ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 10, 1995 TAG: 9512110107
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: The New York Times
After a third white soldier was charged in the killing of a black couple in Fayetteville, N.C., Army officials said they were examining whether there were patterns of extremist activity at Fort Bragg. The three suspects were in possession of Nazi flags and white supremacist literature.
Maj. Rivers Johnson, a spokesman for the Army's 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, said Friday the shootings were an ``isolated incident,'' but he acknowledged that the division was ``reviewing the units'' for any evidence of ``patterns of activity that are incompatible with Army policy.''
The brutal and seemingly random shootings, which occurred early Thursday, appeared to be racially motivated. Police in Fayetteville said the soldiers had been drinking and apparently were looking for blacks to harass.
The officials said the soldiers accosted Michael James and Jackie Burden, both of Fayetteville, as the couple was walking down a street. They got into an argument and one soldier shot both people in the head with a semiautomatic handgun, police officials said.
Two soldiers - Pfc. James Burmeister, 20, and Pfc. Malcolm Wright, 21 - were arrested in a trailer where police found a Nazi flag, literature praising Adolf Hitler and what police officers described as pamphlets from ultra-right-wing groups. Police also found a videotape of the movie ``Natural Born Killers.''
Both men were charged with first-degree murder. A third soldier, Spc. Randy Lee Meadows Jr., was arrested a short time later on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder. Meadows is accused of driving a car carrying the other two soldiers, police said.
Police said the killings were racially motivated and the soldiers appeared to be connected with a right-wing skinhead group.
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