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Carson soldier charged in fatal shooting

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A Fort Carson soldier has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in a weekend shooting that left one woman dead.

It is the sixth homicide in Colorado since 2007 linked to a Fort Carson soldier.

Sgt. Scott Schwall said 24-year-old Thomas Woolly was arrested in connection with the shooting at an apartment in the 4000 block of Westmeadow Drive shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday.

Police said officers arrived at the apartment to find that 19-year-old Lisa Baumann of Colorado Springs had been fatally shot. Police said Woolly had accidentally shot himself in the leg and was treated and released from a hospital for a minor injury.

Woolly was released from jail Monday after posting $10,000 bail. Police spokesman Steve Noblitt told The Gazette of Colorado Springs the manslaughter charge Woolly is being investigated for may indicate the shooting was not intentional or premeditated.

Woolly’s arrest is the latest in a string of slayings over two years in which a Fort Carson soldier has either been convicted or named as a suspect. The trend caused former Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar to ask the Army last year to investigate the killings.

The military commissioned a task force to look into any commonalities in the homicides, which implicated Iraq War veterans from Fort Carson’s 4th Brigade Combat Team — a 500-soldier unit which nicknamed itself the Lethal Warriors. Last week, Army Secretary Pete Geren said during a visit to Fort Carson that the study was nearly complete and would be released within a few weeks.

Nationally, at least 121 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have committed a killing in the United States or been charged in one.

The Gazette reported that Woolly was a heavy machine gunner in the same combat unit as the soldiers who have been investigated for other homicides.

Woolly was awarded a Purple Heart during his second tour of duty in Iraq, according to the newspaper. He was also in Fort Carson’s Warrior Transition Unit, which provides support for soldiers returning from combat who were injured or have psychiatric disorders.

Woolly, of Oklahoma City, does not have a listed phone number in Colorado and couldn’t be reached for comment.