Earlier on Friday, WSB-TV reports Easley called the station saying he had a bomb and two people with him inside the bank. He also told the station that he was nearing homelessness after the Department of Veterans Affairs stopped his monthly disability payment.
The man who was fatally shot by an officer after claiming to have a bomb inside a suburban Atlanta bank has been identified.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation identified the suspect as 33-year-old Brian Easley releasing the name after notifying the man's family. Officials did not indicate a hometown and GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles described Easley as a "transient." read more here
Afghanistan Veteran, husband, Dad, friend and now dead after over a decade of folks running all over the country making veterans aware they are committing suicide. Trouble is, they forgot to actually mention to them how they can heal. If you are still supporting suicide awareness after reading this site, please stop reading. If you haven't gotten the message yet, you never will understand that you've been part of the problem.
Man shot, killed by Tustin police after standoff was Army veteran who struggled with PTSD, friend says Orange County Register By CHRIS HAIRE and ALMA FAUSTO PUBLISHED: May 16, 2017
“This is something he was battling for three years,” she said Wednesday. Fuentes, who lived in Tustin and had a wife and a young son, served with Cannon’s husband and became like family.
TUSTIN A man fatally shot by police Tuesday night after a two-hour standoff was identified as 24-year-old Edwin Fuentes, who, a close friend said, served in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan and struggled with PTSD.
At about 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 16, there was a call of a suicidal man in the 16200 block of Main Street in Tustin, near the Santa Ana Zoo and Prentice Park. Officers found Fuentes sitting in a car in an alley behind an apartment complex, Tustin Lt. Bob Wright said. read more here
PTSD is no excuse for things like this and as a reminder, it is a rarity.
Friend of Claremore man killed by police in east Tulsa says he could have prevented shooting KJRH 2 News Feb 19, 2017
TULSA -- A friend of the kidnapping and rape suspect who was a shot and killed by police officers in east Tulsa on Friday is speaking out.
The man told 2 Works for You reporter Corley Peel that he could have prevented officers from shooting his friend, David English, 34, if police only gave him a chance.
Wayne Youngwolfe says although English was his lifelong friend, he immediately stepped in when he said he saw English had brutally beaten his girlfriend. He said if police would have let him get to English beforehand, he would have never been shot.
"They didn't give me a chance to go get him," Youngwolfe said. "This is what they wanted, so they got it."
Youngwolfe said English was battling Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
"The war messed him up. He has never been the same person since he came back," Youngwolfe said. read more here
Knox man killed in Alabama officer-involved shooting USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee Hayes Hickman Jan. 26, 2017
Partridge added that Oxford police were notified by the Heflin, Ala., Police Department, which initiated the pursuit, that the suspect was armed, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had made suicidal threats in the past. He could not confirm whether Lambert was a military veteran.
Micah R. Lambert
(Photo: Knox County Detention Facility)
A Knoxville man who fled the state after an alleged assault on a Knox County sheriff's deputy was fatally shot by police in Alabama following a pursuit Wednesday, authorities said.
Micah R. Lambert, 37, was killed when he attempted to charge officers with his SUV, according to Oxford, Ala. Police Chief Bill Partridge.
The chief said Lambert was wanted on a charge of aggravated assault on police officers in connection with an incident earlier this week in Knox County.
"Lambert had been reported missing and had left a friend's house with a loaded handgun after making threats to harm himself, according to the report.
"Mr. Lambert had left his dog with his friend and signed over the title to his vehicle before leaving," the report states. read more here
Man shot by local officer jailed after release from hospital KWTX News
January 20, 2017
Meyers spent a little more than six years in the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of sergeant, according to records obtained by KWTX.
He joined the Army in April 2001 and served at Fort Hood from October 2003 to June 2007, when he left the service.
He deployed to Iraq from September 2003 to September 2004, and received a Purple Heart medal, the records show.
Thomas Eugene Meyers. (Jail photo)
KILLEEN, Texas (KWTX) A man whom a Killeen police officer shot after responding to a disturbance call was in the Bell County Jail Friday facing a list of charges after his release from the hospital.
Thomas Eugene Meyers, 35, of Killeen, is charged with possession of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and assault with bodily injury on a family member.v
read more here
911 calls reveal man shot and killed by LCPD officers suffering from PTSD, argued with wife KVIA ABC 7 News By: Staff Report Posted: Jan 06, 2017
LAS CRUCES, New Mexico - 911 calls obtained by ABC-7's New Mexico Mobile Newsroom reveal the man shot and killed by two Las Cruces police officers was a veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Thursday, the office of District Attorney Mark D'Antonio cleared the two police officers involved in the shooting death of 36-year-old Joshua "Josh" Clay Dunne. The actions of the officers were justified, D'Antonio's office announced.
