Army Ranger: ‘It is possible’ I shot Pat Tillman
Apr 18, 2014, 2:55 PM | Updated: 3:05 pm
PHOENIX — One of the Army Rangers who opened fire on former Arizona Cardinals star Pat Tillman 10 years ago said it’s possible that he fired the fatal shot.
Steven Elliott, who left the Army in 2007, told ESPN, the story of the day Tillman was killed.
“It is possible, in my mind, that I hit him,” said Steven Elliott, who had been engaged in his first firefight as an Army Ranger when Tillman died on April 22, 2004, in the mountainous terrain of southeast Afghanistan.
Tillman was killed during an ambush. His platoon was split in two and trapped in a valley. When he and two other troops ascended a ridge line to provide cover for the second portion of the platoon, friendly fire turned his way.
Three soldiers opened fire on Tillman, who was killed after being shot in the head three times. While Elliott was originally ruled out as the likely shooter because he operated a machine gun, Elliott said it could have been him because he was trained to fire his weapon with the accuracy of a rifle.
“If it looked like you had [three] rounds and very close to one another, well, that was very consistent to how I was firing my weapon at that point. … It would be disingenuous for me to say there is no way my rounds didn’t kill him, because my rounds very well could have.”
The other two men who shot at Tillman declined ESPN’s request for an interview.
