German police kill armed U.S. soldier

KONIGSBERG, Germany, March 14 (UPI) -- A U.S. soldier died early Friday a few hours after he was shot by German police who said he was holding an ex-girlfriend at gunpoint.

The soldier, stationed in Bavaria, was described as a 30-year-old member of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, a unit that returned from its second Iraq deployment on Nov. 27, The New York Times reported. His identity was withheld pending notification of his family.

Police in Konigsberg, Germany, said that the soldier, armed with an M-4 rifle, got into his former girlfriend's apartment and bound her. She escaped and went to police.

When police located the man and ordered him to surrender, he threatened officers with his assault rifle, a spokesman said.

"He was asked in English not to move and all this, but he didn't do it," the spokesman, Karl-Heinz Schmitt, told the Times.

Schmitt said that the soldier had authorization to use the rifle earlier Thursday and simply did not return it.