Remember Army Pfc. Glendon Oakley Jr? He was the soldier who was near the El Paso Walmart when an active shooter went on a rampage in early August and helped move several children to safety.

Oakley was arrested Thursday in Harker Heights on a desertion charge from Fort Bliss. Does anyone else think this photo looks like two different people?

Our partners at News 10 KWTX report that Harker Heights Police have confirmed they have arrested Army Pfc. Glendon Oakley Jr on October 3rd. Officers in Harker Heights say Oakely will soon be picked up from the Bell County Jail by someone from the provost marshal's office at Fort Hood.

Oakley grew up in Central Texas while his Dad was stationed at Fort Hood. Click the buttons below to recap Oakley's heroics in El Paso.

KWTX spoke with Retired Army Lieutenant Wade Faulkner who is now a defense lawyer who says the desertion charge is a serious one. “Desertion is essentially the same thing as AWOL with the additional element that the soldier intends not to come back to the Army at any time, to remain away permanently is the element that differentiates desertion from AWOL."

Typically a soldier can be considered AWOL for maybe a month before being moved over to desertion status. Faulkner told News 10,  “Typically a commander will wait about 30 days before doing the paperwork to generate that warrant. Most commanders figure if it is under a month and a soldier comes back, we’ll deal with it but we don’t need to take those extra necessary steps of all that is involved with generating a warrant."

Now the command at Fort Bliss will need to decide what to do next. Anything ranging from a lenient trip to counseling, written type of citation, or ultimately he could see a general court-martial that could result in jail time.

Oakley Jr had just returned from Kuwait just a couple of months before the El Paso shooting.

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