posted by Jennifer Hlad on Jan 10
Sgt. Joshua Henderson’s lawyer, Charles Gittins, said Henderson will not testify.
Henderson was the gunner in the second vehicle in the convoy, which was the main target of the vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. Testimony has indicated Henderson did most of the shooting.
“He’s in the zone of people who could be prosecuted, because he’s a gunner,” Gittens said about why he told Henderson not to testify. “All they have to do is grant him immunity.”
Henderson engaged about four targets, as well as vehicles that refused to get out of the way after the blast, Gittins said. He shot the vehicles’ engine blocks, not the occupants, Gittins said.
Henderson also was injured in the attack, but still has not received his Purple Heart, Gittins said.
In a detailed statement given in March, Henderson described in detail the targets he fired at, what they were doing, and why he shot, Gittins said. The men were military-aged males — two who apeared to be using an SUV as cover and two who were in an open area, as well as one behind him.
Henderson identified muzzle flashes and the whiz and crack of rounds over his head and in the turret, he said in the statement. He had deployed twice previously to Iraq and been ambushed twice during those deployments.
Gittins was attending the court of inquiry as an observer. He said his client was inches away from death.
“But for the turret of that vehicle, my client would have been shot,” Gittins said.