A Fort Carson infantryman told police he shot a fellow soldier with a gun he believed was unloaded while at a home in Pueblo during late August.

Private 2nd Class Kalob Deyo, 23, is facing a felony manslaughter charge and two misdemeanor charges related to using a gun while drunk, following the death of Private 1st Class Dasan Johnny Slim Halona, court records show. Deyo’s bond was set at $40,000, which he posted on Aug. 22. 

The Pueblo Chieftain reported Deyo told police that Halona made a face at him and he pulled the trigger of the gun. He told police he thought he had removed the ammunition from the gun before pointing it at Halona on Aug. 20.  

The two soldiers were visiting a home on the 600 block of Acero Avenue, in a middle-class neighborhood with modestly sized homes down the street from the Colorado State Fairgrounds. The gun belonged to one of the residents, the Chieftain reported. 

A witness told police the two appeared to be good friends, the Chieftain reported.

Military service records show Deyo and Halona were members of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, a unit that spent a month training at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin in the Southern California high desert over the summer. 

When police arrived around 10 p.m. the night of the shooting, Halona, a combat medic, was dead. The Chieftain reported he suffered a head wound, based on police records.  

Halona’s mom, Justine Mae-Yazzie, remembered her 19-year-old son as an encouraging older brother to his three younger siblings, a gentle and understanding presence and a jokester. 

Halona wanted greatness for her other children, who are in fifth, seventh and 11th grades, Mae-Yazzie said. 

“He constantly just kept telling them: ‘You are going to do great, you are going to do better than me,’” she said. 

While the 6-foot-1 soldier was physically imposing and could get a thrill out of pushing a person’s buttons, he was also kind, she said. 

“He wasn’t afraid to show love and be there for someone and just tell you what he needed to hear,” he said. 

Halona had dreamed of joining the military his entire life after growing up in a military family and being born on a base. He went to see a recruiter last year before he graduated from Volcano Vista High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he participated in JROTC and dabbled in wrestling.  

“He grew up seeing camouflage,” Mae-Yazzie said. 

Shortly before he died, Halona told his mom all about his near-term goals to further his career after returning from training. 

The young man wanted to eventually try out for Army Ranger School and be a paratrooper, she said. After the military, he hoped to pursue a career in medicine. As a medical records administrator, she had encouraged him to pursue medicine in the military so he would learn lasting career skills.  

Last year, Halona lost his best friend, Reece Reinke, 18, to diabetes complications and he had promised to live for his friend as well. 

“He used that grief in the best possible way by finishing high school and going into the military,” she said.  

The two completed a Navajo sweat lodge ceremony together, a traditional part of passing into manhood in Halona’s culture, Mae-Yazzie said. 

“They thought of each other as brothers,” she said.  

She now prays that her son, who was always respectful of his traditions, journeys safely through the spirit world. She planned to attend a service for her son at Fort Carson.

“He was a wonderful kid. I am so, so proud of him,” she said.