A recruit who fell from a building last week at Corps Recruit Depot Parris has non-life-threatening injuries, according to a Naval Criminal Investigative Service official, who said his agency was not investigating the incident.
“I’ve learned that this is not an NCIS case,” agency spokesperson Ed Buice wrote Monday in an email to The and Beaufort Gazette. He added that the recruit’s “injuries are not considered life threatening and this is being handled by the (depot) command.”
The recruit remains in “stable” condition, Parris spokesperson Capt. Adam Flores said Monday.
“No determination has been made at this time,” Flores wrote in an email when asked if the recruit — who the Corps is not identifying because of “Privacy Act policies” — was expected to return to training. “Our focus is currently on the recruit’s health and thoroughly investigating the incident.”
That investigation is ongoing, Flores said, which means the Corps cannot release specific information about the fall, such as what preceded it and where it occurred on the depot. Flores said he could not disclose the nature of the recruit’s injuries because of privacy policies.
When asked if any had been sidelined or reassigned in the wake of the fall, Flores replied: “No Drill Instructors have been sat down or reassigned at this time.”
“The family has been notified and the command will remain in close coordination with them during this difficult time,” Flores said.
The recruit arrived on base July 25 and was assigned to Support Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment, for processing. During early processing, recruits obtain gear, complete paperwork and receive haircuts. The fall occurred the following day.
It is the third fall in recent months, the second during the processing phase.
Kristian Gashaj was injured in a two-story fall inside the depot’s Recruit Processing Center in October. He had been on the four days. In June, the Corps Times reported he remained in a coma.
Raheel Siddiqui died after falling nearly 40 feet during recruit training on March 18, 2016. He had been on the 11 days.
A hazing-and-recruit-abuse probe in the wake of his death has resulted in courts-martial proceedings for numerous — including the high-ranking officer who oversaw Siddiqui’s training battalion — and has amounted to the biggest scandal at Parris since the infamous Ribbon Creek incident in 1956, when six recruits drowned after a drill instructor led his platoon into the marsh on a punitive nighttime march.
Wade Livingston: 843-706-8153, @WadeGLivingston
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