Investigators looking into the police shooting said a relative told officers Dunne was possibly suicidal and could have been armed with a 9 mm handgun and a hunting knife.
In a call to 911, Dunne's wife, Melanie Dunne, told the operator she and her husband "had an argument. He is a veteran who has PTSD and has been suicidal before."
Melanie Dunne also said her husband "told me not to call the police because he would get into a shootout with the cops." The woman went on to tell the operator her husband had a 9mm handgun and a "sharp hunting knife." read more here
Police: Man shot after pointing gun at officer FOX SAN ANTONIO BY ZACK HEDRICK OCTOBER 8TH 2016
"They need to find a purpose. They need to find their passion again. Just like we had a mission while in uniform, they need to find that elsewhere.” Richard Delgado
Police: Man shot after pointing gun at officer (Photo: Sinclair Broadcast Group)
SAN ANTONIO -- Police say a man armed with a gun who was trying to commit suicide was shot by an officer at a North Side.
Police say the call came in some time before six Saturday morning from Ballerina Court, which is just off Wetmore Road.
"It was a call for a man attempting to commit suicide,” said Chief Williams McManus. “It was called in by his wife."
The 39-year old man, who officers say is a veteran, was in the backyard when police arrived.
“He was there with a gun to his head,” said McManus. “He put the gun down, picked it back up, and pointed it at the officers. The officer at that time felt compelled to fire in fear for his life."
The veteran was hit once in the arm but police say he is in good condition. read more here
Man shot dead by police at CU-Boulder was former Marine discharged under questionable circumstances The Denver Channel
Blair Miller, Sally Mamdooh
Oct 7, 2016
BOULDER, Colo. – The University of Colorado Police Department named the two officers involved in the fatal shooting of a man wielding a machete on campus Wednesday as it came to light the man was a former Marine.
Brandon Simmons, 28, of Thornton, allegedly threatened a sports medicine patient with a machete at CU-Boulder Wednesday before police confronted him and eventually shot him dead.
Friends of Simmons’ on Friday told Denver7 he was a former Marine who was discharged earlier this year after around a decade of service. Simmons had two children and an ex-wife, who all live in California, where Simmons used to be stationed.
Friends say he recently moved in with his father in Thornton after the divorce.
Simmons had been a drill instructor during his time in the Marines. A friend of his said he was the "epitome" of what a good drill instructor should be and called the incident and Simmons' death "shocking."
A photo of Simmons posted to Facebook publicly by a friend shows Simmons in his Marines dress uniform, with sergeant bars on his sleeve. read more here
Police Shootings Touch Nerve Among Military Veterans
ASSOCIATED PRESS
By JULIE WATSON
SAN DIEGO
Jul 20, 2016
Many veterans fear the service records of the gunmen will feed a false perception that combat veterans are volatile and violent, turning back years of efforts to change such stereotypes.
FILE - In this Sunday, July 17, 2016 file photo, Baton Rouge Police investigate the scene in Baton Rouge, La., where several law enforcement officers were killed and wounded. Back-to-back attacks on police in Texas and Louisiana by former military men have touched a nerve among veterans who traditionally share a close bond with law enforcement. Veterans and active-duty troops started posting messages on social media almost immediately after the news broke this weekend that a masked ex-Marine had ambushed law enforcement along a busy highway, killing three officers - including a fellow former Marine. (Scott Clause/The Daily Advertiser via AP, File)
Back-to-back attacks on police in Texas and Louisiana by former military men have touched a nerve among veterans who traditionally share a close bond with law enforcement.
Veterans and active-duty troops started posting messages on social media almost immediately after the news broke last weekend that a masked ex-Marine had ambushed law enforcement along a busy highway, killing three officers — including a fellow former Marine.
Seeing one Marine kill another Marine after both had returned home safely from the battlefield in Iraq has been especially painful for the military's smallest branch, which considers service life-long membership among a force whose official motto is: "Semper Fidelis," or "Always Faithful."
"In the Marine community, we don't believe in 'ex-Marines'. However that is not the case when one decides to break the moral and ethical values we hold dear. The ex-Marine that opened fire on officers is everything we swear to protect our Nation from," Marine Cpl. Eric Trichel wrote on a Facebook page with about 25,000 mostly Marine members.
