06:42 PM MST on Friday, October 3, 2003

By L. Anne Newell
© 2003 Arizona Daily Star

A Tucson man was shot to death outside a West Side hotel Wednesday after breaking into a vehicle and being confronted by its owner, an Army soldier, who shot him in the back and fled, police said Friday.

The soldier, Spc. Kyle Edward Williams, 21, was found dead outside San Diego on Thursday and officials believe he committed suicide with one of the seven firearms he had been carrying with him.

He left no note to explain the suicide or why he fired six shots at Noah P. Gamez, also 21, after spotting the man stealing an ice chest from his Jeep.

Williams spent seven months in the Middle East as part of the 507th Maintenance Company, the same unit as Pfc. Jessica Lynch, Army officials said.

He didn't have any disciplinary or mental health problems before he left Fort Bliss, Texas, at the end of September for 20 days of leave before moving to a new military job, the officials said.

Investigators said Williams was passing through Tucson on his way to visit family in San Diego. He never called his family or made it to their home before his body was discovered near his Jeep on a rural road, officials with the San Diego Sheriff's Department said.

None of the firearms found in Williams' Jeep Cherokee — four rifles, one shotgun and two handguns — was military-issued. A .380-caliber handgun might be the weapon used in the Tucson shooting, officials in San Diego said.

Tucson police planned to pick up that firearm Monday, said Chris Saunders, a San Diego County Sheriff's Department spokesman.

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