One of the two victims of the shooting at a supermarket in Oregon was convicted of sexual crimes against minors while in the Army.
Donald Surrett Jr., of 66 years old, died on Sunday trying to stop Ethan Blair Miller, of 20, who entered to a Safeway store in Bend and shot at those present with an AR-15.
The ex-soldier confronted the gunman with a knife, which prevented him from continuing the attack against other people.
However, Surrett Jr. ended up fatally shot.
His intervention led him to be named a “hero” in news reports of the incident, in which he also A client, identified as Glen Bennett, of 84, died. Miller took his own life after the attack.
Less than a week after the events, media reports such as the Daily Mail refer to the criminal record of Surrrett Jr. Documentation from the Oregon State Police reveals that the man pleaded guilty in 1994 to two counts of carnal knowledge and two counts of indecent acts while serving in the military.
I had 10 at the time.
A military court sentenced him to 10 years in prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
As a result of conviction, Surrett was demoted from sergeant first class to private. The man did not serve the sentence in its entirety and moved to Oregon in the early 1990s 2000.
Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel confirmed that Surrett was convicted of indecent acts with a minor, although the nature of the attacks is not clear, nor is the age or origin of the victim.
Information from the state sex offender registry indicates that the level 1 offender did not reoffend after being released from prison.
In a video of the shooting, Surrett is seen hiding until the suspect shoots and kills Bennet. Next, Miller approaches him and he tries to defend himself with a knife. They both bumped into each other at the back of the store in the production section and the clerk tried to disarm him.
Sheila Miller, a spokeswoman for the Bend Police Department, told Oregon Public Broadcasting that the deceased’s criminal past should not overshadow his efforts to try to stop the gunman.
“Surrett’s record does not change the fact that in this instance, faced with great danger, he acted heroically by attacking and attempting to disarm a gunman active in his workplace ”, considered the spokeswoman.
“Although Mr. Surrett’s past could complicate the way people feel about his legacy, his actions at the time were courageous and for those actions, he deserves acknowledgment”, he pointed out.
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