Iraq contractor whistleblower killed after being hit by a vehicle.

[JohnyCanuck]

Shane Schmidt, a private security guard in Iraq who raised questions about lax government oversight of U.S. defense contractors when he accused his boss of randomly shooting at, and perhaps killing, civilians in Baghdad, died Sept. 19 at a hospital in Marshfield, Wis. He was 33.

Mr. Schmidt, a Haymarket resident who was visiting family in Wisconsin, was crossing a road near Marshfield just after midnight when he was struck by a vehicle. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died, according to a news release from the local sheriff's department. The incident was under investigation.

snip

One of the four, shift leader Jacob C. Washbourne, was scheduled to leave Iraq the next day for a vacation in the United States. "I want to kill somebody today," he said as he cocked his gun, according to the other three men in the vehicle.

In two separate encounters later that day, Washbourne fired unprovoked into the windshields of an occupied taxi and pickup truck, said Mr. Schmidt and a colleague, former Army Ranger Charles L. Sheppard III. They suspected that civilians had been seriously injured or killed, although they didn't know.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/23/AR2010092307293.html

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[flyarm]

2. another Truth teller dead..some things change and others NOT. eom

[lunatica]

3. The article doesn't say much about the accident (murder?)

Who took him to the hospital? Another motorist? The person who hit him? Was it a hit and run. Don't they usually say it's a hit and run if that's the case?

But the rest of the article sure sets up a motive. It would make an interesting book and movie. Did Washbourne get fired too?

[JohnyCanuck]

5. You're right, the article doesn't specify that it was a hit and run

(although it does leave that possibility open), so I changed the title on the OP to match the facts as presented.

Thanks

[BrklynLiberal]

4. "The incident was under investigation." riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight..like they will EVER find out the

true story of what happened to him....

Sickening, just sickening.

There are many others I would nominate to be killed by a hit and run...and it never happens to them.

[aquart]

6. I'm just guessing: no skidmarks?

[maryf]

7. K&Rnt