Christopher P. Shore

Christopher P. Shore is a Specialist in the U.S. military, originally from Winder, Georgia. He was charged with the June 23, 2007 premeditated murder of an Iraqi.
Evidence, via Air Scan video footage, was presented at trial that showed four Iraqis placing an IED on a road near Kirkuk, Iraq. The men were then attacked by a U.S. artillery barrage. The rounds missed, the four men jumped into a car and sped away. A car chase ensued. The men were chased for about 10 miles by an unmanned drone aircraft at close distance. A U.S. Kiowa Warrior helicopter then engaged the car. The men in the car fired AK-47s from their car windows at the helicopter and the helicopter fired at the car with a 50 - caliber machine gun. The helicopter then fired a Hellfire missile at the car as the men jumped from the car and ran into al Shathid village. The men split up and then congregated in a house in the western side of the village as the helicopter pursued them. A Kiowa and a drone prevented their escape until Infantry soldiers arrived to storm the house.
Shore's elite Scout platoon was called to Air Assault to the house and storm it. The Americans saw children in the house and took the house down using hand to hand combat and fired no weapons.
According to trial testimony, SFC Trey A. Corrales allegedly shot one of the men inside the house and told Shore to finish him. Shore denied killing the man, saying he had intentionally missed him. Shore made a statement to investigators admitting to shooting near the man.
U.S. military member Trey A. Corrales (Sergeant First Class) of San Antonio, Texas, is also implicated in the homicide and charged with murder.
The U.S. military announced Thursday, July 19, 2007, that Trey A. Corrales and Christopher P. Shore have been charged with the premeditated murder of an Iraqi, and battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Michael Browder has been relieved of command by Major General Benjamin R. Mixon, the senior officer in northern Iraq. The U.S. military made this decision to relieve Michael Browder of his command because of the “totality of the circumstances surrounding this incident, and due to a lack of confidence in his ability to command effectively." Browder, although connected to the case, is not a suspect and has not currently been charged.
The alleged murder occurred June 23, 2007, near the northern city of Kirkuk, 160 miles north of Baghdad. U.S. military officials said that investigators began examining the case after they were informed of suspicious circumstances by other soldiers from the same military unit.
The soldiers are assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, which is part of the 25th Infantry Division based in Hawaii. The unit is part of the Multinational Division - North. (see: Multinational Force Iraq)
On 21 February 2008, Shore's civilian court martial defense lawyer, Michael Waddington and Army defense lawyer Major Javier Rivera fought the murder charge in front of an Army jury of officers and enlisted soldiers. SPC Shore was acquitted of murder and convicted of discharging his weapon near the detainee (assault). He was sentenced to 120 days in jail, a reprimand, a 2 rank reduction, and no discharge. Shore will continue to serve in the U.S. Army.
After 60 days of confinement, the commander of the 25th Infantry Division, Brig. General Michael Bednarek, released SPC Shore from prison and returned him to duty. The General deferred the sentence and let Shore out of prison after serving 72 days. On May 21, 2008, Brig. General Bednarek reduced Shore's conviction to simple assault, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum of 90 jails in jail. The change erased the soldier’s felony record. The general also reduced Shore's jail time to "time-served" and restored Shore to his former rank of Specialist. At the end of May 2008, Shore was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and continues to serve as an Army Scout.
Corrales was tried for murder and acquitted of all charges.

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