An Army wife who witnessed her husband's death during a Skype video chat said she saw a bullet hole in a closet behind him after he collapsed, the (New York) Daily News reported.
Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark, stationed in Afghanistan, fell suddenly on Monday during a routine Skype conversation with his wife, Susan Orellana-Clark, the Daily News reported.
The family released a statement today describing what Orellana-Clark saw in the video feed.
"Clark was suddenly knocked forward," the statement said. "The closet behind him had a bullet hole in it. The other individuals, including a member of the military, who rushed to the home of CPT Clark's wife also saw the hole and agreed it was a bullet hole."
The statement says the Skype link remained open for two hours on April 30 as family and friends in the U.S. and Afghanistan called for help.
"After two hours and many frantic phone calls by Mrs. Clark, two military personnel arrived in the room and appeared to check his pulse, but provided no details about his condition to his wife," the statement said.
"As uncomfortable as this is for me, I am releasing this statement to honor my husband and dispel the inaccurate information and supposition promulgated by other parties," Orellana-Clark says.
Clarence Davis, a spokesman for the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, where Clark was based, said that it has not been determined how Clark died and that the case is under investigation, CNN reported.
He added that he "misspoke" when he said earlier Friday that "we believe his death was from natural causes."
"We are entrusting the military with investigating and with finding out what happened to Capt. Clark," Clark's brother-in-law Bradley Taber-Thomas told the Associated Press.
Clark, 43, grew up in Michigan and previously lived in Spencerport, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester, his wife's hometown. He joined the Army in 2006 and was stationed in Hawaii before he was assigned to the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso. He deployed to Afghanistan in March, Daily News reported.
Clark's body was returned Thursday to Dover Air Force Base. He is survived by his wife and two daughters, ages 3 and 9, the Daily News reported.
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