Cassaundra Nichole Beckel

On Saturday, April 4, 2009, Kevin Patrick Beckel, 23 years old, shot and killed his 19-year-old wife, Cassaundra Nichole Beckel, inside the Ft. Bliss Post Exchange (PX).

The wife, a soldier, had been at Ft. Bliss less than two weeks for training. The husband, who was from Gurnee, Illinois, had lived in Washington State for about a year and had recently moved to El Paso, Texas. According to witnesses, the two had experienced some marital problems recently.

Kevin Beckel, who was unemployed, was seen at the Post Exchange before his wife entered the PX around 4 p.m. Saturday. The two exchanged some conversation inside the PX, then Kevin Beckel pulled out a gun and shot his wife at close range before turning the gun on himself. A suicide note was found at Kevin Beckel’s El Paso residence.

Kevin Beckel

Cassaundra Beckel was pronounced dead at 4:45 p.m. Saturday. Kevin Beckel was pronounced brain dead at 10:55 a.m. Sunday, but was kept on life support until this morning.

The FBI continues to work this case with the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Division. The FBI has primary jurisdiction whenever a civilian crime occurs at a federal reservation (Ft. Bliss, in this case).  [FBI]

Yesterday another shooting happened involving Ft. Bliss when a soldier shot and killed a local Chapin High School student:

Ezra Gerald Smith

A Chapin High School student who would have graduated in June was shot and killed Friday morning, allegedly by a soldier whose motive remained a mystery.

The bullet felled Ezra Gerald Smith, 18, who was riding his bike to school in a military housing area near Fort Bliss.

Army Spc. Gerald Polanco allegedly shot Smith dead about 7:50 a.m., Fort Bliss officials said.

Polanco, 37, also was charged with shooting and wounding another soldier.Polanco was in a home when he allegedly opened fire. Both victims were outside, said Maj. Gen. Howard B. Bromberg, commanding officer at Fort Bliss.

The second victim, a male soldier whose name was withheld by post administrators, was in stable condition at Beaumont Army Medical Center. Bromberg said the soldier had non-life-threatening wounds.

Twenty minutes after the gunfire, Polanco turned himself in to military police and was arrested. Bromberg could offer no possible motive for the shootings.  [El Paso Times]

It is incredible this soldier just opens fire from his home and shoots two people going by his house killing one of them.  From all accounts I have seen the deceased victim was a good kid and that this appears to be unprovoked, especially since it happened at 7:50 AM in the morning.

Specialist Gerald Polanco training an Iraqi police officer.

What is even stranger is that the killer Gerald Polanco is former police officer that was 37 years old and originally from Del Rio, Texas.  He was working as an MP with the 401st Military Police Company and has deployed to Iraq before.    I have to wonder if this guy was high on drugs or something when he opened fire on the two people passing by his house?

If anyone is wondering shootings on Ft. Bliss are extremely rare.  I saw on the news after the PX shooting that there hadn’t been a violent shooting death on Ft. Bliss in twenty years and now there has been two in a month.  Let’s hope there isn’t more and that this is not a start of a gun crime trend on Ft. Bliss.