A Fort Bliss noncommissioned officer was shot and killed late Sunday night by his 13-year-old stepson after the soldier allegedly assaulted the teenager’s mother, according to El Paso detectives.
Officials at Fort Bliss, Texas, confirmed that the deceased soldier was Sgt. 1st Class Allan Edwards, a 31-year-old native of Telford, Tennessee, assigned to the 1st Armored Division Operations Section.
Edwards was shot at an apartment north of Fort Bliss at about midnight in the 10550 block of McCombs Street. El Paso police responded to an aggravated assault call at the apartment and found Edwards dead inside.
Detectives found that Edwards assaulted his stepson’s mother earlier in the day, which the teenager witnessed, according to the El Paso Police Department. That incident took place outside their residence.
Once they returned to the apartment, the stepson armed himself with a handgun belonging to Edwards, according to detectives. When the couple began to argue again, the teenager produced the handgun and shot Edwards.
The stepson, who was not named because he is a juvenile, was taken into custody and turned over to the Juvenile Probation Department. Detectives say they are continuing an investigation into the shooting.
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El Paso police labeled the incident a “murder” in their initial news release Monday but said no charges have been filed against the teenager.
Edwards joined the Army in 2008 as an M1 armor crewman, according to Fort Bliss officials. He has been assigned to the Texas installation since 2014. Fort Bliss was his third duty station, and he had one combat deployment to Afghanistan.
Edwards had completed the Army Senior Leader Course in 2020.
Col. Bryan Frizzelle, assistant chief of staff for operations at the 1st Armored Division, praised Edwards for giving “100 percent daily to the team and his profession.”
“Edwards was a determined senior noncommissioned officer who leaves a legacy of armor crew members that are more confident in their profession,” Frizzelle said in a prepared statement issued by Fort Bliss.
The statement did not mention the domestic assault allegations, but referred comment regarding the investigation to the El Paso Police Department.
The off-post death comes a month-and-a-half after two Army sergeants assigned to the installation were arrested, and one was charged with murder, following a bar fight in El Paso’s Cincinnati district Feb. 8.
The shooting was close to a different bar where another Fort Bliss soldier was stabbed multiple times in late January.
Both incidents are expected be raised during the next meeting of Fort Bliss’ disciplinary control board, which determines off-limits locations for soldiers, 1st Armored Division spokeswoman Lt. Col. Allie Payne previously told Army Times.
Kyle Rempfer was an editor and reporter who has covered combat operations, criminal cases, foreign military assistance and training accidents. Before entering journalism, Kyle served in U.S. Air Force Special Tactics and deployed in 2014 to Paktika Province, Afghanistan, and Baghdad, Iraq.
