
DUNKIRK, N.Y. — A 24-year-old Hawaii-based soldier serving in Afghanistan died from wounds he suffered when his weapon fired accidentally, U.S. military officials said.
Spc. Philip Witkowski, a 1998 graduate of Fredonia High School here in upstate New York, died May 1 from an abdominal injury he suffered the night before in Kandahar. He had been in Afghanistan for only a week.
Witkowski was undergoing emergency surgery in a German hospital when he died. He was assigned to the Army’s 7th Field Artillery, 25th Infantry Division in Honolulu.
An Army cook, family members described Witkowski as a jovial man who could put smiles on the faces of his school teachers,...