Five former Blackwater guards indicted in 2007 shootings
The Justice Department charged the guards with killing unarmed civilians in Baghdad. A sixth guard pleaded guilty.
Reporting from Washington, D.C. — The Justice Department today announced the indictment of five former Blackwater security guards in the 2007 shooting of unarmed civilians in Baghdad. It said a sixth had already pleaded guilty.
The men surrendered to authorities in Utah today in an effort to get the case tried there rather than in Washington, D.C., where they were indicted.
They were charged with manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and using a machine gun in a crime of violence in a 35-count indictment.
Prosecutors said at least 34 unarmed civilians, including women and children, were killed without justification. The guards maintain that they simply responded when they were attacked.
Meyer is a writer in our Washington bureau.
josh.meyer@latimes.com
