Yesterday, I wrote of my disgust in reaction to a New York Times article on Army preparedness training which made clear that U.S. soldiers are not well-educated about the conflict into which they are being sent, and are dehumanized, and allow themselves to be dehumanized, by a system that just wants and needs killing machines.

One of those killing machines struck in a quiet neighborhood in Queens shortly before midnight this past Wednesday.

Selina Akther, a resident of the Briarwood neighborhood, went to look out her fifth story window. Below in the street was Danny Carpio, an Army private on home leave from Fort Hood, Texas.
Carousing, he fired a 9-millimeter handgun at least five times. One of his shots hit Ms. Akther. The bullet penetrated her skull, going out the back of her head; paramedics pronounced her dead on the scene while her husband wailed in uncontrollable grief along with the couple’s two young children.
Ms. Akther’s 29th birthday would have been celebrated this New Year’s Eve; her family and friends were planning a surprise party.

Neighbors heard Mr. Akther’s cries as he cradled his wife’s motionless body, as per a report in the New York Times. After calling 911, he ran from the apartment to seek help, accidentally locking himself out. One neighbor said: “He was screaming really, really badly. He was banging at his door. There was blood on his clothes. I said, ‘What’s the matter?’ He was screaming like an animal. He said “My wife is bleeding from her eye.’”

Here is how a woman resident in Briarwood describes the neighborhood: “It’s like everyone is on the same schedule, everyone knows each other. If there is a strange car in the neighborhood, it stands out like a sore thumb. For an incident like this to happen, it’s shocking.”

The Times report on this murder says: “It was unclear if the gun had been issued by the military.”
Whoever might have issued the gun, the military issued the killing machine that used the gun to murder Selina Akther.

The killing machine, Mr. Carpio, claims that the murder was an accident. Accident or no, he deserves zero leniency. He should not have had this gun on his person in the first place, and indeed has been charged with criminal possession of a weapon, and he most certainly should not have been firing it. Because he did, an innocent young woman is dead, leaving her husband bereft and their children motherless.

The U.S. militaristic culture teaches that life is cheap; Ms. Akther’s murder is part of the bottom line of that culture.