In an email to The Associated Press, he emphasized he was not speaking on behalf of the Marine Corps.
read more here
Baton Rouge shooting: 3 officers dead; shooter was Missouri man, sources say
CNN By Steve Visser
July 17, 2016
(CNN)The shooter who killed three law enforcement officers and wounded three others in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Sunday was a Missouri man who launched a deadly rampage on his 29th birthday, police sources said.
Gavin Long, who was born on July 17, 1987, was the man who gunned down officers before he was killed in a gunbattle with other officers responding to the shootings.
Two Baton Rouge police officers -- ages 41 and 49 -- died, said Police Chief Carl Dabadie. The gunman also killed a 45-year-old sheriff's deputy and critically wounded a 41-year-old deputy who is "fighting for his life," said East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux.
Another wounded deputy and police officer have non-life-threatening wounds, law officers said. read more here
Veterans warn against stereotyping PTSD KHOU News Grace White June 2, 2016
The gunman killed by police on Memorial Drive was an Army veteran, who friends believe was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
But local veterans say it's dangerous to connect the shooting to PTSD alone.
"Just because we've seen war, just because we've seen death—not everyone is like the individual who did what he did in the Memorial area," said Justin Masters, a veteran and veteran coordinator at Camp Hope, a facility that helps veterans and their families with the effects of PTSD.
These veterans all have their own stories.
"Each one of us had different jobs in the military. My PTSD comes from being a medic," said Ron Youngblut, Camp Hope's director of operations and veteran.
Their struggles are real.
"Just counting the people I've lost from my unit to suicide is getting up there," Masters said.
read more here
UPDATE Rotterdam police identify officers in fatal shooting Patrolman fired gun after man with knife slashed cop Times Union Staff report April 15, 2016
A relative of Clark said the family recently moved from Guilderland, where numerous incidents with police related to Clark's behavior had ended peacefully. The relative said Clark suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from his military service in Iraq. He also was schizophrenic and bipolar, the relative said.
The Rotterdam Police Department on Friday released the names of the officers involved a fatal shooting inside a home on Sunday.
They are Sgt. Keith Collins, a 19-year member of the department; and patrolman Mark Frodyma, a 16-year member of law enforcement who fired the fatal shots. Deputy Cheryl Hill, an 18-year member of the Schenectady County Sheriff's Department, assisted at the scene. She was outside the house at the time of the shooting, officials said. William Clark III died after he was shot in his mother's 1061 Roberta Road home. Police said he attacked them with a knife. read more here
Man Shot by Police was Iraq War Veteran The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, N.Y. by Steven Cook Apr 14, 2016
ROTTERDAM — The man shot and killed by police Sunday after slashing an officer served with the Marines, deploying to Iraq in 2009, military records show.
Exactly how William Clark's path led him from his service, which ended in 2013, to his confrontation with police at a Roberta Road home late Sunday morning remained unclear Tuesday.
Rotterdam police, state police and the Schenectady County District Attorney's Office, however, have scheduled a press conference for this morning to discuss the case further.
Clark, 30, of 1061 Roberta Road, attacked a Rotterdam police officer with a knife just before noon Sunday after officers responded to the home for a call. Clark slashed the officer on the head. A Rotterdam officer then shot and killed Clark, police said.
Military records indicate Clark served in the Marines from June 2008 until May 2013. The Marines listed his home as Albany.
Clark deployed to Iraq in April 2009 with Alpha Company, Anti-Terrorism Battalion, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve. He returned home with his Rochester-based company that October. read more here
Sheriff's Office won't release names of deputies who shot, killed 'suicidal' man in Harford The Baltimore Sun
Bryna Zumer
March 4, 2016
"I think it's just telling that it's on the one-year anniversary of his friend who killed himself," Councilman Joe Woods said Friday about Bradley, who was believed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Harford County Sheriff's Office said Friday that the names of the three deputies who shot and killed Army Staff Sergeant Travis Boyd Bradley, who was assigned to Aberdeen Proving Ground, would not be released.
The Sheriff's Office, citing its past practice and procedure, said the names of the deputies, who are on routine administrative leave, would not be released because they were part of the tactical deployment in the standoff that turned deadly Wednesday afternoon and evening outside of Bradley's house on Althea Court in Bel Air South.
The Sheriff's Office took a similar position against releasing the names of deputies involved in a shooting incident following the Sept. 28, 2013 fatal shooting of 34-year-old Austin Francis Jones inside a Havre de Grace house where police say Jones was holding a woman hostage and had pointed an object, which looked like a firearm, out the window at police. read more here
Armed man, 39, shot and killed by Palm Bay officer WFTV News Updated: Mar 1, 2016
His girlfriend, who asked not to be identified, told Channel 9 the man is a former law enforcement officer and used to be in the military.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating after a Palm Bay police officer shot and killed a man.
