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Fort Bragg locater

Three white soldiers charged in killings of 2 blacks

December 9, 1995
Web posted at: 3:55 p.m. EST

FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- Three white soldiers from Fort Bragg were charged Friday in the killing of an African-American couple during what police said was an outing to find blacks to harass.

Fayetteville police department's Lt. Richard Bryant described the murdered man and woman as "two innocent people walking down the street." Michael James, 36, and Jackie Burden, 27, were shot at least five times in the head at close range.

Burmeister Wright

Pvt. James Norman Burmeister II, 20, and Pvt. Malcolm Wright, 21, of Fort Bragg's 82nd Airborne Division have been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of James and Burden, and held without bond. Army specialist Randy Lee Meadows, 21, also with the same division, was charged with two counts of conspiracy to murder. He will be arraigned Monday.

Burmeister and Wright were arrested in a trailer where police found a 9-mm semiautomatic pistol, white supremacist pamphlets, a Nazi flag, Hitler pamphlets and a magazine called "Resistance."

They were scheduled for a probable cause hearing Dec. 19. Each will be assigned a court-appointed attorney.

Police said Meadows was driving the car the three men were "cruising" in. Burmeister and Wright apparently got out of the car and approached the victims on foot.

Arrest

The suspects apparently had discussed and planned the attack, following an evening of drinking. Police did not reveal which soldier was suspected to have pulled the trigger.

"As far as we know, (the soldiers) had no history of prior contact with the individuals," Fayetteville police department's Capt. Brad Chandler said. "We believe it was a random shoot."

Police said as far as they can tell, the suspects were not part of any organized hate group. If anything there were wannabes, who had a gun and for some reason decided to shoot two people.

Burmeister of Thompson, Pennsylvania has been stationed at Fort Bragg for about two years. It was not known how long Wright of Lexington, Kentucky or Meadows have been at the post.

The mother of Michael James believes her son was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. She hopes the suspects confess. "There won't be no hard feelings from me," Lilly James said. "I would like to know why they would shoot them in the head, or shoot them at all."



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