The tragedy of a (courageous) murderer's suicide

The parents of Jeffrey Lucey, a U.S. soldier who killed himself after returning home from military duty in Iraq, spoke publicly for the first time on Democracy Now!

Lucey signed up for the Marine Reserves straight out of high school. In February 2003, one month before the invasion, he was shipped out to Iraq. He was deployed there for five months, during which he fought in the battle of Nasiriyah. He returned to the U.S. later that year.

...Three weeks later on June 22nd, Jeffrey Lucey took his own life. He was 23 years old. His father, Kevin came home to find his son had hung himself with a hose in the cellar of their house. The dog tags of two Iraqi prisoners he said he was forced to shoot unarmed, lay on his bed.

KEVIN LUCEY (Jeff's father): My understanding was that there was a higher ranking official who told Jeff, and this is the quote that is etched in my mind, “pull the [bleep] trigger, Lucey.” And it was two unarmed Iraqis. He shot them from about five feet away, and he watched them die. It was the first time, well, that he shot anybody. He told me those deaths he knew he did. That's what he said.
JOYCE LUCEY (Jeff's mother): One of them, he--Debbie just told me on the phone that he said he was looking at this boy's eyes and the boy was shaking. He was shaking.
KEVIN LUCEY: He told me about how that haunted him. “It's somebody's son, it's somebody's brother, pa. It's somebody’s father.” Jeff, I think was writing down when he came back, he didn't see dead soldiers. He saw dead people. That was one of the things that I guess concerns somebody. That's where--that was the beginning of the cancer--the Post-Traumatic Stress.....

.....AMY GOODMAN: What did he say in the suicide letter?
KEVIN LUCEY: It was hard for me to remember. I’m the only one that read them. I was holding Jeff’s body, I was cradling him as I’m trying to read the letters…and he stated that he hoped that we would understand. He wanted to apologize…for…everything he did. He didn't want us to hurt.
KEVIN LUCEY: ....I read newspapers. I’m a news fanatic. And you know, I never
thought about the human cost. I never thought about--I would read statistics and
I would say, god, that's, that's horrible, but that was it. And now it's thrown us into a huge chaotic thing,...

Blindly obeying the order of his superior, Jeffry Lucey committed a cowardic murder. What he did was wrong, was inhumane, was...., but he at least had the courage to admit the crime he committed and he chose to show how regretful he was by taking his own life.