Police say a man inside the home was threatening to shoot three people doing construction at a nearby home on Mariposa Drive. When police arrived, they say the 39-year-old man refused to come out of the home and a standoff began.
A neighbor told Eyewitness News the man was upset that the construction crew was working and making noise. read more here
Widow files lawsuit against MPD Casa Grande Dispatch Brian Wright March 1, 2016 Veteran killed by officers during incident in 2015
Johnathan Guillory, 32, a military veteran killed by Maricopa
police in January 2015, poses with his wife, Maria Garcia.
MARICOPA — The community was shaken when Johnathan Guillory, a military combat veteran, was shot and killed by Maricopa police officers in the Cobblestone Farms subdivision Jan. 18, 2015. Now the community will have to revisit the events surrounding that day, as Guillory’s wife, Maria Garcia, has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Maricopa alleging wrongful death, negligence, excessive force, false imprisonment, and assault and battery. Scottsdale attorney David Lunn, representing Guillory’s estate, said the lawsuit was filed in federal court as opposed to state court because it claims civil rights were violated, which would constitute federal violations. Guillory, 32, was an Army veteran who served two combat tours in Afghanistan, returning from his second in 2003. Reports from the Maricopa Police Department indicate Guillory, who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, was having increasingly heated confrontations with police in the days and weeks leading up to the fatal shooting. On Jan. 13, five days before the shooting, MPD Detective Michael Burns sent out an email warning officers to be careful when dealing with Guillory. He described an incident Guillory had with officers the previous night. read more here This is from the original report by AZ Family.com. The link to them is not working now but link to Wounded Times is still active.
Arizona Iraq Veteran Killed By Police
Garcia says her husband proactively sought help for his condition.
"He saw therapists, and was on the phone constantly with suicide hotlines," she says.
Guillory's widow says he went to the VA hospital, where he reported he was having a mental health emergency.
"They turned him away. They told him there was no room, and that he'd have to make an appointment," she recalls.
Mother of combat veteran killed by deputy will get $375K My News LA Hillary Jackson February 2, 2016
Atkinson’s mental illness was also cited as a contributing factor. Atkinson left his family and mental health treatment in Texas to live on the streets in Los Angeles.
The Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to pay out $375,000 to the mother of a homeless combat veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, who was fatally shot after threatening the deputy with a wooden dowel rod.
On the afternoon of Oct. 6, 2013, deputies encountered 49-year-old Darrell Atkinson hiding or crawling behind a line of grocery carts under an overpass of the Santa Monica (10) Freeway near Venice Boulevard and Cadillac Avenue.
A news release from the Sheriff’s Department issued shortly after the shooting said Atkinson grabbed a wooden stick from one of the shopping carts.
“The suspect suddenly armed himself with a wooden stick,” Deputy Mark Pope of the Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau told a reporter following the shooting. “He advanced toward the deputies with the wooden stick overhead.”
The summary provided to the board referred to the weapon as a wooden club. read more here
E. Texas veteran shot by deputies shares message of hope
Tucson News Now
By Skylar Gallop
Jan 27, 2016
TYLER, TX (KLTV)
A 25-year-old East Texas veteran says getting help with PTSD saved his life, after being shot by Smith County deputies in an apparent attempt at "suicide by police".
Cameron Dossey, a Navy veteran who served tours in Afghanistan and Africa, now has a strong message to other veterans to get help.
Dossey discusses his service, saying, "I don’t like people thanking me for my service, because there’s things I'm not proud of."
Dossey's family says he came back changed. Dossey admits he struggled with depression.
"You know, the last couple of years... getting stuck in my own head, all I hear are my own thoughts."
Thoughts turned into actions.
"I tried to commit suicide three times."
Family members were unable to reach him.
Dossey explains, "I never wanted to talk to my parents about what I've seen, because in my mind I'm carrying the visions and the price for freedom around in my head, so that they don't have to."
His family urged him to get help.
Dossey recalls, "I called the Green Zone, a counseling service for veterans, and I left a message but never got a call back. At that point, I did make an attempt to reach out."
Another call was returned by a different organization, but was unsuccessful at identifying the deep depression and PTSD Dossey was in denial of. read more here
Widow Sues Police Who Killed Her War Vet Husband
Courthouse News Service
By JAMIE ROSS
January 22, 2016
PHOENIX (CN) - City police officers south of Phoenix needlessly shot to death an unarmed Army veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, his widow and children claim in court.
