Army orders inquiry into shooting of NFL star

The US army has opened a criminal investigation into the killing of the NFL football star Pat Tillman, two years after telling his family he had died a hero's death in the Afghan war. The investigation was ordered amid bitterness from Tillman's family that it had been misled about the circumstances of the death in April 2004. It took a year for the Pentagon to admit that the former Arizona Cardinals football player had been fatally shot by fellow soldiers and not by enemy fire as originally claimed. The latest investigation–there have been four so far–will examine whether soldiers in Tillman's unit should be charged with negligent homicide. A Pentagon official said on Mar. 5 that it was unclear whether the investigation would result in charges against any troops, and could not recall any case where soldiers had been charged following a friendly fire incident. "Obviously there were some issues that warranted further investigation," the official said. "There have been some missteps along the way in this one." Tillman was an important recruiting tool for the Pentagon when he abandoned a $3.6 million football contract to serve in the military after the 2001 terrorist attacks, and he was awarded a Silver Star for bravery. He enlisted with his brother, Kevin, himself a minor league baseball player. The two had completed a tour of duty in Iraq before being posted to Afghanistan. Since their son's death on the Afghan border with Pakistan, Tillman's parents have led a public and very angry campaign for the Pentagon to disclose the complete circumstances of the killing. "It is completely obvious that this should have been done from the very beginning," Tillman's mother, Mary, told the Washington Post in a recent interview. "The military has had every opportunity to do the right thing, and they haven't. They knew all along that something was seriously wrong, and they just wanted to cover it up." The Pentagon originally reported that Tillman had died a war hero, charging an enemy hill in the last light of day to protect his troops. Although an army investigator found within days that Tillman had been shot dead by his fellow Rangers in an act of "gross negligence," the authorities did not release the information until after a nationally televised memorial service. An army review last year found Tillman's superiors directed his fellow Rangers to remain quiet about his death, and senior commanders were told at the time of his Silver Star award that he had been killed by friendly fire. The Pentagon has admitted that soldiers destroyed Tillman's uniform and other evidence after the shooting. The criminal investigation is expected to examine whether troops violated military law by opening fire on Tillman without properly identifying their target.