In response to a sergeant being arrested and charged with third degree criminal sexual conduct, Fort Jackson released a statement saying that the soldier has been suspended from duties.
"Fort Jackson leadership is aware that Staff Sgt. Kyle Jacob West, assigned to 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment, at Fort Jackson, was arrested in April by the Richland County Sheriff's Department."
Court records show that Staff Sgt. Kyle Jacob West was arrested and charged April 24 in Richland County after he met his victim on a the dating app Bumble. The report says that West made plans with the victim to go out to Five points on April 14 around 5pm.
The victim told deputies that she believed West drugged one of her drinks because she became sick, threw up, and was barely able to walk as he drove her home.
The victim said she did not remember letting West into her apartment or getting undresses. She said she woke up to him on top of her naked.
The incident report states that while at Prisma Health Hospital the next morning, the victim told deputies West raped her, and that she had woken up around 2 a.m. to all the lights on in her apartment, the door unlocked and West gone.
As the victim was making the police report, she told deputies West must have unmatched with her on Bumble or deleted his account because he was no longer showing up on her app.
West told the victim he was a Drill Sergeant at Fort Jackson.
Criminal sexual conduct in the third degree is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. On April 25, a judge granted West a $10,000 personal recognizance bond and he has since been released from jail, but he’s due back in court on Friday, May 21.
West is assigned to 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment, at Fort Jackson.
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