Home From Afghanistan, Soldier Found Dead

After three tours in Afghanistan, Army Ranger Michael Anthony McQueen was weeks away from a new life out of the Army, and gearing up to start college.

"He was a great young man," a vigorous athlete who had matured enormously during his stints in war zones, said his father, Mike. "He had a bright future."

McQueen, 22, was found dead of gunshot wounds Tuesday morning in his Gaithersburg apartment, according to a law enforcement source.

Montgomery County police discovered McQueen's body in his second-story apartment at the Streamside Apartments in the 400 block of North Summit Avenue after his roommate called police.

Police spokesman Derek Baliles said last night that investigators have not conclusively determined the cause of death. In a news release, police described the incident as "suspicious." Investigators were trying to determine yesterday whether McQueen shot himself or was slain.

Ray Moon, 42, who lives in the building, said he heard doors being slammed at McQueen's unit early Tuesday, and then he saw McQueen's roommate race from the building. "He comes out here with his cellphone, crying in hysterics," Moon said. "He was talking about some Army buddy of his."

Police arrived quickly, entered the apartment and interviewed the roommate, Moon said. Officers stayed at the apartment building for several hours.

Mike McQueen, who visited the apartment yesterday afternoon with homicide detectives, said his son's roommate had been the young man's sergeant. McQueen declined to comment further, saying detectives have asked him not to discuss details of the case.

The roommate could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The two soldiers moved into the apartment recently, according to neighbors. McQueen, who enlisted in 2002, was scheduled to leave the Army next month, his father said.

In Afghanistan, McQueen, a specialist with the 75th Ranger Regiment based at Fort Benning, Ga., worked primarily gathering intelligence, his father said. The 75th Regiment is an elite light-infantry unit. "He did a lot of intelligence reports," said McQueen, 49, a journalist who heads the New Orleans bureau of the Associated Press. "He talked to informants."

The younger McQueen was born in Tallahassee and raised in South Florida. He graduated from North Miami Beach High School, where he played football, his father said. He joined the Army on a whim, his father said, following high school friends who had enrolled.

"In high school he was your typical kid. He chased girls, played a little sports, didn't take things too seriously," his father said. But after a few months in the Army, "he came back home and he was really a man."

McQueen, who was 6 feet 2, put on nearly 35 pounds of muscle while in the Army and got a coveted assignment with one of its most prestigious units, his father said.

"He became enamored by the discipline in military life," he said.

McQueen returned to the United States about a month and a half ago and was getting ready to start classes at the University of the District of Columbia, where he was thinking of majoring in political science, possibly as a steppingstone to apply to law school, his father said.

McQueen is also survived by his mother, Glenda, 50, and a brother, Otto, 19.