The death of a soldier from Penfield in Afghanistan was detailed in the New York Times on Sunday.
According to The Times, Sgt. First Class Daniel Metcalfe, 29, may have been the victim of an insider attack on September 29. Metcalfe was on patrol at a checkpoint at Sisay Outpost.
The Times reports the Afghans said an American security unit did not alert an Afghan security unit it would be doing work in the area on the day of the attack. Americans say the two units had been working together.
The Times reports:
One Afghan soldier named Yusuf came down to the checkpoint with a cup of tea for the Americans’ interpreter and then returned to the outpost, according to the Afghan account. Moments later, an Afghan soldier who had already been at the checkpoint, a Tajik from Baghlan Province named Din Muhammad, raised his gun and fired, killing Sgt. First Class Daniel T. Metcalfe, 29, and wounding another American near him, according to the American account of the violence.
Confused gunfire followed from both Americans and Afghans.
Insider attacks and a lack of trust between Afghans and Americans have been a growing concern.
Metcalfe spent most of his childhood in Penfield and has family in the Rochester area. A memorial service was held earlier this month in Macedon. He is survived by a wife and three children, who live in Italy.
