Slain airman’s son dies in accident at SC home
Apr 1, 2012, 7:41 PM
ANDERSON, S.C. (AP) – The 2-year-old son of an airman killed in a terror attack in Germany has died after a dresser fell on him and suffocated him, authorities said.
Authorities said William Alden was trying to reach something on top of a dresser when it fell on him on Saturday. The boy lived at the home with his mother, Patricia Brooks Alden, and his 5-year-old sister, Lilly, Deputy Anderson County coroner Don McCown said. The family was preparing to leave for vacation in Georgia at the time.
The boy’s father, Senior Airman Nick Alden of Williamston, was killed in March 2011 outside an airport in Frankfurt, Germany, by a man authorities said was a Muslim extremist.
The deputy coroner said the accident was devastating. “How much more can a family go through?” he asked.
Friends gathered at Alden’s house Saturday afternoon to console the family. “This poor lady has suffered so much, it’s unbearable,” said Sgt. David Creamer of the Anderson Police Department. “I do hate it for her.”
Authorities say the boy’s death was an accident and no charges will be filed.
The man who killed the 25-year-old Alden and another airman was sentenced to life in prison last month. The state court in Frankfurt convicted 22-year-old Arid Uka of two counts of murder. It also found him guilty of three counts of attempted murder and serious bodily harm for wounding two other servicemen and taking aim at a third before his 9 mm pistol jammed.
The Afghanistan-bound servicemen were boarding a bus when they were attacked.
Alden was born in Germany to two military parents. He returned with his parents to live in Indiana before moving to South Carolina about 10 years ago so his mother could get a job teaching.
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