Panel: Fort Hood’s Army investigators lacked experience to handle post’s crimes
AUSTIN, Texas — The head of an independent team assigned to unravel the root cause behind systemic violence and sexual assaults plaguing Fort Hood told Congress this week that the agents assigned to solve crimes on post have for years lacked enough experience and leadership to properly respond.
Christopher Swecker — a lawyer and 24-year veteran of the FBI who last year led the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee that investigated the post in the wake of 20-year-old Spc. Vanessa Guillen’s brutal slaying — said Tuesday that during his team’s investigation he learned that the majority of Fort Hood’s Criminal Investigation Command was made up of apprentice agents with less than three years’ experience who operated without much, if any, expert oversight.
As a result, the slew of criminal investigations at Fort Hood often went incomplete, along with paperwork to back up that the agents properly handled the cases. Swecker also said it appeared that agents took a checklist approach to investigations, frequently failing to use forensics to solve crimes and letting expire phone tracking programs used in investigating crimes or searching for missing soldiers.
“I wouldn’t lay the blame on the individual special agents, I think it’s more the system,” Swecker said, explaining to lawmakers that Fort Hood agents who have any level of experience often leave the Central Texas training post for better advancement opportunities.
“They themselves are victims of a system,” he added, referring to the agents.
Swecker said Fort Hood’s Criminal Investigation Command, or CID, was also severely understaffed. He said for about two years leading up to Guillen’s death, which ultimately sparked investigations into the post, Fort Hood’s CID was on average about 60% understaffed.
“In essence, we found that it was a training ground,” Swecker said. “There were simply too few journeyman-level agents to work the complex sex crimes cases, death cases, while still mentoring the large number of inexperienced and uncredentialed special agents who were constantly transferring in and out.”
Swecker’s statements on Capitol Hill Tuesday appeared damning because it could explain why it took Army investigators months to use forensics testing to find blood residue in the weapons room on post where Guillen was last seen.
Authorities now believe a fellow Fort Hood soldier, Spc. Aaron David Robinson, killed Guillen with a hammer in that post armory on April 22. He remained working on post until July 1, when Killeen police say he took his own life as they tried to detain him for questioning after Guillen’s dismembered remains were found near the Leon River in Bell County.
However, Killeen police have refused to give the Austin American-Statesman body camera footage of Robinson’s death, citing laws that allow video to be withheld if a suspect dies and cannot be convicted of a crime.
Swecker’s testimony about the lack of experienced Fort Hood CID agents could also explain why it took investigators several weeks to find text messages and track Guillen’s phone, which eventually placed Robinson with Guillen just minutes before she was last seen on post.
Maj. Gen. Donna Martin, commanding general of the U.S Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, was also called to testify to lawmakers Tuesday.