A Ghanaian-American family in the US is sad about the death of their son, who died at a military base in Alabama under strange circumstances.
The soldier’s family and close friends are in a lot of pain and shock after hearing the sad news.
The military says that Pvt. Abdul-Nafsu Latifu, a 21-year-old soldier, was killed in a “altercation with another soldier” at Fort Rucker in Alabama, where he was training to become an Army air traffic control operator.
A person close to the family said that the news of his death was posted on local websites in Alabama as early as 11:30 am CST, even though his next-of-kin didn’t find out that he was in the hospital and in critical condition until four hours later.
Before he joined the US Army, Pvt. Abdul N. Latifu lived in New York. All the people who have met him say that he is very smart and polite. As family, friends, and neighbors come to his New York home to grieve with the family, they continue to say nice things and ask questions.
A neighbor said, “He was always happy and one of the smartest kids I’ve met.”
“This news is hard for me to understand because Latifu won’t fight anyone for any reason. At best, he walks away. So, to say the least, I’m shocked,” said another.
“There’s something wrong with this. Someone needs to start telling us the truth, not what they’re telling us. What are they trying to hide? A friend of the person who died who was crying and shocked by the news.
Jimmie Cummings, a public information officer at Fort Rucker, has only said what happened around the time the dead man was taken to the hospital because of injuries he got in the supposed fight.
The message also said that another soldier involved in the incident should be held, but it didn’t say who that soldier was. The person who is accused of killing Pvt. Latifu is said to have used an Army-issued steel folding shovel in the attack that killed him.
The U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Rucker said in a follow-up statement that no formal charges have been filed, but agents from the Army Criminal Investigation Division are looking into what happened.
The leader of Fort Rucker, Maj. Gen. Michael McCurry, said, “On behalf of the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Rucker, I send Pvt. Latifu’s family, friends, and community our deepest condolences. McCurry said in a statement that everyone was saddened by the death of a young soldier who had a lot of potential.
Pvt. Latifu was in the Army’s Advanced Individual Training program at Fort Rucker. He was part of the 1st Battalion, 13th Aviation Regiment, 1st Aviation Brigade.
As it stands, the communication from the military seems like a cover-up, according to the soldier’s family and close friends.
No one knows how far the investigation into the apparent murder of the 21-year-old son, brother, uncle, and promising soldier has gone, but the army says it is looking into the matter thoroughly.
