'They pointed out that had spoken to prosecutors several times they'd asked him to go step by step in this, and that he had never mentioned closing off the airway and he'd never said that in any of his testimony to naval investigators either,' Walsh said. Prosecutors were visibly upset by the turn of events. Gallagher was jubilant following Scott's testimony, celebrating with his family outside the courtroom. Like several other witnesses who have taken the stand earlier this week, Scott first said Gallagher plunged a knife into the neck of the wounded ISIS captive as they were providing him with medical care.īut Scott's account radically diverged from the familiar narrative during the defense's cross-examination when he revealed that 'it was in fact he who killed by closing off an airway to a breathing tube for the wounded fighter and then he slowly watched him die,' Walsh said. Scott began his witness testimony as prosecutors had expected, KPBS reporter Steve Walsh told NPR. Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Corey Scott stunned prosecutors as he described a previously unheard version of events, saying he asphyxiated the teenage Islamic fighter as an act of mercy.Īmong other charges related to his 2017 military service in Iraq, Gallagher is accused of killing the insurgent. The war crimes trial of Navy SEAL Chief Edward Gallagher took a dramatic turn Thursday when a lead prosecution witness - another SEAL who has been granted immunity to testify - confessed that he was the actual killer of a 17-year-old ISIS prisoner.

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