Blackwater Mercenary from New Hampshire Sentenced to 30 Years for Massacre of 14 Iraqi Civilians

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Evan Liberty, a Blackwater mercenary from Rochester, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in a 2007 massacre in Iraq that left 14 civilians dead.

Liberty, 32, is one of four Blackwater guards who were sentenced in federal court in Washington, D.C., Monday after they were convicted of murder and manslaughter, according to the Washington Post. One guard was sentenced to life in prison; Liberty and the two others received 30-year sentences.

The shootings happened Sept. 16, 2007 in Baghdad’s busy Nisoor Square.

The men claimed they acted in self-defense after they were fired upon by insurgents dressed as police. Prosecutors argued the men committed a war crime by firing indiscriminately into a crowd. One of the victims was a 9-year-old boy.

No witnesses at the scene could back up the men’s claim that they were fired upon, according to the Post. At the time of the shootings, Liberty and the three other men were in a BearCat assault vehicle providing cover for Blackwater colleagues escorting a State Department official to safety following a car bomb explosion.

Liberty, who up until Monday has not spoken publicly about the incident, said he is innocent.

“As God is my witness, I shot at two people that day, who were dressed in Iraq police uniforms and they were shooting at me,” he said in court, according to the Post.

Liberty graduated from Spaulding High School in 2000. Friends remembered him as a humble teenager and a gifted athlete. He enlisted in the Marines and earned several commendations protecting U.S. embassies.

Blackwater hired Liberty and service members like him to protect State Department officials in Iraq. Blackwater, which changed its name to Academi after the shootings, has earned hundreds of millions in government contracts—a relationship that continues today.

Nicholas Slatten, 31, of Sparta, Tenn., was sentenced to life in prison for his role on the shootings. Paul Slough, 35, of Keller, Tex. and Dustin Heard, 33, of Maryville, Tenn., received 30-year sentences.

Photo credit: Marine Corps