Friends: Fort Stewart Shooting Suspect Was Teased for Stutter

The soldier accused of shooting five colleagues at Georgia's Fort Stewart Army base on Wednesday is described by those who knew him as a quiet, hardworking man who'd once been the target of nonstop bullying. Sgt. Quornelius Radford, 28, reportedly faced constant mockery for his stutter during Army training in 2018, according to two former classmates at the Army's Advanced Individual Training (AIT) school he attended at Virginia's Fort Lee. They say peers would mimic his speech, and that Radford responded by not speaking—but they noted that he showed no outward bitterness or anger at the time.

"He got bullied a lot," said Sgt. Cameron Barrett, 28, who developed a friendship with Radford during that time. "It was very bad to the point where he could barely talk." But Barrett, like other friends who spoke with NBC News, was stunned to hear Radford had been accused of the shooting. Indeed, Barrett notes that when news of the incident broke, he messaged Radford on Snapchat to check that he was unharmed. He got no response. There's still no official word on motive or the relationships between Radford and the victims. Radford's father on Thursday told the New York Times his son had complained to his family about alleged racism at Fort Stewart and was seeking a transfer.