Maria Garcia and her four children sued the City of Maricopa and two of its police officers, Sgt. Leonard Perez and Officer Joshua Hawksworth, on Tuesday in Federal Court.
Maricopa, pop. 48,000, is south of Phoenix in Pinal County.
Garcia says the shooting was particularly egregious, as two days before he was killed, her husband went to the Maricopa police station to offer to help the Police Department learn how to interact with veterans with PTSD.
Garcia met her husband, Johnathon Guillory, in 2005 when they were both in the U.S. military. Guillory had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2003 after he returned from a second tour in Afghanistan. They married in December 2008, and had two sons together. Guillory also had two children from a previous relationship.
His widow says that after going out on Jan. 18, 2015 to watch football and eat brunch, they returned to their home in Maricopa at about 1 p.m. Guillory went into the garage to listen to music.
At 2:30 p.m., an emergency call was made from Guillory's cellphone, but resulted in a hangup. After that call, "nearly every, if not every, on duty MPD officer decided to go to the Guillory residence to see what was happening," Garcia lawsuit says in the lawsuit.
She says the officers surrounded Guillory, who was standing outside his house, though he posed no threat and the officers knew "of his PTSD and sensitivity to being approached by police." read more here
Georgia Police Officer Indicted for Murder of Unarmed Black Man
New York Times
By ALAN BLINDER
JAN. 21, 2016
Anthony Hill, a 27-year-old Air Force veteran, was in the midst of what his family described in a lawsuit as “a nonviolent mental episode.”
DECATUR, Ga. — A white police officer was indicted here Thursday on six counts, including felony murder, in the fatal shooting last year of an unarmed black man who was naked and described as acting in an erratic manner.
The indictment of Officer Robert Olsen of the DeKalb County Police Department came about two weeks after the district attorney said he would ask a grand jury to pursue criminal charges in the death of Anthony Hill, a 27-year-old Air Force veteran.
The indictment, which District Attorney Robert D. James Jr. of DeKalb County announced at a Thursday night news conference, with Mr. Hill’s family members seated in the first row, was an emotional and surprising development. It played out in this city just east of Atlanta where, it seemed, few people had expected that Officer Olsen would be charged with murder. Mr. James said a judge had issued an arrest warrant and that Officer Olsen would soon be arrested.
After the arrival of Officer Olsen, who had a Taser device and had received training about how to deal with people suffering from mental illness, witnesses said that Mr. Hill did not comply with the officer’s directions to stop his advance. Mr. Hill’s hands, they said, were raised or at his sides before Officer Olsen opened fire. Mr. Hill, his family said in a court document last year, “was unarmed, unclothed and displaying no signs of aggression at the time of the shooting, and he presented no threat to Officer Olsen or anyone else.” read more here
Veteran struggling with PTSD recovers after being shot by a sheriff's deputy
KYTX News
Written by Andrea Martinez
10 December 2015
Dossey's grandfather, Phil Kling III, said his grandson has been struggling with PTSD since returning from Afghanistan and Africa about a year ago. He added that Dossey was treated and released from a local hospital last week after an incident related to the condition.
A Smith County veteran struggling with post traumatic stress disorder is recovering after he was shot by an officer during a disturbance Wednesday night.
According to information provided by the Smith County Sheriff's Office, the man was shot after threatening deputies with a knife.
Both relatives and deputies describe the disturbance that led up to the shooting as a cry for help and are calling for increased awareness of PTSD.
Deputies responded to reports of a person in distress in the 13000 block of County Road 411 in northern Smith County about 9 p.m. Wednesday.
When officers arrived, they met with the caller, Paul Kling II, who told them his son, Cameron Dossey, 25, had been drinking heavily, making suicidal statements and driving around on the property, according to a press release provided by the Smith County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies searched the area but were unable to locate Dossey. Deputies informed Kling II to call them if Dossey returned. read more here
UDPATE
Doctor explains what to look for in people who may have PTSD
KLTV News
By Kim Leoffler
Updated: Dec 10, 2015
TYLER, TX (KLTV)
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) cases are becoming more and more common throughout the country, and it could have been part of what led up to an officer-involved shooting Wednesday night.
24-year-old Cameron Dossey was shot in the torso after he reportedly lunged at Smith County sheriff's deputies with a knife, just outside of Lindale. He was still in the hospital Thursday night.
Dossey was in the Navy had been deployed twice, returning in May of last year. But since then, his family said he's been different.
“He said no one could help him, no one cared,” Andra Kling, Cameron’s mother, said.
“He said that he didn't want to live, that he was tired of everything, that we didn't know what was going on inside of his head,” Kling added. read more here
