An Army soldier from the Bronx was pronounced dead at his base in Alabama after an altercation with a fellow soldier. He served in the army for five months. 

The family of the late U.S. Army Pvt. Abdul Latifu says that they have not received straight answers from military officials and that they are in the dark about information regarding their loved one’s death.  

“My brother does not fight,” said Mohammed Latifu, brother of Abdul Latifu. “I have never seen my brother fight, his whole 20 years of life that I have known him… for you to say he got into an altercation with somebody, and he suffered a head injury and later pronounced dead at the hospital, that is some BS." 

The altercation took place at Fort Rucker in Alabama on Jan. 10, just a week after Latifu’s 21st birthday. Pvt. Brian Jones is currently in custody and is being charged with murder after what military officials are referring to as an ‘incident’. 

Both Latifu and Jones were advanced individual training soldiers attending the army air traffic control operator course.  

“They caught the person basically the same day,” said Baraka Abdullah, sister of the late Latifu. “Why can't they say ‘this is the suspect we are looking at’? What, they think we are going to go after his family or something? It doesn't make sense." 

One day after the fatal incident took place, the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Rucker Public Affairs sent out a statement sending condolences to the Latifu family as they continue to wait for more answers and justice for their loved one.