Report: Army soldier shot, killed commander at Fort Bragg

An Army soldier allegedly shot and killed his battalion commander at Fort Bragg, N.C., on Thursday. The soldier had been facing court martial and possible discharge, NBC News reported.

The shooter, who had been an Army specialist for eight years and had been a member of the security detail in Afghanistan for the commander he killed, stood accused of stealing a tool box worth $1,700 from the Fort Bragg motor pool. He pulled a pistol on his commander during a standard brief on proper safety protocol for Fourth of July and fired three times without warning, according to NBC.

The shooter was critically wounded in the head during the ensuing struggle to subdue him, and is not expected to survive. A third soldier also was wounded during the struggle.

Shootings in military bases are a growing concern: An Army psychiatrist was charged with killing 13 people and wounding 43 more in a shooting rampage in Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 9, 2009, and law enforcement authorities last year thwarted another attempted attack on that base. The Fort Hood tragedy prompted a Pentagon-wide effort to prevent similar violence.