There’s some more information out there about the 911 caller.
At first, the stories referred to the 911 caller as an “ex-Marine.” That sounded curious - because anyone who’s served in the Marines never calls themselves “ex.” Once a Marine, always a Marine.
It turns out, according to the latest stories, that he enlisted in the Marines but was kicked out due to “fraudulent enlistment,” whatever that means.
So, was the caller simply mistaken? Or does he have a history of overreacting or lying? Anyone can make this kind of mistake; but, given that two people died as a result, we have to ask these questions.
Look at post 57 that I was posting at the same time as your post, I was picking up something about the caller also, without knowing the speculation that you just posted.
The story I just read said the caller recanted about Crawford pointing the gun at anyone. The caller may not have had a good vantage point either. He was following Crawford, warning shoppers to stay away, and trying not to be seen. I agree we need to ask questions.
IIRC: Shortly after arriving at Parris Island, we were given a chance to back out of the deal. This came in the form of "admitting" to lying on your enlistment contract. You had to answer a bunch of questions when enlisting such as, "have you ever engaged in homosexual behavior," or "have you ever used illegal drugs." There must have been 20 or more questions along these lines. The correct answer to all of them was "no".
It was pretty well understood by everyone (though not explicitly stated), that this was an opportunity to quit.
So, I suspect "fraudulent enlistment" means he chickened out.