Kirkuk , Iraq ( CNN ) -- Three U.S. soldiers detailed the shooting death of their platoon leader for an Iraqi judge Sunday in an effort to preserve a case that will be tried months after U.S. troops have left the country . It is one of a number of cases in recent months where a U.S. military attorney and an Iraqi prosecutor have worked together to bring charges against those accused of targeting American troops , though it is one of the first murder cases to be brought before a judge just weeks ahead of the U.S. pullout from Iraq . `` Today , we came to court to preserve the testimony of soldiers in a pending criminal case that will be tried in an Iraqi court , and we bring the testimony today because the American forces are going to be gone soon , '' Army Maj. Franklin D. Rosenblatt , an attorney working on the case , told CNN . The U.S. military took the step of having American soldiers provide testimony because `` we are no longer going to be able to show up here in the court , '' Rosenblatt said . The November 3 shooting of 1st Lt. Dustin D. Vincent -- one of the last U.S. casualties in the more-than-eight-year Iraq war -- was chronicled by insurgents who captured the sniper shooting on video and posted it online . Inside a crowded courthouse , one of the soldiers who was with the 25-year-old Vincent the day he was killed told the investigative judge that a `` few days later a video was posted that claimed the killing of the 1st lieutenant , and it shows the same location we were that day . '' The video , which was played for the judge , was set to music and showed what appeared to be a soldier on the top of an armored vehicle , at a distance from the camera . On his back , which was to the camera , was a superimposed sniper 's crosshair cursor . Then there is the sound of a gunshot , and the soldier drops from view . His comrades testified that Vincent , of Mesquite , Texas , was killed when his convoy stopped in Kirkuk 's volatile al-Wasiti district , a mixed Sunni-Turkomen neighborhood in the northern Iraqi city . The convoy stopped to fix an electrical cable on the top of one of Vincent 's armored vehicles -- `` Then we heard a shot , '' one of the soldiers told the judge . Two of the soldiers testified they got out of their armored vehicle to aid Vincent , who was shot in the upper right portion of his chest . `` He was wearing a vest , but it hit the upper side of the vest , '' the same soldier said . Later , the soldiers said , they were told Iraqi police apprehended a suspect . The American soldiers who testified are still carrying out missions in Iraq and are not being identified at the request of the U.S. military . Rosenblatt asked to submit the case to the court on behalf of the U.S. Army . The Iraqi prosecutor , who also asked not to be identified as a security precaution , said the case against the suspected sniper could take up to seven months before it is decided by the court . In addition to the testimony of the soldiers and the video , the prosecutor told CNN other evidence was presented to the judge . `` We told the judge that we have witnesses and a secret witness , and we will try to bring him to court as soon as possible , '' the prosecutor said . It was not clear who the additional witnesses were , and the prosecutor did not identify them out of a concern for their safety . The U.S. military has successfully pressed for the prosecution of four people who have been convicted in recent months of targeting U.S. personnel at Contingency Operating Site , the American base on the outskirts of Kirkuk , with rockets or roadside bombs . `` I think in Kirkuk , it 's a big step that at least they allow us to come here to the courthouse , and here we have seen some real results lately , '' Rosenblatt said . `` They have been willing to take on the cases of the terrorists who have attacked the U.S. troops , and I think that is a real good sign . '' Vincent is the second American soldier to be killed in Kirkuk in a little more than a month . A rocket attack in late September killed Spc . Adrian Mills , 23 , of Newnan , Georgia , and wounded at least four others . While violence has fallen off across much of Iraq , bombings and shootings are a near-daily occurrence in the disputed city , which is home to nearly a third of the country 's oil reserves . Kirkuk is populated by ethnic Kurds , Arabs and Turkomen . Tensions among the groups run high in the city , to which the Iraqi government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region have both laid claim .
A sniper killed 1st Lt . Dustin Vincent in Kirkuk in early November . The trial against a soldier will last seven months . U.S. troops are scheduled to be out before then . A military lawyer praised him for bringing them to court .