$100M lawsuit filed over Michigan Marine recruit’s death

The Michigan family of a Marine recruit has filed a $100million lawsuit alleging his fatal plunge in a stairwell was the result of hazing and pervasive negligence by officers and others.

Raheel Siddiqui died in March 2016 during boot camp in Parris Island, South Carolina, after plummeting nearly 40 feet.

His death was declared a suicide. But the US Marine Corps also said it had uncovered widespread hazing of recruits and young drill instructors dating back to 2015.

Marine recruit Raheel Siddiqui (pictured) committed suicide in March 2016 after plummeting nearly 40 feet at boot camp 

Siddiqui’s family has filed a $100million lawsuit, claiming hazing and pervasive negligence by officers and others. The 20-year-old was allegedly slapped and dubbed a ‘terrorist’ 

The 20-year-old Siddiqui was from Taylor, Michigan. His family filed a lawsuit Friday in Detroit against the federal government, alleging ‘negligence on multiple levels of command.’

The complaint claimed the Marines ‘fostered a culture of abuse and hazing.’ The Marine Corps declined to comment Monday.

The Marine Corps has said it identified up to 20 people possibly tied to misconduct in the 3rd Recruit Training Battalion.

Earlier this year, an investigation found that Siddiqui took his own life after being branded a ‘terrorist’ and physically abused at the Marines boot camp. 

Lt. Col. Joshua Kissoon, the commanding officer who was in charge of Saddiqui’s battalion at Parris Island, faces court martial 

A redacted report into Siddiqui’s death stated that on March 18, the recruit wrote a note to his drill instructor, Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix, asking to go to the infirmary for a sore throat.

But, as he didn’t follow proper procedure, the recruit was forced to run back and forth in his barracks, the report said.

After several runs, he began to cry and fell to the floor clutching his throat, apparently unresponsive, the report said. He was ordered by Felix to get up and was slapped in the face.

After he was slapped three times, the recruit ran out a door and vaulted over a railing on the third floor of the barracks where he fell to his death, the report said.

At one point, the drill instructor allegedly called the recruit a ‘terrorist,’ according to officials. 

Two recruits died at Parris Island in an eight-month span in 2016, sparking renewed calls for congressional scrutiny into the service’s tough training regimen.

Other accusations of maltreatment uncovered in the investigations included name-calling, beatings, physical exercises ordered until recruits injured themselves.

In one case, which preceded Saddiqui’s suicide, Sgt. Felix allegedly threw a recruit inside a commercial dryer, leaving him with burns, after deriding him for his Muslim faith.

Two recruits died at Parris Island, South Carolina (pictured), in an eight-month span in 2016, sparking renewed calls for congressional scrutiny

In July, Lt. Col. Joshua Kissoon, the commanding officer who was in charge of Saddiqui’s battalion at Parris Island, was relieved of his command and charged with failure to obey a lawful general order, making a false statement and conduct unbecoming an officer.

Island Packet reported that the Marine Corps conceded that Kissoon should not have allowed Felix to be in charge of recruits at the time of Saddiqui’s death because he was under investigation for the July 2015 dryer incident. 

Kissoon is scheduled to be tried by general court-martial in March. 

Felix’s court martial is set to get under way on October 30, at which time he will be tried for both Saddiqui’s suicide and his treatment of the other Muslim recuit.  

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk