Army Secretary Dan Driscoll awarded six soldiers the Meritorious Service Medal on Aug. 7 for their actions during an active shooter incident on base at Fort Stewart.

Newly released records reveal the state the suspected Fort Stewart shooter was in at the time of a DUI arrest months before an attack on Aug. 6 that left five soldiers wounded at the Georgia military installation.

U.S. Army Sgt. Quornelius Radford, 28, a noncommissioned officer, turned on his fellow soldiers and shot them using his personal handgun, according to Army Brig. Gen. John Lubas. Six Fort Stewart soldiers jumped into action and apprehended Radford. The five wounded soldiers in the attack are expected to recover.

The shooting at the base came just months after Radford was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Liberty County, the area where Fort Stewart is located. His superiors were unaware of his arrest on Elma G. Miles Parkway.

"I smelled a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath," a Georgia State Patrol officer wrote in a report shared with USA TODAY. "Mr. Radford's eyes were watery and bloodshot."

Radford, of Jacksonville, Florida, had worked at Fort Stewart since 2022 and was not previously deployed to combat, Lubas said. Soldiers in Radford's field typically manage maintenance or warehouse operations by placing orders and tracking work in Army computer systems.

When was Radford arrested?

Georgia State Patrol pulled over and arrested Radford at about 1 a.m. on Sunday, May 18, according to an arrest report shared with USA TODAY. Records show Radford was arrested near the intersection of Elma G. Miles Parkway and Sharon Street in Hinesville, Georgia.

The location is in Liberty County, about 3 miles away from Fort Stewart.

The arresting officer asked Radford to take a breathalyzer test, but the Army sergeant refused, according to the Georgia State Patrol report. He also refused to do a field sobriety test, "stating that he’s not drunk," the officer wrote.

A field test aims to assess a driver’s balance and coordination through tests such as having a driver stand on one leg. Results are admissible in court.

The suspected Fort Stewart shooter also refused to take a chemical test, including a blood test, records say.

'Strong odor of an alcoholic beverage'

The arresting officer initially pulled over Radford for running a red light. He was driving a 2021 gray Nissan Altima with Florida plates, records show.

The Georgia State Patrol officer noticed that Radford might have been drinking when he approached the Army sergeant and noticed a "strong odor of an alcoholic beverage" on Radford’s breath.

When asked if he had been drinking, Radford said he "had a beer hours ago," according to the report.

The officer noticed Radford’s "speech patterns was mumbled," the report added. Radford told the officer he had a "stuttering problem."

Where is Radford now?

Radford was due in court in Liberty County on Aug. 20 for the DUI arrest, according to Hannah Wiley, a deputy clerk at the court. After being apprehended at the scene on Aug. 6, he is awaiting charges in pretrial confinement.

It wasn't immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

His father, Eddie Radford, told The New York Times that he hadn't noticed anything unusual about his son's behavior and didn't know what might have led to the violent attack.

But the elder Radford said his son had been seeking a transfer and complained to his family of racism at Fort Stewart. "It’s hard for me to process," Eddie Radford told the Times.

Contributing: Davis Winkie, Jeanine Santucci, Christopher Cann, Ansley Franco, Thao Nguyen, Amanda Lee Myers, Scott Butler; Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Newly released records reveal details of suspected Fort Stewart shooter’s recent arrest

Reporting by Michael Loria, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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