On March 13, Army Pvt. Jeremiah Carmack left his Schweinfurt post with a loaded M-4 carbine and, after breaking into his ex-girlfriend's home, was shot dead when he allegedly raised the weapon in front of German police.

Since then Stars and Stripes has printed more than a half-dozen stories on the search for answers with respect to the tragedy: Why did the soldier go looking for the woman with a gun? How did he get the weapon out of the military installation? What exactly were the circumstances of the fatal confrontation with the police?

A letter writer, John L. Long of Heidelberg, thought the coverage was irresponsible, designed to "'stir the pot' to create controversy." He felt that the paper was trying to assign blame "to someone -- the police, the woman involved, anyone -- other than the soldier, without any supporting evidence." He charged that Stripes  wanted only to sell papers.

The coverage was indeed pretty heavy. But the case was pretty startling, too. Except for an incident 28 years ago involving a soldier who tried to commit a robbery, no one could recall a shooting of an American servicemember by German police.

The U.S. Army and the German police are both conducting investigations, and results won't be known for weeks. In the meantime, Stripes reporters turned to friends and relatives of Carmack's. These sources, all named,  found it hard to imagine the private getting into such a deadly situation; that may have led readers, including letter-writer Long, to see slanted reporting in the soldier's favor.

But if that's how friends and relatives felt about the soldier, it would have been hard for a newspaper not to report their descriptions of him. Also, I didn't see any assumptions in the coverage that the police acted wrongly, only a desire for details. I did believe that it was inappropriate for Stripes to allow others to characterize the woman as troublesome, especially because her side of the story wasn't told. (Reporters said they tried to reach her but failed.)

Managing Editor Doug Clawson had this to say: "There certainly was no intent to mislead or offend anybody....This was an extraordinary, tragic event with many more questions than answers. Several attempts were made to contact (among others) the Schweinfurt military community, the German Polizei, Ms. Frank [the ex-girlfriend] and her family and Mr. Carmack's family in the hours and days following the shooting. We dutifully reported the bits and pieces of information we were able to obtain. We will continue to follow this case closely."