Robert Bales

Robert "Bobby" Bales (born June 30, 1973) is an American mass murderer, convicted war criminal, and former U.S. Army sniper who murdered 16 Afghan civilians in a mass shooting in Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, on March 11, 2012 – an event known as the Kandahar massacre.

In order to avoid a possible death sentence, Bales pleaded guilty to 16 counts of murder, six counts of attempted murder, and seven counts of assault in a plea deal. On August 23, 2013, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Before sentencing, Bales expressed his regret by referring to the murders as "an act of cowardice". While Bales has exhausted all military appeals, his attorney announced in 2019 that he would be seeking a new trial in civilian court due to possible side effects of mefloquine, an anti-malaria drug that Bales claims to have been taking at the time of the shooting. and raised in Norwood, Ohio, near Cincinnati, the youngest of five brothers. He attended Norwood High School where he played football and was named class president. After high school Bales briefly enrolled at College of Mount St. Joseph, then transferred to Ohio State University, where he studied economics for three years, but left without graduating in 1996.

After leaving college, Bales worked as a stockbroker at five financial services firms in Columbus, Ohio. In 2003, an arbitration panel found both Bales and his employer liable for financial fraud related to the handling of a retirement account and ordered them to pay $1.2 million in civil damages. Gary Liebschner, the victim, said he "never got paid a penny" of the award. According to Liebschner's lawyer, they had not pursued legal action against Bales to collect the judgment because they were unable to locate Bales, who had joined the U.S. Army at age 28, just 18 months after the long-running arbitration case was filed.

In May 1999, while still employed with a securities firm in Ohio, Bales, his brother Mark, and Marc Edwards co-founded a financial services firm named Spartina Investments in Doral, Florida. The state dissolved Spartina in September 2000, after the company failed to file its annual report in a timely manner.

Bales' brother-in-law stated that Bales joined the Army after the September 11 attacks because he "felt it was something he should do because he felt he had to make something right" and that joining the Army was his way of vindicating himself. He was initially assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry of the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in Fort Lewis. He completed three tours in the Iraq War: twelve months in 2003 and 2004, fifteen months in 2006 and 2007, and ten months in 2009 and 2010. Another confrontation outside of a bar in 2008 was also reported to police, but no charges were filed.

Bales was promoted to staff sergeant (SSG) on April 1, 2008, which made him responsible for nineteen men, whom he believed were insufficiently prepared. It was also at this time that he became increasingly critical about Special Forces superiors, claiming that they were too passive towards the enemy, accompanied by a hostile attitude and a belief that he was not being granted the respect that he believed he had earned. While in Iraq, Bales was injured twice and sustained 10 IED blasts.

Kandahar massacre

On March 10, Bales was posted to guard duty with a private in his unit, with whom he discussed a promotion that he wanted and thought he deserved, since he had already been passed over for the promotion once before. While on watch, Bales saw lights flashing on and off in the nearby villages of Naja Bien and Alikozai, and concluded that Taliban insurgents were communicating with light signals. When he was relieved of guard duty at 9:00pm, he claims that he alerted the new guard team of this and that they did not take him seriously, but the Army denies that the conversation ever took place. He then joined SSG David Godwin and Sergeant (SGT) Jason McLaughlin to drink whiskey mixed with diet soda from a plastic water bottle, although drinking alcohol was prohibited on base. Bales says he had had six or seven drinks over the next couple of hours while watching the movie Man on Fire – a revenge action film about an ex-military bodyguard who goes on a murderous rampage after the girl he has been hired to protect is kidnapped and presumed dead. According to the Army's investigation, as Bales became increasingly intoxicated, he once again discussed his prospective promotion to Sergeant First Class, the anger he felt about his comrades being seriously injured by insurgent attacks, his complaints about the leadership of the Green Berets, his marriage, and his financial troubles. Around midnight, Bales consumed a handful of over-the-counter sleeping pills, stating that he had not slept in days and wanted to rest. The pills did not move him to sleep, so he took his concerns to Green Beret SGT Clayton Blackshear, emphasizing that he felt he and his men were not doing enough to stop Taliban insurgents from operating freely in the area and targeting US soldiers. Bales also requested to take Blackshear's place and run point when the men were patrolling on foot—a job that Bales had done while in Iraq. Per Blackshear's testimony in the Army's investigation, Bales said that he did not care if he died in the line of duty, because his life did not matter as much as the lives of Blackshear and younger soldiers. Blackshear informed Bales that the Green Berets were short-staffed and could not take decisive action until their forces were replenished. Bales then went back to his room and lay awake. According to official reports, Bales left combat outpost Camp Belamby at 3:00am local time wearing night vision goggles. Bales was wearing traditional Afghan clothing over his ACU. Bales is believed to have first gone to Alkozai, about north of Camp Belambay, then to Najiban (called Balandi in earlier reports), located south of the base. Four people were killed and six wounded in Alkozai, and twelve people were killed in Najiban. U.S. sentries at the base heard gunshots in Alkozai, but did not take action besides attempting to view Alkozai from their post inside the base. Until March 22, U.S. authorities recognized 16 people killed, including nine children, four men, and three women. A pile of ashes was found on the floor of one victims' house; at least one child's body was found partially charred. A reporter for The New York Times inspected the children's bodies taken to a nearby American military base and reported seeing burns on some of the legs and heads. It was reported that when he finally returned to the camp and surrendered his weapon, it was wrapped in an Afghan shawl.

