Dec. 19 (UPI) -- A former Blackwater Worldwide security guard was convicted a second time Wednesday on a charge that he instigated a mass shooting in Iraq.
Prosecutors said the guard, Nick Slatten, fired the opening shot in a rampage that killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians and injured 17 others. This trial was the third time Slatten has been prosecuted on the charge of first-degree murder.
The Sept. 16, 2007, attack damaged the U.S. reputation in Iraq. The guards were escorting a convoy through a crowded Baghdad traffic circle to evacuate a U.S. diplomat. Slatten and his team saw a white Kia sedan driving toward their armored vehicles. Based on earlier intelligence, Blackwater guards feared the Kia could contain a car bomb and opened fire with machine guns and grenade launchers. No evidence of a bomb was found in the car.
Prosecutors portrayed Slatten as someone who has a deep and singular hatred for the Iraqi people.
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"I don't hate all Iraqis. I just don't like it when people shoot at me and my brothers," Slatten told USA Today.
Slatten challenges the U.S. government's description of the Nisour Square shooting as a massacre. He said he saw Iraqi police ads on television that offered money to anyone who said they were injured or knew someone who was killed in the incident.
"It wasn't a massacre. But this case is a massacre of justice," he said.
Another guard, Paul Slough, said he fired the opening shots, which is backed up by witnesses. But prosecutors said Slough changed his story multiple times.
Slatten was a former armed services member who started working privately for Blackwater, which was under contract by the State Department to provide services in post-war Iraq. The contractor is now called Academi.
Slatten was convicted to life in prison in 2014 but the verdict was thrown out last year on appeal. The second trial ended in a hung jury.
