The drinking session that led to Danny Fitzsimons’s arrest in Baghdad
It was a drinking session with a deadly ending and unknown consequences for Britain in Iraq.
Danny Fitzsimons and several of his colleagues were downing vodka in the ArmorGroup compound near Saddam’s Republican Palace into the early hours of yesterday morning.
About 4am the men began to argue, a witness told The Times, and Mr Fitzsimons brandished a Beretta pistol. His colleagues tried to overpower him; two of them were shot dead.
Mr Fitzsimons then allegedly turned towards an Iraqi colleague, shot him in the leg and ran towards the compound’s main vehicle exit. The Iraqi, though severely wounded, followed him and shouted: “Help. The foreigner has killed other foreigners.”
The Iraqi collapsed by the compound exit, outside a white-coloured guard house, breaking a window and leaving a 5ft-long bloodstain still visible on the floor yesterday afternoon. Shouting wildly, Mr Fitzsimons then ran onto a single-lane road bordered by 15ft-high concrete blast walls on both sides, past the former villa of one of Saddam’s wives, Sajdeh, and the residence of Rafi al-Isawi, the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister.
At the entrance to the nearby American base, known as Camp Liberty, guards alerted military police to the sound of gunfire. United Nations security personnel were also alerted. As they closed in they exchanged fire with Mr Fitzsimons and eventually overpowered him. According to Iraqi sources, Mr Fitzsimons was persuaded to drop his weapon and surrender.
Along with the bodies of his two dead colleagues, he was taken to a police station where he is being held in a small concrete cell with air-conditioning and a single window covered in black wire mesh. A guard outside said: “He gets his human rights.”
Consular officials from the British Embassy have visited Mr Fitzsimmons, as well as a second British national, believed to be another ArmorGroup employee, who was being held there but not considered a suspect and has now been released.
Iraqi officials yesterday claimed sole responsibility for prosecuting Mr Fitzsimmons, having taken over full control of the Green Zone from the Americans in early July. A judicial official said: “The possible punishment for a crime like murder is execution.”
Mr Fitzsimons arrived in Baghdad a few days ago, but has worked as a security guard in Iraq periodically for the past five years. He is said to have “military operational experience” and worked for ArmorGroup as well as other private security companies. Most recently he took a one-year vacation. British guards with a military background can earn up to £80,000 per year in Iraq. A British Embassy spokesman said: “We’re looking into an incident … involving some Brits. As far as I know, we have two fatalities, one British and one Australian.”
An ArmorGroup spokesman said: “I can confirm the deaths of two ArmorGroup Iraq employees in the early hours of this morning in a firearms incident.” The victims were identified locally as Paul McGuigan, from Britain, and Darren Hoare, from Australia. Mr Hoare, a 37-year-old father of three, was described by one of his children as the “best dad in the world”.
The shooting will confirm the view held by many Iraqis that foreign security guards are reckless killers.
August 10th, 2009 at 6:48 AM
It is sickening and my heart goes out to the friends and family of the deceased. I am also angered by how this looks to the public and to the Iraqi. I despise the fact that a simple act like this, has such far reaching effects on future contractor operations.
So I will say it. If there was leadership on this compound, and they knew that Fitzsimons was a liability well before this incident, then you should know that the entire industry and the tired public is completely disgusted with your lack of courage to do the right thing. You should have removed this guy from the field before he hurt himself or others, if the signs were there. Obviously that is too late now.
If this was a complete surprise, and was totally not foreseen, then my apologies. Sometimes this stuff happens, and it is unfortunate for all. Men snap, PTSD strikes, booze does it’s thing, or whatever. Sometimes this stuff is impossible to see in an individual because they are so good at hiding it. Whatever the case, it is a sad deal for all.
August 10th, 2009 at 7:44 AM
Yeah the early story on this guy was that he has been out of the game for at least a year and he was only just back in country for a couple of days.
As bad as this deal is it is amazing to me how seldom it actually happens. It’s the first one of its kind that I can recall, certainly where someone was killed. (You occasionally hear about the odd UD.) Of all the parties, poker games, football matches, rugby games plus the internal mixture of rivalry between services and countries I have not hear of it ever escalating to this level.
Look for the ArmorGroup reaction to be over the top banning alcohol for everyone, etc, etc.