Immediately after the massacre, the US Army Criminal Investigation Division went to the scene to attempt to investigate but came under enemy fire; one Afghan soldier was killed in the interaction. When the soldiers finally gained access to the crime scene, families had already removed the bodies and buried them. No photos of the bodies were taken, and DNA evidence was scraped off of the walls of Afghan homes for forensic evidence. A page and a half report was written and officially submitted. The lack of forensic evidence prohibited the confirmation of the accuracy of Afghan allegations against Bales. The DNA evidence gathered from the walls of Afghan homes and from the family members of the deceased was never cross referenced against the US database to verify if any of the three adult males among the sixteen victims were enemy combatants. According to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Bales acknowledged the killings and "told individuals what happened" immediately after being captured. Minutes later, he refused to speak with investigators and asked for an attorney. Browne later said, "I don't know that the government is going to prove much. There's no forensic evidence. There's no confession." Browne met with Bales on March 19 and claims that his client remembers "very little" of the event.

An interview about the investigation with an Army intelligence officer stated that crime scene evidence, specifically that of shot patterns, was being looked at to determine the true nature of the crime. The officer stated that, as a sniper, "Bales is trained to wait for his shot and quietly blend back into his surroundings. But, allegedly, he went contrary to his strongest skillset. He burst into the open, fired up close, and stayed at the scene." The officer deemed this "incomprehensible behavior" and stated that the investigation was ruling out nothing as possible influences in Bales' motivation.

On March 19, 2012, Bales met with Browne at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, prison.

On June 1, 2012, the government dropped one of the murder charges, because one victim had been double counted. Simultaneously, other charges were filed, including abuse of steroids, alcohol consumption, and attempting to destroy evidence. Assault charges were increased from six to seven.

Legal proceedings Browne defended Bales with assigned military lawyers. "I think the message for the public in general is that he's one of our boys and they need to treat him fairly." Browne denied the deadly rampage was caused by alcohol intoxication or marital problems and said Bales was "reluctant to serve." Browne also criticized anonymous reports from government officials, stating "the government is going to want to blame this on an individual rather than blame it on the war." In 2010, he suffered a concussion in a Humvee accident, underwent traumatic brain injury treatment at Fort Lewis, and was deemed healthy. Although Bales was never diagnosed with a mental disorder, Fort Lewis-McChord has had a history of psychiatric misdiagnosis and may have sent soldiers with PTSD back into combat. The hearing included the testimony of eyewitnesses from Afghanistan via a live video link; Bales did not testify. On June 5, Bales pleaded guilty in a plea deal to 16 counts of murder and six counts of assault and attempted murder. When asked by Judge Col. Jeffery Nance "What was your reason for killing them?", he said he had asked himself that question "a million times" and added, "There's not a good reason in this world for why I did the horrible things I did." He maintained he did not recall setting bodies on fire, but admitted the evidence was clear that he had. He said he had taken the steroids solely to be "huge and jacked" and blamed them for "definitely" increasing his irritability and anger.

At the sentencing hearing, defense attorneys argued for a sentence of life with the possibility of parole, arguing that he was a troubled man who snapped, not a "cold-blooded murderer". Bales took to the stand to issue an apology to his victims. Lt. Col Jay Morse, a member of the US Army Trial Counsel Assistance Program, was the lead prosecutor in the Bales case. The prosecution, seeking life without the possibility of parole, closed their arguments with: "In just a few short hours, Sgt. Bales wiped out generations. Sgt. Bales dares to ask you for mercy when he has shown none."

On August 23, 2013, a six-person panel sentenced Bales to life in prison without parole. He was also demoted to the lowest enlisted rank, dishonorably discharged, and forfeited all pay and allowances. Afghan villagers and the families of Bales' victims were upset by the decision, saying he deserved death. In September 2017, the U.S. Army Criminal Appeals Court upheld Bales' conviction and sentencing. The three-judge panel called the allegation of the use of mefloquine by the defense "speculative." The US Supreme Court later refused to hear Bales' appeal. In December 2020, the defense of Bales requested a pardon from President Donald Trump. Trump did not pardon Bales in his first term.

Content During several months of interviews while incarcerated, Bales revealed in depth his recollection of his actions the night of the murders, and why he believed he acted the way he did, to reporter Brendan Vaughan in an article published in GQ magazine on October 21, 2015.

In 2023, a podcast series titled The War Within: The Robert Bales Story covered the story of the Kandahar Massacre, and featured audio recordings of extensive interviews with Bales, as well as commentary from soldiers, lawyers, medical experts, and Afghan civilians who were involved with the case in various capacities.

Personal life Bales is married and has two children.

The Bales family was struggling financially and had put its home up for sale three days before the shootings. The property was listed for $229,000, approximately $50,000 less than what they had paid for it in 2005, and was worth $100,000 less than what they owed the bank.