Anthony Pisano; alleged triple murderer
Last September, 31-year-old Steven Cook, 48-year-old Kenneth Hartman, and 31-year-old Daniel McCreadie were murdered at Cook’s business “Bullion Brothers” in Anchorage, Alaska. The police suspect Anthony Pisano, a 43-year-old Army retiree who owns H&G Tactical Solutions, a local security company.
Last month, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Jack Smith denied Pisano’s bail because he is “an exceptionally dangerous individual” and could threaten public safety if released on bail”. From the Anchorage Daily News;
Pisano retired from the U.S. Army in July after 20 years. He was a sergeant first class in the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Pisano told investigators he provided security services for the gold shop.
In arguing that Pisano can’t be trusted, state prosecutor John Darnall had claimed he is prone to “fantastical” lies to inflate his military background. Military records show he’s not special-forces qualified, Darnall argued in a court filing.
I haven’t found anything where Pisano claimed to be Special Forces trained or qualified, but, he isn’t. He is Ranger qualified and a veteran of the war against terror in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Before he was stationed in Alaska, he was in the 519th MI’s LRSD detachment and in the 10th Mountain Division. He was also assigned to the Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate at Fort Bragg – the folks who test parachutes, parachuting equipment and parachuting doctrine. It looks like he also led the team searching for ways to avoid IED casualties (Counter-Improvised Explosive Device Team (C-IED Team)).
Pisano doesn’t really need to make up lies about his career. The prosecutor may have misinterpreted something he read, but I doubt Pisano lied.
Pisano pleaded not guilty saying that the triple murder was self-defense, according to the Chicago Tribune. I’m not here to dispute that or confirm it, just to verify his military records.
If the judge thinks that he’s dangerous because of his Army training, he is mistaken. There are thousands out here with similar training and experience who haven’t murdered anyone.
Category: Legal
Umm, isn’t this the first act of that Nick Cage movie where he got jumped in the parking lot (or not depending on who’s the bad guy)?
“Put the bunny back in the box….”
Maybe he is a melon farmer with a twin I-beam Ford?
That’s a career that needs no embellishing. I’d wager the prosecutor doesn’t understand the differences between ranger, special forces, and special operations.
I see he made SFC in 11 years, but then got stuck there until retirement. Is it that hard to make MSG?
He certainly had his ticket punched and impressive awards. Something held him back and it could have been anything from education to screwing the CO’s wife. Appears to have been a good soldier.
It was injuries, lots of them.
I’d join you in that wager, Mason.
Prosecutors, for all they may think otherwise, are not always the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree.
As for not making MSG, it seems there are many different issues involved. For instance: Did the unit he was in have their full quota, and he not want to transfer to another unit that didn’t do all the cool stuff?
since selection to Sr NCO ranks is centralized, unit billets do not really matter.
I can tell you why he did not get selected…no education in the record after 1997.
That is career suicide these days.
Ret_25X, since you seem to be fairly knowledgeable on what’s happening in today’s Army, I have a question you may be able to help me with.
Now this is an honest question, not trying to be a smart-ass or anything like that:
Is the Advanced NCO Course (ANCOC) for an 11B only one week long?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank You.
I’m not Ret_25X, but I do have access to ATRRS. I didn’t see any course called ANCOC for 11B, but Infantry Advanced Leader course is 5 weeks and 2 days for active and 2 weeks and 4 days for guard soldiers. There’s also a two-phase Maneuver Senior Leader Course, which is a total of 7 weeks. The closest I could find was a 2 week transition course to 11B for soldiers with another MOS.
Thanks for answering. The reason I asked was the ANCOC is the first thing listed in Block 14 on the DD214 and it says 1 week duration.
My ANCOC was 11 weeks (back in 1985) and I was wondering if the 1 week in 2009 was somehow maybe a typo.
If not a typo, going somewhere (Ft. Benning?) for one week’s TDY sure doesn’t sound very cost effective.
Again, Thanks for answering.
Its not called ANCOC anymore.
It’s Maneuver Senior Leader Course (M-SLC) now, and for 11B it looks like its 29 days, plus a 40 hour online commitment (that isn’t from ATRRS, so may not be definitive and may only be that length for USAR and NG).
BNCOC became Advanced Leader Course (ALC) and PLDC became Warrior Leader COurse (WLC) which became Basic Leader Course (BLC) which is becoming something else.
And I was wrong. According to the welcome letter posted on Benning website, “M-SLC is a 7 week course, consisting of approximately 289 hours of Small Group Intstruction (SGI). Combingin teh CMF11 and CMF19 in the same learning environment.”
