The previous commander of 1st Special Forces Group, who was charged with assault and kidnapping after a 2020 armed standoff with police involving his spouse and youngsters, has been discovered responsible of three out of the seven expenses in opposition to him.
Col. Owen Ray was discovered responsible of reckless endangerment, felony harassment and second-degree assault whereas armed. The second rely of second-degree assault was dismissed and Ray was discovered not responsible of first-degree kidnapping and two extra counts of felony harassment.
The Army quietly allowed Ray, who final served as chief of employees of Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s I Corps, to retire after the incident with an honorable discharge.
Ray will likely be sentenced throughout a listening to on Oct. 28. He faces as much as 10 years in jail, and is at the moment on a no-bail maintain on the Pierce County Jail in Washington.
“He’s not up there to say goodbye to his youngsters,” Pierce County deputy prosecutor Loren Halstrom mentioned of Ray’s actions through the trial, as reported by the Tacoma News Tribune. “He’s not up there to clarify why he’s going away, he’s up there as a result of he needed management. He needed the ability, and he had that energy. He had the gun. He is aware of the ability, the hazard, the fear of getting a gun.”
The costs in opposition to the previous Inexperienced Beret stem from a Dec. 27, 2020, incident during which Ray bought into an argument along with his spouse at his house close to base. He went into his storage to get his weapons, a rifle and a pistol, after saying “let’s do that,” as his spouse hid with their youngsters within the youngsters’ room, Pierce County prosecutors mentioned in an affidavit.
After changing into even additional “enraged” at his spouse for calling emergency companies, he proceeded to berate and beat her in entrance of their youngsters, the affidavit added.
“He pointed the gun at [the wife] and threatened to kill her,” the affidavit said. “He proceeded to kick [her] again and again along with his boots within the face and chest. The 2 youngsters had woken up and had been screaming, ‘don’t kill mother, don’t shoot us.’”
State and native police managed to speak Ray down after a two-hour stand-off.
A Special Forces “tab revocation” was initiated originally of the yr, Army Instances beforehand reported, however no official phrase has been given as as to whether Ray misplaced his beret and tab. Requests for remark to Army Human Assets Command on the matter weren’t returned.
Whereas Army awards laws state the commander of the Particular Warfare Heart and College can revoke the Special Forces tab and inexperienced beret if a soldier “has dedicated any act or engaged in any conduct inconsistent with the integrity, professionalism, and conduct of a SF Soldier,” it’s unclear on who handles that motion for a retiree.
“Many individuals [in the special operations community] typically aren’t proud of the result” of Ray’s navy self-discipline, a supply straight conversant in the transfer to revoke Ray’s tab informed Army Instances beforehand. “The notion is that he bought off scot free…whereas a [staff sergeant] in his place would have gotten fried.”
In his trial this month, Ray’s protection group argued that his actions stemmed from years of unresolved battles with publish traumatic stress dysfunction following eight deployments to the Center East and Asia and 25 complete years of service.
Rachel is a Marine Corps veteran and a grasp’s candidate at New York College’s Enterprise & Financial Reporting program.
