A recently-obtained judge’s ruling reveals three Navy SEALs have claimed to have seen SEAL Chief Edward Gallagher fatally stab a non-combative, wounded ISIS fighter who had been brought to him for medical treatment during a 2017 deployment to Iraq.

That evening, one witness said he heard Gallagher threaten to kill anyone who spoke out about it, the judge’s ruling states.

Navy Judge Capt. Aaron Rugh issued a ruling in January that lays out “findings of fact” which include previously undisclosed details in the case against Gallagher. Rugh wrote that these findings of fact support his decision to keep the SEAL confined. The Union-Tribune obtained the ruling this week.

The findings include accounts of three witnesses to the stabbing, the accounts of three more SEALs who say they saw Gallagher shoot two civilian non-combatants — an old man and a young girl — and other details alleging threats to potential witnesses by Gallagher.


Gallagher was arrested September 11 and confined to the brig at Miramar after prosecutors alleged he attempted to intimidate witnesses and obstruct justice. He was formally charged with premeditated murder and other crimes in January and is awaiting trial, scheduled to begin May 28.

Gallagher has pleaded not guilty and denied all charges. On March 30, he was moved from the brig to a building at Balboa Naval Medical Center after President Donald Trump ordered the Navy to move him to a less restrictive location.

Gallagher’s primary attorney, Phillip Stackhouse, could not be reached for comment Friday. The defense team has argued in court that some of the witnesses in the case have likely changed their stories since they initially spoke with Navy investigators last year. They have not said which witnesses or what parts of their accounts may have changed.


Only one witness has testified under oath so far, during a motion hearing and under limited questioning. No direct witnesses to Gallagher’s alleged war crimes have testified or been cross-examined.

Gallagher, a SEAL with sniper and emergency medical training, was deployed to Iraq with SEAL Team 7 from February 2017 to August 2017.

According to Rugh’s findings of fact, in May, 2017, after Gallagher’s SEAL platoon had leveled a building with a drone strike, an Iraqi man between 15 and 22-years-old was brought to the SEALs’ compound for treatment. One witness told investigators the man’s injuries were not life-threatening.

“After radio operators indicated that the prisoner was arriving for medical treatment,” Rugh wrote, “several members of the platoon heard (Gallagher) come over the radio to state ‘Nobody touch him; he’s mine’.”


According to one witness the injured man, an ISIS fighter, was awake and non-combative, the ruling said.

Three Navy SEALs — all of whom have been granted immunity for their testimony — say they saw Gallagher stab the prisoner several times in the neck using a “unique knife (he) typically carried on his back,” Rugh wrote. One told investigators the stabbing was unprovoked by the prisoner.

Later that day, members of the platoon met to discuss Gallagher’s actions. Rugh wrote that one member heard Gallagher say that if he found out who spoke against him, he’d kill them.

At another meeting the next night, Gallagher allegedly went into another witness’s room and asked for the names of “any platoon member who disagreed with (his) actions,” Rugh wrote.


The ruling said that after the deployment, Gallagher told another SEAL, who is now a Master Chief, that he stabbed the prisoner after the prisoner became aggressive and tried to grab someone’s weapon.

In his ruling Rugh said that in May, 2018, Gallagher sent a photo of himself posing with the dead prisoner’s corpse to another SEAL, a Chief Warrant Officer.

Rugh said Gallagher included a message with the photo: “Good story behind this, got him with my hunting knife.” When the CWO warned Gallagher against sending incriminating photos, Gallagher allegedly said “yeah, that’s the only one and I only trust you.”

Other witnesses, also fellow SEALs, told investigators in some detail how they saw Gallagher shoot an old man on Father’s Day in 2017, Rugh wrote.


According to Rugh, three SEALs accompanied Gallagher to two towers in Mosul, Iraq, and assumed sniper positions, two in each tower.

The two SEALs in the tower opposite Gallagher’s told investigators they saw an man in his 70’s or 80’s near a river. They heard a shot, saw a red stain appear on the man’s back and then the man fell. He got back up, stumbled and fell again. He did not get back up.

Rugh wrote that the witnesses heard Gallagher say on a radio, “You two missed him, but I got him.”

On another day at those same towers, another SEAL told investigators he saw four young girls “sneaking” along a path commonly used by people trying to escape ISIS, Rugh wrote. The girls’ faces were uncovered and one was wearing a gray dress and a flower-print hijab.


Rugh wrote that a witness saw the girl in the flower hijab grab her stomach and fall to the ground, apparently shot. Another girl then looked at the other tower — Gallagher’s position — and the girls helped the injured girl over a berm and disappeared, according to Rugh’s finding.

Another SEAL told investigators that on another occasion Gallagher shot at, and missed, a 12-year-old girl, Rugh said.

According to prosecutors and Rugh’s account, the witnesses against Gallagher became targets of a campaign by Gallagher after the platoon returned from deployment and he found out he was under investigation.

One witness to the stabbing told investigators that Gallagher said he had incriminating information about him and other platoon members and that he would “bring them all down,” Rugh said.


In text messages entered into evidence, Gallagher said “I want to crush these little [expletive] who start this …” according to Rugh.

Rugh said Gallagher also conspired with a former SEAL, trying to figure out how to anonymously leak witnesses’ names, such as posting them in a SEAL-only Facebook group, something that would have led to them being ostracized by other SEALs.

Navy prosecutors argued that these attempts to go after witnesses are proof that Gallagher should remain confined while awaiting trial. Rugh agreed in his January ruling.

“Based on (Gallagher’s) continued and methodic acts of witness intimidation, I deemed pretrial confinement necessary,” Rugh wrote in his ruling.


Rugh noted Gallagher’s “record of excellent service,” but cited another incident from 2014 as an indication of prior impulsiveness.

In July 2014, Gallagher became irate and drove his car at a police officer on Naval Base Coronado, Rugh said. He was arrested for aggravated assault and disorderly conduct.

What became of those charges is unknown. Cmdr. Tamara Lawrence, a spokeswoman for Naval Special Warfare, confirmed Gallagher’s arrest but did not offer specifics on what, if any, consequences the SEAL faced.

“In this circumstance, there are a range of administrative actions a (commanding officer) can take,” Lawrence said in a statement. “This incident was handled within the CO’s discretion.”


After Rugh’s findings in January and a media campaign by Gallagher’s family, supporters and Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, Trump intervened in the case two weeks ago, ordering less restrictive confinement. As commander-in-chief, a president has broad authority over the military and can serve as the ultimate convening authority in military courts martial.

On Tuesday, Gallagher’s defense team filed a motion to remove more restrictions from his confinement, claiming that the current conditions violate Trump’s recent orders.

Since April 1, Gallagher has been restricted to Building 26, sometimes referred to as the “old hospital” at Naval Medical Center Balboa. Navy Captain Matthew Rosenbloom, commander of Naval Special Warfare Group 1, has limited where Gallagher can go in the building and forbidding him from having electronic devices that connect to the internet.

In the recently filed motion, Timothy Parlatore, one of Gallagher’s attorneys, argued that the conditions at Building 26 are more restrictive than at the Miramar brig. A hearing on the motion on Gallagher’s current confinement is scheduled for April 18.


The Union-Tribune filed a Freedom of Information Act request on Wednesday seeking a copy of the president’s order, but a Navy official said it is likely Trump issued his orders via phone calls to Navy leadership and a tweet.