Man allegedly set up shooting to avoid war

PHILADELPHIA – Police have arrested a soldier they say had his cousin shoot him so he wouldn’t have to return to Iraq.

Army Spc. Marquise J. Roberts, of Hinesville, Ga., suffered a minor wound Tuesday to his left leg from a .22-caliber pistol, police said. He was treated at a hospital, then arrested after he and his cousin allegedly admitted making up a story about the shooting.

After giving differing accounts of the incident, “they just broke down and confessed that they concocted the whole story so he didn’t have to go back to the war,” Philadelphia police Lt. James Clark said Thursday.

Police charged Roberts with filing a false report and charged his cousin, Ronald Fuller, with aggravated assault and other charges.

Roberts, 23, was on a two-week leave from the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, which led the assault on Baghdad in 2003.

He is scheduled to return to Iraq within the next few months.