accidental discharge of an Austeyr(this weapon is especially prone to such incidents, I have heard). We should find out shortly what exactly happened.

The incident in Timor was a little different as the soliders weapon discharged after it was heavily jolted whilst in an APC crossing rugged terrain. The way soldiers carry rifles in APC's is between their legs with the barrel facing the roof, so it is at least somewhat understandle how that happened, but from all reports this gun went off all by itself in the barracks whilst it was sitting there, something which from my understanding just doesn't happen.

I suppose (and this is pure speculation) that this could have been a tragic case of friendly fire where Pvt Kovco was shot when another soliders firearm accidentally discharged.

Blessings to you all

 

[Lil'_Miss_Princess_Aimz]

but when they are in the "safe grounds" their weapons are dscharged...

as they come in, they discharge their weapon... and somebody else checks as well that its discharged... so if 2 ppl look to c that its discharged... how can they miss it??

 

[little_wing]

but when they are in the "safe grounds" their weapons are dscharged...

as they come in, they discharge their weapon... and somebody else checks as well that its discharged... so if 2 ppl look to c that its discharged... how can they miss it??

Perhaps they are in a situation where they keep their sidearms loaded in case of sudden insurgent attack??

My prayers go out to the family, and also the other soldier if it indeed was unintentional "friendly fire"

peace

 

[inquisitor_11]

The way soldiers carry rifles in APC's is between their legs with the barrel facing the roof

only if they are complete muppets

as they come in, they discharge their weapon...

Theres a lot of conjecture going on in the media and elsewhwere about whats happened with PTE Kovco, and I think the main things anyone can figure out is that our politicans are far too involved, arent telling things straight and that as always, they dont really care about the welfare of the people who do their dirty work.

 

[Lil'_Miss_Princess_Aimz]

Perhaps they are in a situation where they keep their sidearms loaded in case of sudden insurgent attack??

My prayers go out to the family, and also the other soldier if it indeed was unintentional "friendly fire"

peace

im only saying what i got told off my army friend... thats all..

 

[charlie_hunter]

i cant see a reason for a coverup.

i would have thought australia would have accepted it if it was a weapon fault (the gun is used all over the world) or a suicide or an accident or in the worst case a murder. its not the first time someone has been shot by their own gun.

condolences to the family though, what they're going through must be hell.

 

[little_wing]

im only saying what i got told off my army friend... thats all..

Sorry if you read that the wrong way. The two question marks were meant to indicate the hypothetical nature of my post, not sarcasm. I'm not sure if that's what you meant.

cheers

 

[Lil'_Miss_Princess_Aimz]

Sorry if you read that the wrong way. The two question marks were meant to indicate the hypothetical nature of my post, not sarcasm. I'm not sure if that's what you meant.

cheers

meh, its all kool now.. i cant remember what i meant.. lol.. but yea... i was just stating what i had been told were the rules of the army...

 

[little_wing]

meh, its all kool now.. i cant remember what i meant.. lol.. but yea... i was just stating what i had been told were the rules of the army...

Cool. I wasn't quite sure.. but yeah, sometimes written word doesn't come across the way it played in your head, so I just wanted to clarify.


peace

 

[Talie]

This story is close to home for me, i'm only about 15min away from Briagalong and know a number of people who live there - it's a very small community.

Apparently there were two others in the room at the tiem of the incident. They rendered first aid immediately, he died later in hospital.

Apparently there shouldn't have been any live rounds in the gun - but there were.

Personally, I have a horrible sinking feeling that the three boys might have been messing around - in true Aussie tradition - and something went horribly wrong - with the gun being loaded when they thought it wasn't...

 

[ladyavalon]

I would prefer to reserve judgment, only God, the soldier and others present at the scene would know what actually happened... it is not ours to speculate... leave it up to the authorities.