I never was a 11B but you are right about 29day/4 weeks about a year or so ago all schools were bumped up so yes it’s now 7 weeks
ANCOC and BNCOC are now ALC and SLC (or is that SLC and ALC)…anyway, I have never heard of a one week NCO school…
I find it odd that under civilian education it lists a “4 YR COLL DESG BACCALAUREATE DEGREE” in 1997 yet when he enlisted he came in as a PV1 with a DOR of 970604. He should have come in as a Specialist E4.
I have no answer on the 1 week ANCOC.
Bragg had him twice slotted in MSG/E8 (11Z5) positions for 5 months each. Perhaps his NCO Evaluations in Alaska held kept him from making selection for MSG. He bailed at 20 years with a (2016) retention control point of 26 years for SFC.
The Big Army wants to see a drill sergeant time for combat arms to get promoted, no matter how high speed you are.
90% of career enlisted retire as E7. Across all branches. So that’s “success”. 5% will make E8 and less than 1% E9
We should probably be keeping an eye on anything that falls from the sky and lives…odds are they have issues.
Come to think of it, same goes for anything that lives under water and crawls out onto the land…they most definitely got issues.
Dont blame Sgt Hulka for things you do wrong and please, please, kill responsibily.
Those that willingly jump from an airplane, or crawl through swamps, or play with explosives, or shoot guns – they’ve got to have issues, right?
Like enjoying a good challenge to be better than the run-of-the-mill Joe and the love of country.
Can’t trust those guys, ever. /s
I will drink to that … as I blow stuff up, jump, dive, shoot and destroy … look at me, I turned out OK!
My baby brother posted elsewhere that today is the 40th anniversary of his first jump. (82nd AB)
My AB son replied “You are old!”
If he was providing security for that shoppe, what would be the point to killing those three men? That shuts off his income from the shoppe.
I know, I know: crimes of passion are never logical… but still….
He is claiming self-defense.
Something definitely odd here. Not sure what kinds of business the “Bullion Brothers” were into. I’d like to hear both sides of that story.
Bullion Brothers (according to CSM Google) is a cash4gold place.
On the one hand, the police seem to think that Pisano was attacked by Cook after he accused Pisano of stealing from Bullion Brothers or the Pisano started the fight with Cook after Cook refused to pay him. After shooting Cook, someone (unnamed witness, possibly DuPree, Cook’s business partner) took Pisano’s gun from him. Pisano responded by taking Cook’s gun and shooting two tenants, McCreadie and Hartman, who had responded to the noise.
McCreadie and Hartman may have been armed. Police report isn’t very clear on that.
Pisano left the scene after shooting McCreadie and Hartman, called the police and when being questioned said DuPree shot Cook, and he (Pisano) shot McCreadie and Hartman in self defense as he escaped under fire from DuPree.
Security footage from the scene stops 40 minutes prior to the shooting for unknown technical reasons.
So, it looks like a crime novel who-dunit, something right out of a Mickey Splain novel.
This is very odd. And there is obviously a lot we don’t know. Could be anything, including self defense.
That whole innocent until proven guilty thing certainly applies here. The prosecution has a lot to prove.
(Too bad Pisano isn’t an illegal alien.)
Unfortunately, there is no innocent until proven guilty here. No concrete evidence presented by prosecutor and yet this man is sitting in prison while his family faces financial and emotional devastation. He has been denied medical care for a serious existing condition while incarcerated.
When he is found innocent, there will be no restoration for what he and his family have had to endure.
LRSD rhymes with ‘Thirsty’. 😉
Ranger qual’d, LRSD for an MI batt. = he’s an exceptional Soldier, if nothing else.
Also, as a C-IED team leader he had at least some exposure to a parent unit that we won’t name in the open here but is certainly ‘tier 1’. I can easily see a DA or other attorney, when given a description of his C-IED involvement making an uneducated assumption and labeling the suspect as ‘special forces’.
yeah…lawyers know less about the military than doctors do about the human body…if that level of ignorance is even possible.
He got two 6 months deployments?
Some people live the good life.
That C-IED slot is a vacation slot. Ask anyone involved.
It sounds to me like there’s more to the story than what they’re saying right now thus I’m going to withhold judgement.
I knew him. He lied all the time about being an operator with Delta. He was forced retired for forging his Jump logs for Airborne, lying about his service and other things. He lied to many people once he was retired that he got hired by the CIA to go to Iraq and Afghanistan as an agent. The dude is full of himself and got caught in his lies often.
Hey Steve-o! I knew him too. I was with him in LRSD. Always a liar. But, I will say, I’m not surprised to read this. He was always shady. I doubt, however, he walked in and started killing people for no reason. I think he got into something bad and this is karma. He was always entertaining. I just hate this for his family and the victims families.
I was at Ft Richardson with him. This was definitely his reputation