3 Tour Ex-Marine arrested in Hillsborough County deputy shooting

It is by the grace of God this ended the way it did. DeVeaux is still alive after being shot at "9 or 10 times" by a Marine trained to kill. Buendia was not killed by SWAT. Some may want to just blame Buendia for all of this but that is only because they do not understand how this country has been failing the men and women we send into combat. Buendia brought the war back home inside of him.

Ex-Marine arrested in Hillsborough County deputy shooting

By Jessica Vander Velde and Shelley Rossetter, Times Staff Writers
In Print: Sunday, October 2, 2011

Hillsborough deputies escort former Marine Matthew Buendia, 24, at the jail on Saturday.

[OCTAVIO JONES | Times]

TAMPA — Five years ago, Matt Buendia was a Marine preparing for deployment and Lyonelle De Veaux was a new sheriff's deputy.

He focused on rising through the ranks. She aimed to help abused and neglected children.

They met on Friday, De Veaux parked under the oaks at a Carrollwood apartment complex and Buendia with a gun tucked into his waistband.

It was a routine domestic call. De Veaux, 35, met Buendia's girlfriend at the front of the complex about 10:30 p.m. Friday. The deputy asked the woman to sit in the patrol car so she could give a statement.

That's when Buendia, 24, walked up. He was too close. The deputy asked him to step back.

Instead, he whipped out a semiautomatic gun and started pumping bullets into De Veaux, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office reported.

He fired nine or 10 times, deputies say, from just a few feet away.

De Veaux spun and crouched as she backed up, trying to use her car to get some distance from Buendia — a mix of training and instinct.

Three bullets hit her — in the upper leg, lower leg and shoulder, Sheriff David Gee said. She was wearing a protective vest, but it didn't cover those areas.

As she lay on the pavement, Buendia ran back into his apartment and locked himself inside.
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Suspect in Hillsborough deputy shooting a former Marine

9 or 10 times a gun was fired by someone trained to hit what they aim at. He was close to her. She survived. Over the years veterans like Buendia have been treated like common criminals, with no care for anyone else but themselves. The veterans in this country are not about "self" or they wouldn't choose the professions they enter into. When they come home changed and challenged by where we send them, it is our responsibility to care for them. If we don't, there will be many more times when the story is repeated with a very different outcome.

"He served three deployments in the Middle East, according to his uncle, Bob Buendia, 68, and rose to the rank of sergeant. He left the military a couple of years ago. His uncle believes Matthew started working in insurance.


When Matthew Buendia returned to the United States, his uncle spoke to him by phone. Matthew Buendia mentioned he had lost a lot of buddies overseas.


He didn't share the details, but his family could tell he was hurting, said Bob Buendia, of Texas."


The young man was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, family members say.


"I don't think he understands what had happened, to be honest with you," Matthew Buendia's father, Richard Buendia, told Bay News 9. "I feel awful. … He's a good young man, never been in any kind of problems at all."


Matthew Buendia was being seen by Veterans Affairs doctors, Bob Buendia said.