Word: lozano
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...were thinking, 'this car is a bomb.'" Lozano says. Only two nights before, a couple of servicemen had been killed by an improvised explosive device on the same road. Lozano added, "If the car had blown up at that close range, it would have killed us all." The soldiers, he says, cautiously approached the vehicle, guns ready...
...that point, Lozano says, that he saw the headlights of a Toyota Corolla coming through the mist. Lozano says he immediately turned on his extremely high wattage flashlight and aimed it at the driver signaling him to stop. He says a soldier in the other Humvee also flashed a green laser pointer at the driver. But, according to Lozano, the car did not reduce its speed. Lozano says his spotlight signal had proven effective in either stopping or turning around all other vehicles that night. When the vehicle passed the warning line and did not stop, Lozano says the soldiers...
...Vehicles, says Lozano, are required to immediately reduce speed at 100 meters from the checkpoint. On that night, however, when the driver reached the 80-meter mark and maintained the same speed, Lozano says he knew the driver wasn't going to stop. "It actually looked like he was speeding up a little. We all thought the same thing. We were all on the same page as to what had to be done," says Lozano. "Everyone knows, including the Iraqis, that when they see that spotlight, they stop, especially on Route Irish. They slam on the brakes immediately...
...Lozano says he and his men followed the standard rules of engagement established by the military. He put down the flashlight, took hold of his mounted M-240 machine gun and commenced the warning shots. He says he fired first into the grassy area on the other side of the road, straight across the driver's field of vision, each bullet followed by a bright red tracer round so that they could be heard and also seen in the dark. When the car did not slow down, Lozano says he fired at the ground in front of it, then into...
...raised high, "We're Italians! We're Italians!" he cried. The soldiers retracted their weapons and heard a woman's voice inside. It was Sgrena. When the medic opened the back door, Nicola Calipari was lying unconscious on the seat next to her. "For Calipari, it was too late," Lozano says, adding that attempts to resuscitate him failed...