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Mom Wants Justice For Falmouth Soldier Killed In Apparent 'Quick-Draw' Game

FALMOUTH (CBS) - Investigators believe it was a soldiers' game gone bad, but a Cape Cod mother says the man who killed her son should have to pay.

Cheryl Ruggiero spoke to WBZ-TV on Thursday and said she is hoping for justice any day now.

Her son, Army Sgt. Matthew Gallagher, was killed while serving with his Army unit in Iraq.

Gallagher was in his room when he died from a gunshot wound to the head.

His roommate, Sgt. Brent McBride, has said the two were playing a game called "Quick Draw."

Soldiers see "who can draw their pistol, their nine millimeter pistol, the quickest. Quick draw," Ruggiero explained.

Earlier this month, Ruggiero traveled to Texas for a hearing intended to determine if McBride should be charged with murder.

At one point, she found herself alone with him in the courtroom.

"When it happens to your child, any type of violence, you say, 'if I had five minutes alone with him,' and here I had five minutes alone, and I had to get up and walk away," she said.

She was hoping he would speak to her, which did not happen.

"I was just waiting for him to turn around and look at me, and if he looked at me maybe something in the eyes would have told me. Even to mouth, 'I'm sorry,' to maybe have a tear," she said.

Ruggiero says she returned to her North Falmouth home unsatisfied, but hopeful.

WBZ-TV's Christina Hager reports

"I want Justice. I want him to at least know what it's like," she said. "I want him to spend some time in jail. I expect that. I demand that."

McBride could face charges ranging from negligent homicide to involuntary manslaughter or murder.

Gallagher's family expects a decision from the military courts within the next week-and-a-half.

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