FDNY firefighter killed in Afghanistan may have died because of alleged Russian bounty scheme

An FDNY firefighter killed alongside two of his fellow Marines in Afghanistan reportedly may have been the victim of an alleged Russian plot to pay bounties for dead American soldiers.

Christopher Slutman, a father of three and a U.S. Marine reservist assigned to Ladder 27 in the Bronx, was killed by a car bomb near the Bagram Air Base in April 2019.

The mother of Robert Hendriks, a Marine corporal also killed in that attack, has called for an investigation into whether the Taliban fighters who killed her son targeted him for Russian money.

“The parties who are responsible should be held accountable, if that’s even possible,” Felicia Arcuelo, who lives on Long Island, told CNBC Monday.

Slutman’s family did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday night.

The New York Times first reported that information on the alleged Russian bounty operation was included several months ago in Trump’s presidential daily briefing, setting off a controversy over whether the president looked the other way and even floated the idea of inviting Russian president Vladimir Putin to rejoin the G7.

The White House denies the president was briefed, and Trump tweeted that U.S. intelligence officials did not believe the plot to be credible. On Tuesday, the Times reported American officials intercepted data showing a large amount of funds were transferred from an account controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency to a Taliban-linked account.

Slutman joined the FDNY in 2003 and was a proud member of the FDNY Emerald Society. assigned as a staff sergeant in Afghanistan “for some time” sources said.

He began his FDNY career at Ladder Company 17 in the South Bronx, where in June 2004, he and his colleagues rescued three mewing kittens swept into a storm drain during rainfall.

In 2013, Slutman and another firefighter pulled an unconscious woman from a burning apartment in a South Bronx high rise. He received the FDNY’s Fire Chiefs Association Memorial Medal for his heroics.

Slutman is survived by his wife Shannon and their three daughters.