[One] day, as the soldiers prepared to head out on a patrol, a small group of three or four Afghan men met them at the gate.
The men were upset. They wanted to know why the Americans shot into their village the day before.
Lorance told them that if they had a problem, they could attend the shura, or meeting, he planned to have later in the week, according to testimony. The Afghans refused to budge.
"He told them to get out of there," Skelton said in his testimony. "He started very aggressively yelling at them, and he started counting, and he pulled back the charging handle on his weapon and chambered a round."
As the soldiers' interpreter "panicked," one of the other soldiers testified, the Afghans turned away and left.
The Americans and a squad of Afghan National Army soldiers began walking out on their patrol.
Just moments into the patrol, Skelton opened fire [...] and then Pvt. David Shilo, operating the M240B machine gun on the truck, killed [...] two Afghans.
[...]
The men on the motorcycle stopped when Skelton first opened fire, Fitzgerald said.
"At that point, they were definitely not any type of threat," he said. "They weren't coming at us."
[...]
[Lorance] falsely reported to his troop commander that he was unable to conduct a battle damage assessment because the bodies had already been removed, [the army prosecutor] said.
"Lieutenant Lorance ordered the murder of these two men," [the army prosecutor] said. "He knew it was murder, and that's why he took so many steps to try to cover it up."
[...]
"We had been in that village so many times," he said. "We knew right then and there these were the village elders, these are the guys that actually matter in the village, and we just killed them."
[...]
Though he didn't fire the weapon, [Lorance] was convicted of making the call. He was also convicted of threatening a local Afghan; firing an M14 rifle into a village and trying to have one of his soldiers lie about receiving incoming fire; and obstructing justice by making a false radio report after the two men on the motorcycle were killed.
[...]
"Over about a three-day period, Lieutenant Lorance … committed crimes of violence and crimes of dishonesty," said Capt. Kirk Otto, who prosecuted the case for the government, according to a transcript of the court-martial.
First, on June 30, 2012, Lorance threatened to kill an Afghan man and his family, Otto said in his opening statement.
The man, a farmer, and his child, who was about 4 years old, were at the gate to talk to the Americans about the concertina wire that was blocking access to his farm field, Otto said.
"He said, 'You move the c-wire, I'll have somebody kill you,'" Spc. James Twist, who was at the scene, testified during the court-martial.
Lorance then tried to have the Afghan turn in IEDs to the Americans, Twist testified.
"He was like, 'You bring us IEDs or we'll have the ANA kill your family,'" Twist said. "And Lieutenant Lorance was like, 'Well, if we ever come onto your land and we step on an IED or we find an IED, I'll have the ANA come and kill your family.' And he pointed to the kid and said, 'Do you want to see your child grow up?'
[...]
[Lorance's] own soldiers [...] claim their platoon leader was ignorant, overzealous and out of control. That he hated the Afghan people and that he had spent recent days tormenting the locals and issuing death threats.
[...]
"He directs harassing fire — illegal harassing fire — at villagers," Otto said.
Lorance directed his soldier to shoot near groups of people, as well as at walls and vehicles, he said. The soldier, Spc. Matthew Rush, refused to shoot when Lorance directed him to fire near a group of children, Otto said.
"These villagers were not doing anything," Otto said. "There was no demonstrated hostile intent. No one heard incoming shots."
[...]
Lorance later tried to have Sgt. Daniel Williams, who was in the tactical operations center, falsely report that the Strong Point received incoming potshots, Otto said.
"He told me to report up that they had taken potshots from the village," Williams testified. "I told him that I wouldn't … because it's a false report."
[...]
Todd Fitzgerald, a former specialist and infantryman in Lorance's platoon, said he felt betrayed by the lieutenant.
"I don't believe that he really understood what he was getting into," he said.
[...]
"Us testifying against him, it wasn't a matter of not liking him, it wasn't a matter of any type of grudge or coercion," he said. "It was simply we knew that his actions, based on our experience, having operated in that area for months, were going to breed further insurgency. If you kill local citizens, they're no longer willing to help you."
Army Times
