The Army sergeant accused of shooting five soldiers at a Georgia military base was a “hard worker” who was previously bullied over a speech impediment, co-workers said, according to a report.
Sgt. Quornelius Radford, 28, who allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Stewart Wednesday morning, was the target of bullying over a speech impediment while in Advanced Individual Training at Fort Lee in 2018, former Army pals told NBC News.
“He got bullied a lot,” Sgt. Cameron Barrett, 28, a friend of Radford’s back in 2018, told the outlet.
“It was very bad to the point where he could barely talk.”
Sgt. Carlos Coleman, who was in the same formation with Radford at Fort Lee, told the outlet that the alleged gunman went quiet after people mocked his stutter.
“It was easy for those people to make fun of him for the way he spoke,” Coleman said. “After that, he really didn’t speak much.”
“I just saw him get quiet. I’ve never seen him angry. That’s why I’m so surprised.”
A former coworker, QuaSaondra Cobb, described Radford as a “hard worker” who she would goof around with during lunch breaks, the news station reported.
All three said they were shocked when Bradford was identified as the quelled active shooter at the Georgia base.
“I just want to know what pushed him to that point,” Coleman said.
Radford posted on Facebook on January 28 that a loved one was killed in a wrong-way car crash. The accused mass shooter wrote that he cried and drank alcohol to “make that pain feeling go away,” NBC reported.
In May, Radford was arrested for driving under the influence in Hinesville, Ga., a small town near the base.
The suspect sent a cryptic text message to his aunt just before the shooting, saying that “he loved everybody and that he’ll be in a better place because he was about to go do something,” The New York Times reported.
His father Eddie Radford told The Times that his son had been seeking a transfer off of Fort Stewart after experiencing racism at the base for years.
The accused shooter enlisted in 2018 and has been stationed at Fort Stewart since 2022.
Radford allegedly opened fire on coworkers in his unit, injuring five before being tackled and subdued by six unarmed Army soldiers on Wednesday.
Those courageous soldiers received the Meritorious Service Medal on Thursday.
All of the injured soldiers were transported to Winn Army Community Hospital and are expected to recover.
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