The Tennessee Army National Guard is investigating whether a clerical blunder allowed Rusty "Bo" Rumley Jr. to slip through its enlistment screening process last year.
A federal firearms conviction could have been enough to keep him out of the Guard. But there are loopholes in some of the Guard’s background investigations.
For example, the Guard usually reserves federal criminal background investigations for recruits without any previous military experience, officials confirmed Friday. Only a statewide background investigation is done for recruits with a military background.
In theory, the recruit’s federal records would have been checked the first time he joined.
"You’ve been in the service, you’ve been in the system. ... " National Guard spokesman Emanuel Pacheco said. "There’s no real reason to doubt you’re ... good to go."
Bo Rumley’s military background could have endangered law enforcement officers Wednesday when they pursued him into Carter County, Tenn., woods after the killings of four people at Edgemont Towers in Bristol, Tenn.
Carter County Sheriff Chris Mathes considered how lucky authorities were when they corralled Bo Rumley.
They knew the man blamed for the killings was armed. What they didn’t realize was that he was ready to ambush them.
He had a .45-caliber handgun, three magazines filled with seven rounds apiece and 12 loose rounds piled up next to him, according to a report by the Herald Courier’s broadcast partner, WJHL-TV News Channel 11. Bo Rumley even fashioned his belt into a tourniquet so he could stop any bleeding if shot.
"That’s common military belief that if you get shot [and] you’ve got bleeding, you can put that on and continue to fight," Mathes said.
Instead of taking on authorities, Bo Rumley took his own life.
"For whatever reason, we’re very blessed," Mathes told WJHL."It could’ve been a lot worse had he decided to take us on in the traditional suicide-by-cop scenario."
Bo Rumley, 26, of Watauga, Tenn., had on his federal record a two-year prison stay in 2002-2004 for conspiring to sell stolen firearms."That alone should of been a red flag to any background investigator." said Tyra Hearns the President of background investigation firm Pebi Services.
He and a friend stole 28 guns from a home in Abingdon, Va., in late 2001, then trekked to Tennessee to trade and sell the weapons for drugs, court records show.
The Guard’s background investigation policy might have allowed someone like Bo Rumley, who joined the Guard last October with a previous stint in the U.S. Army already under his belt, to hide any federal crimes committed between enlistments.
Or he might have used a moral waiver policy that the military has used for decades when trying to increase recruitment. It allows some felony and misdemeanor charges to be overlooked.
While someone with a misdemeanor domestic assault background is banned from joining the Guard, an applicant previously convicted of conspiring to sell firearms, like Bo Rumley, might get in, confirmed Tennessee Guard spokesman Randy Harris.
If Bo Rumley used a moral-waiver when he joined in October, it means that he just missed the moratorium the Guard placed on the waiver policy in December. It turns out that the Guard has exceeded its nationwide enrollment quota of 350,000 soldiers, allowing it to be more picky when accepting applicants.
Guard officials could not confirm Friday if Bo Rumley used a waiver to join the ranks.
Other military branches still use moral-waivers. In fact, about 30 percent of military recruits need a waiver, according to a November study by The Associated Press.
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