Butler is on administrative leave ‘‘for his emotional health,’’ Carter said. The deputy has been with the Sheriff’s Department since 2000 and has been in law enforcement for about 15 years, Carter said.
‘‘He will come back any time he gets ready,’’ Carter said.
No charges have been filed.
Carter compared the traffic stop to a 1997 incident on Interstate 95 when two law enforcement officers were killed. Cumberland County Deputy David Hathcock and N.C. Highway Patrolman Ed Lowery were shot to death on Sept. 22, 1997, after a routine traffic stop on I-95. Brothers Kevin and Tilmon Golphin of Richmond, Va., have been sentenced to death for the killings.
Carter said the situation was similar on Saturday in that one person tried to get the officer’s attention while the other tried to fire a rifle.
Carter said he understood that law-enforcement officials in adjacent Randolph County had been involved in part of the exercise, but Moore County was not involved.
Kolb said the Army "will look at where the miscommunication happened and make sure we take some of the steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again."
‘‘Our sympathy goes out to everyone involved,’’ Kolb said.
Kolb said police in the Moore County town of Robbins had been involved in an exercise with the same group of students several nights before.
‘‘When we know ahead of time a training scenario involves local law enforcement, we will coordinate with those agencies ahead of time,’’ Kolb said.
Exercise to continue
The Robin Sage exercise began on Feb. 16 and will continue through March 2, said Maj. Rich Patterson, a spokesman for the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg.
The JFK Center and School has ‘‘recontacted all of the counties we are currently operating in,’’ Patterson said. ‘‘We also asked the Moore County Sheriff’s Department through their law-enforcement channels to ensure the municipalities know we will be continuing to train through March 2.’’
The Army’s standard procedure is to notify the counties and municipalities in the 10-county area, Patterson said.
The responsibility for notifying local officials of exercises is with the 1st Battalion of the 1st Special Warfare Training Group of the JFK Center and School, Patterson said. The battalion is in charge of the qualification course.
The training has been conducted in central North Carolina since the mid-1950s ‘‘without incident,’’ an Army statement said.
Patterson said Special Forces soldiers returning from Afghanistan have said their work there was a ‘‘mirror image of what they are trained to do in Robin Sage.
‘‘The operations they are conducting in Afghanistan validate the superb training scenario of unconventional warfare using their skills as expert trainers to train a host nation’s military to win back its country," Patterson said.
Military editor Henry Cuningham can be reached at 486-3585 or
[email protected].