He was, in his family’s eyes, the most stable guy in the world. The kind of man who remembers to send his mom flowers on Mother’s Day, even while fighting a war. A man who practiced tai chi and fished for trout with his dad.
He was, they say, a man who so loved his country that he joined the National Guard three years out of high school, then went active duty and made the Army his life, serving in Kosovo and Bosnia and, finally, Iraq — not once but three times.
This is the John Russell his father and mother, son and three sisters know and still love.
He is far different from the man who authorities say overpowered a comrade and took his weapon, then stalked into a military mental-health clinic in Baghdad, opened fire and gunned down five of his brothers in uniform.
That John Russell stands accused now of the deadliest act of soldier-on-soldier violence in the six-year war in Iraq.
The military has released few details as its investigation continues, leaving little to help explain how a 44-year-old career military man could go from “stable” to homicidal just weeks before he was to head back home.
“I love my brother,” Russell’s sister, Jennifer Young, told The Associated Press this week. “He is a loving, wonderful person and he would never hurt anyone when he was in his right mind.”
Russell’s past reveals little that would hint at the onslaught of violence that erupted Monday in Baghdad.
In his 20s, he was charged with misdemeanor trespassing for entering an uninhabited structure, say police records. He spent 17 days in jail and paid a $200 fine.
There was an ugly divorce from his first wife, Denise. In 1993, a month after the divorce decree was issued, Russell was charged with misdemeanor assault by threats, but the matter was later dropped, court records show.
All that was long past, though. He was remarried to a German woman, and they lived together in Bamberg, Germany, where Russell was stationed for the past decade.
Russell’s sister, Jennifer, said her brother sought help in Germany after he began having nightmares after his second tour of duty. “They saw him four times, sent him home and sent him back to Iraq,” she said.
In Baghdad, Maj. Gen. David Perkins told reporters that Russell was ordered to the mental-health clinic by his superiors, presumably because of concern over his emotional state. Russell’s weapon also was taken from him.
Russell’s father, Wilburn, wonders whether his son snapped under questioning by counselors, or feared that his career was over.
“These guys in the stress center were probably younger than him . . . and here they are evaluating him and harassing him. You take that stuff personally. He couldn’t cope,” he said. “The military was his identity. The military turned against him.”
