A Fort Bragg soldier was arrested for the shooting death of an off-duty military police officer on the North Carolina base – the latest in a five-month string of violent incidents involving base personnel.
Pfc. Sherman Terrell Cooley, 21, was picked up Monday by Fort Bragg and FBI investigators in connection with Saturday’s killing of Spc. Jacob Aaron Jarrell, 21.
Fort Bragg spokesman Maj. Gary Tallman said the GI is being investigated for murder, obstruction of justice and illegal transportation of a firearm onto the base.
Cooley’s grandmother, Annie Cooley, told The Post her grandson got the gun after he was shot once in the chest while he was being robbed outside the base in February.
“After he got shot, he got scared,” Annie Cooley said from their hometown of Mobile, Ala. “He is a good child.”
Cooley allegedly used the unregistered weapon to shoot Jarrell one time in the head after the two men, along with at least 20 soldiers and civilians, got into a brawl around 10 p.m., Tallman said.
Jarrell, who is from Lake Charles, La., died an hour later at Womack Army Medical Center.
It is unclear what started the fight.
Cooley, who is assigned to the 58th Maintenance Company, is expected to be transported to a military lockup at Camp Lejeune, N.C., as early as today.
He is the only participant in the brawl to be charged.
Jarrell’s murder was the sixth homicide since late June involving Fort Bragg soldiers – and, if found guilty, Cooley would be the fourth assailant who served in Afghanistan.
Cooley and Jarrell recently returned from tours in that country.