WüRZBURG, Germany — Services will be held Thursday in Marietta, Ga., for a 1st Infantry Division soldier who was shot and killed outside a nightclub Jan. 9 while on leave in New York.
Staff Sgt. Terrence Balkissoon, 25, had deployed last February as a supply sergeant with the division’s headquarters command. He flew home just before New Year’s to visit his extended family there, one of the last of the division’s soldiers to go on rest and recuperation leave.
According to New York newspaper accounts, Balkissoon had been out at a nightclub in Brooklyn called Ambiance with two of his brothers.
Family members told reporters that a man the brothers didn’t know opened fire outside the club about 5:20 a.m.
The New York Post reported that one of Balkissoon’s brothers may have been arguing with a female friend of the gunman.
Balkissoon reportedly was shot twice while his brother Lawrence, 24, was hit six times and remains hospitalized.
A day later, Joseph Carrington, 23, of New York, turned himself in to police and was charged with second-degree murder, attempted murder, and assault, according to media reports.
Balkissoon, the oldest of 13 children, had immigrated with his family to New York from Trinidad at age 16. He joined the Army seven years ago, said Spc. Rebecca Sharpton, a 1st ID spokeswoman. His wife, April, two children and two stepchildren live in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Balkissoon will be buried at Marietta National Cemetery in Georgia following a graveside service.
Sharpton said a memorial service at his unit’s headquarters in Würzburg is expected but has not yet been scheduled.
Among other awards, Balkissoon had earned an Army Achievement Medal and two Army Good Conduct Awards.
He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his service in Iraq.
