The suspect, identified as 38-year-old US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, had served three combat tours in Iraq -- where he was wounded twice -- and was on his first deployment to Afghanistan at the time of the killings. Whisked out of Afghanistan to Kuwait in the days after the attacks, Bales was transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on Friday, where US officials said he was being held in "pre-trial confinement." The US Army said Bales was being kept in "special housing" in his own cell, but no details have been released on a trial or even the charges to be brought against him. "Public reports that Sergeant Bales's supervisors, family and friends describe him as a level-headed, experienced soldier are consistent with information gathered by the defense team," his lawyers said in a statement Saturday, saying it was still "too early" to determine what caused the attack. Civilian attorneys John Henry Browne and Emma Scanlan, along with detailed military defense counsel Major Thomas Hurley, indicated they planned to spend "several days" meeting with Bales next week. "Sergeant Bales's family is stunned in the face of this tragedy, but they stand behind the man they know as a devoted husband, father and dedicated member of the armed services," they added. But Browne also suggested his client may have developed post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, from his combat experience. PTSD is a severe anxiety disorder that has afflicted more than 200,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is marked by flashbacks or nightmares, a tendency toward emotional detachment and a sense of hyper-arousal. Meanwhile, friends and neighbors told local media Bales was a trusted soldier. Kassie Holland, a family friend, told the Los Angeles Times that Bales and his family seemed "very normal." "He was always really gentle with his kids. He was full of life and seemed like a happy guy for the most part," Holland said as news rocketed through the blue-collar towns around Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma. Bales allegedly left his base in the southern province of Kandahar before sunrise on Sunday, entered a nearby Afghan village and opened fire, killing men, women and children. One of the worst atrocities committed by US forces in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion over a decade ago, the incident plunged US-Afghan relations to an all-time low. Ties were already badly damaged after Americans burned Korans last month, sparking a wave of deadly anti-American protests, and an earlier video that showed US Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban militants.