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US Embassy Employee Killed in Niger Shooting
A Department of Defense employee assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Niger was killed on Saturday during an armed carjacking, said an embassy spokesman in Niamey, the capital of the West African nation.
William Bultemeier, a retired U.S. Army master sergeant, was leaving a restaurant with a group of American embassy personnel when they were confronted by two gunmen in the parking lot, the embassy spokesman Louis Lantner told Reuters.
Bultemeier had been at the U.S. embassy in Niger for five months and was leading the effort to re-establish a U.S. Department of Defense office at the embassy, he said.
``The two assailants used a 45-caliber pistol and a semi-automatic AK-47,'' he said.
U.S. Marine Staff Sergeant Christopher McNeely, who also worked at the embassy, jumped into the line of fire to protect Bultemeier but was himself wounded in the incident, which occurred about 1 a.m. local time, the spokesman said.
McNeely was injured by multiple gunshots to the arm and flown by the U.S. military to Ramstein Air Base in Germany for further medical treatment.
No arrests have been made in the attack although the local police are on the case and ``we are receiving very good work from the police,'' Lantner said. (Agencies)
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