The U.S. Army determined days after Army Ranger Pat Tillman's 2004 death in Afghanistan that the former professional football player had been killed by friendly fire, but kept it secret for weeks and even destroyed evidence, Army officials said on Wednesday. A 1,600-page report by Brig. Gen. Gary Jones of the Army Special Operations Command found that the Army did not tell his family or the public that Tillman had been killed mistakenly by fellow Rangers until weeks after his nationally televised memorial service, officials said.
At the time, the Army's public account of Tillman's death on April 22, 2004, in a remote canyon near the Pakistani border indicated he had been slain by enemy fire during an ambush.
Tillman walked away from his lucrative National Football League career to join the military along with his brother in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He was widely hailed as a hero and role model.
Jones' findings, first reported by The Washington Post and confirmed by Army officials, stated American soldiers at the scene and local U.S. commanders knew from the start it was friendly fire.
An initial Army investigation determined within days that Tillman was shot by U.S. soldiers, and an investigator accused those who fired on him of "gross negligence," Jones found.
The day after his death, U.S. personnel burned Tillman's bloody body armor and uniform, which Jones called the destruction of evidence. Army officers also instructed soldiers knowledgeable about the incident to keep quiet for fear the news media would learn the truth, the report found.
"Leading his Rangers without regard for his own safety, Tillman was shot and killed while focusing his efforts on the elimination of the enemy forces and the protection of his team members," Army Special Operations Command said in a public statement on April 30, 2004, several days after Army investigators had established friendly fire as the cause.
A FOOTBALL STAR
Tillman played for four years in the National Football League but walked away from a $3.6 million contract with the Arizona Cardinals to sign up as an elite Army Ranger. Tillman's brother also served as a Ranger.
Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, said, "Notifying families in a timely way that they have a loved one killed or severely injured is complex and often imperfect work. We can do better."
The Army instructed Jones to investigate in response to lingering questions by Tillman's family about his death.
Jones found that Army leaders and Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, had been informed before the May 3, 2004, memorial service that Tillman had died from friendly fire. Central Command issued a statement on May 29, 2004, stating Tillman "died as a probable result of friendly fire while his unit was engaged in combat with enemy forces."
The Jones report described confusion among U.S. soldiers during the incident, and said fellow Rangers failed to identify at whom they were firing when they shot toward Tillman. It said Tillman waved his arms and threw a smoke grenade to try in vain to show he was not the enemy.
The U.S. soldiers who shot at Tillman, the report found, described poor light as the sun set, and said they targeted the same place as their team leader, assuming he was shooting at the enemy.