MARYVILLE, Tenn. — A Maryville man convicted in connection with the deaths of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians was pardoned by President Trump and returned home to his family Tuesday night.
Dustin Heard, 39, was serving more than 12 years in federal prison for voluntary manslaughter, among other charges, after he and three other private security contractors opened fire in a Downtown Baghdad square.
Lawyers for the four contractors said it was self-defense after an ambush. A federal judge found the four were firing wildly into cars and shot people as they turned away.
A video shows Heard's return home Tuesday night, waking up his young children to surprise them with the news of his release.
"My support of Dustin and the Heard family doesn't not in anyway diminish what happened and the horrible thing that happened and the lives were lost," Maryville City Councilwoman Sarah Herron said.
She said she knows Heard from church.
"He's a really good person and I believe that given the chance, he'll contribute to our community in a great way," Herron said. "And I want people to know as their city councilwoman that Dustin is a safe person."
"How are these criminals released after they killed 17 innocent people?" Hussein Saheb Nasser, 35, told NBC News by telephone from his home in Baghdad on Wednesday. "On what basis did Trump depend on to release them? Let us assume that I travel to America and kill 17 American citizens. Are they going to release me?"
Nasser's younger brother, Mahdi Saheb Nasser, was 22 and working as a taxi driver when he was killed in the September 2007 attack in the Baghdad square.
At Heard family's church, Fairview United Methodist in Maryville, the pastor teared up when he thought of Heard's children reunited with their father.
"That's the kind of stuff that sweet Christmas movies are made of," Mickey Rainwater said. "I can’t even begin to imagine what it was like when they were reunited. I know the kids love their dad."
In a press release about the pardon, President Trump said some evidence was not appropriately presented at trial. He also said prosecutors relied on a questionable Iraqi investigator, but he presented no evidence.