GI Charged in Shooting Death of Kosovo Boy
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia — U.S. military justice authorities said Friday that they had filed charges against an American soldier whose automatic weapon discharged in Kosovo last month, killing a 6-year-old ethnic Albanian boy.
Pfc. Nicholas Young has been charged with negligent homicide and dereliction of duty for the killing of Gentrit Rexhepi in Gornja Slatina, a village in southeastern Kosovo, military authorities said in a statement.
Young’s weapon discharged July 10 when he and other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led Kosovo peacekeeping force were helping to repair school facilities in the village, according to witnesses and military authorities.
The statement said the charges faced by Young, of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, carried a maximum punishment of 3 1/2 years’ confinement, dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of all pay and allowances.
The statement, from Camp Bondsteel, the main U.S. military base in Kosovo, stressed that the accused was presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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