BALTIMORE CITY, Md.
After first lying to police that they were shot in a gas station robbery, and then claiming to invite a gun wound in an attempt to avoid a fraternity initiation, one shooting victim has confessed the true reason why he asked a Morgan State University student to shoot him — to avoid National Guard duty in Iraq.
David M. Briggs, released on a $50,000 bail after being arrested Monday and charged with handgun violations and making a false police report in connection with a shooting last week, confessed to police that he had asked to be shot because he was trying to escape being deployed to Iraq. Another MSU student was also shot.
But Quientin Banks, Maryland National Guard’s director of public affairs, says Briggs, a private who graduated last August from basic training, was going to be deployed for advance training, not to Iraq.
“The young man tried to avoid service to Iraq, but even if he had went to training he wouldn’t have been sent overseas [immediately] because of the timing and such,” says Banks. “He kind of got himself shot in the leg for nothing.”
Briggs’ unit, the First Battalion 175th Infantry Regiment, based in Dundalk, Md., is leaving today for advance training in Georgia, and will be deploying for Iraq in 60 days.
Clint Coleman, Morgan State’s director of public relations and communications, says he questioned the truth of the shooting story from the beginning.
