Kirtland Air Force Base –
The Air Force announced today the name of the deceased Airman involved in the Saturday morning shooting incident outside the Truman Gate.
Airman Basic Brion Teel-Scott, 27, of Bordentown N.J. assigned to the 377th Security Forces Squadron died February 22, 2025, after fleeing an attempted detention.
“Losing a member of your team is never easy but the circumstances of this incident make it that much harder,” said Col. Michael Power, 377th Air Base Wing and Installation commander, “Additionally, we are ensuring our injured defender, the Wingmen of both members, and our base community receive the best possible care and support.”
The incident is under investigation. Air Force Office of Special Investigations is the lead investigative agency, the FBI and APD were collaborating investigating agencies.
If we learn anything else, we will update you.
Is it ever a good idea for any agency to do their own investigation(s)?
[…] Kirtland AFB Identifies Member in Fatal Shooting Incident […]
JC – three agencies are investigating this matter… re-read the article. BTW, AFOSI doesn’t work under the installation Commander – they report to the USAF Inspector General. This is purposely done to avoid conflict of interest or bias.
The article said the AF has taken over the lead. Which led me to make the comment I made. I’m not a fan of internal investigations…. especially in a situation such as this one.
As a retired AFOSI SA (from KAFB), I tried to educate you that their Agents are NOT beholden to the installation Commander; further, active duty personnel were involved in this incident AND the jurisdiction falls onto the Air Force (given that the incident began on a military installation with military personnel).
You’re entitled to your opinion – my attempt was to educate versus influence.
I appreciate your experience and thank you for your service.
The point I was trying to make is I don’t believe it’s a good idea to investigate your own, regardless of the reporting structure. OIS falls under the AF umbrella andvthey report directly to the AF Secretary. My opinion is there’s a presumption of bias with internal investigations under the same umbrella
Thank you for your comment. Serving my country for 37 years in the DoD was the absolute best decision I ever made (aside from marrying my wife), and it was a great fit for me. I certainly understand your concern – and I would equate it to perhaps APD investigating APD officer(s) for alleged offense(s). I agree with that – and so do law enforcement agencies, who will typically offload an investigation to a sister agency (e.g. BCSO) to investigate. However, every civilian law enforcement agency has its own Internal Affairs division to investigate an allegation/suspicion to verify the veracity of the allegation. If they discover supporting facts and the criminal offense is particularly heinous, they offload it to another agency. AFOSI (Air Force) and NCIS (US Navy/Marine Corps) special agents are unique in their authorities (which are global if the subject of the crime is a DoD member) and their alignment (reporting directly to their respective Inspector General). This is purposely done to avoid conflicts of interest, bias, preservation of authority, familiarity with the AOR, and other factors. Civilian law enforcement officers, by and large, do not understand the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the DoD’s unique execution of trials – AFOSI and NCIS agents, because they are DoD employees, are well versed in those unique processes. Some crimes simply don’t exist in the civilian sector (e.g. Failure to Go or being Absent Without Leave status) that do exist in the UCMJ. During my tenure, I worked hand in glove with every law enforcement agency in the state and nearly every 3 and 4 letter agency imaginable – because their authorities and capabilities exceeded mine. This is why APD and FBI and assisting the AFOSI Detachment with this investigation. Sorry to be verbose – its a bad habit – I typically don’t invest a lot of time replying online, but I am appreciative of your tone and interest. Enjoy the nice weather!