Covarrubias, a Las Vegan and a 20-year veteran of the Marine Corps, said it was not vindictiveness that compelled him hours later to hunt down and kill the Iraqi Special Republican Guard member who launched the grenade.He said it was justice. . . .
When the major fighting was over, the Marines settled in for rest, food and water.
But Covarrubias, who had suffered a severe concussion in the grenade blast, was not in the mood to rest
. . . . After dark, he said, he slipped off most of his gear and grabbed his pistol.
"I'm taking off," he whispered to a couple of other Marines. "I'll be back in a little while."
He took stock of the location of the grenade strike and its trajectory, figuring it must have been fired from a nearby house. He sneaked inside. Upstairs, he said, he found the Special Republican Guard member with the grenade launcher next to him.
He said he ordered the man to stop, forced him to turn around, and removed his black beret. He shot him twice in the back of the head.
He took the man's military ID as a souvenir.
Outside, the man's partner was escaping. Covarrubias said he chased him down and killed him as well. He took the man's ID and his AK-47 assault rifle.
"This," he said in the interview, holding up the two ID cards, "is justice."