Sheriff Fatally Shot Near West Virginia Courthouse

Eugene Crum Dead: Mingo County Sheriff Fatally Shot Near West Virginia Courthouse
(UPDATE)
The Huffington Post
By Hunter Stuart
Posted: 04/03/2013

Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum was fatally shot Wednesday outside the Mingo County courthouse, WCHS reports.

The courthouse was evacuated and placed on lock down, WSAZ reports.

WCHS reports that a suspect has been taken into custody.

The suspect was shot but is "alert and talking," and has been taken to the hospital, according to the Charleston Daily Mail.
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Texas college on lockdown after several people shot

Update January 23, 2013
Suspect In Lone Star College Shooting, Charged With Aggravated Assault

UPDATE from CNN
3 wounded in Houston college shooting; two people detained

Lone Star College System campus near Houston, has gone into a lockdown
By JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press
HOUSTON January 22, 2013 (AP)
Authorities in Texas say three people have been wounded in a shooting at a Houston-area community college.

Harris County Sheriff's Maj. Armando Tello says three people had been wounded and a person of interest has been detained.
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PTSD led to deadly encounter over traffic ticket

If you want to know how everything can converge to fail, this is it.

Dusty was diagnosed with PTSD but didn't want to go for help. So much for the outreach the DOD has been doing all these years to make it ok to seek help.

Dusty had a supportive family and they tried to get him to the help he needed to heal from where he'd been. Family support is key to helping them heal but even that was not enough to prevent what was to come from a simple traffic ticket.

Dusty had faith and went to church. We tell them that they need to take care of their spiritual healing as much as their "mental healing" and that didn't work.

Dusty and his family were failed by everything we're told is being done for these veterans. The Sheriff's department was failed too because now they have to face the fact that another veteran was killed because he didn't get what he needed to heal.

Family: PTSD led to deadly encounter
WCAX.com
Posted: Jan 10, 2013
By Matt Henson

ALTONA, N.Y.
It's been an emotional two and a half weeks for Sheila and Edward Clark.

"My world is going to be radically changed," Sheila said.

"It's been tough, it's been tough," Edward said.

Their 28-year-old son, Dusty, was shot and killed by a Clinton County deputy sheriff two weeks ago. Dusty allegedly pulled a knife out when officers went to his home in Altona to arrest him for failing to appear in court for an ongoing traffic ticket.

"PTSD is what brought this all on, I think," Edward said.

The Clarks say their son was not a violent person, but a young man who struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder. He spent four years in the Marines. But in 2009 he was diagnosed with PTSD and was not allowed to re-enlist.

"His struggle to fit into this world and wanting to be still in the Marine Corps was just tough for him," Sheila said.

His parents say they noticed a dramatic change in his behavior. Dusty isolated himself, would go days without sleeping, thought people were after him and even walked 25 miles in the woods from his home in Altona to his mother's in Plattsburgh.

"I asked him, 'what are you doing for it? Are you getting help for it?' He said, 'I don't feel like I have anything wrong with me, mom,'" Sheila said.

Just a few weeks before the fatal encounter with police, Dusty Clark's father called the New York State Police to come check on his son. He told them he was acting strange.

"I told them, I think he needs to be medicated, and they tried, tried and tried again to get him to go to the hospital and get checked out," Edward said.

On Dec. 30, Dusty went to church with his mother like they did every Sunday. He served as an altar boy and was an active member of the church's fundraising efforts. After church, she gave him several hundred dollars to settle the traffic violations.
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Former Marine killed by sheriff's deputy had PTSD

Justice Department fights for fire National Guardsman

Justice Dept. goes to bat in vet’s USERRA suit
Army Times
By Karen Jowers
Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jan 9, 2013

The Justice Department has filed suit against the sheriff in Jerome County, Idaho, charging violations of the reemployment rights of an Army National Guard soldier who re-injured his knee on a weekend training drill.

Mervin Jones first injured the knee in Iraq in 2004, according to the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boise, Idaho. The complaint alleges that the sheriff’s office fired Jones on April 10, 2009, two weeks after a second knee surgery required after he re-injured his knee during a weekend training drill in 2008.

Under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, employers must accommodate service members injured in the line of duty. Troops recuperating from injuries are allowed up to two years to be reemployed.

Jones, a medically retired sergeant, initially filed a complaint with the Labor Department, which referred it to Justice after an investigation.
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Khe Sanh Vietnam Veteran sheriff recalls experiences

Worcester sheriff recalls Vietnam experiences
Delmarvanow.com
Oct 24, 2012
Written by
Brian Shane
Staff Writer

SNOW HILL — Facing death was a way of life for Marines in Vietnam, but for 77 days, Cpl. Reggie Mason had a front-row seat.

The Pocomoke City, Md., native joined the Marines in 1966 at age 18. He spent most of 1967 in DaNang, as a bodyguard and driver for a colonel. He had been putting in transfer requests to be in a combat unit.

In January 1968, he had re-enlisted and joined the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, an infantry unit nicknamed “The Walking Dead” for having so many men killed in action.

“I’ll never forget when I checked in,” said Mason, 66. “The staff sergeant said, ‘You’re that crazy-ass bastard from division that wants to go in the field. Get your gear — you’re going to see all you want to see.’ At 1300 hours, I was on a chopper bound for the DMZ.”

When they landed at Khe Sanh, Mason was given a new detail: Casualties.

His job was to shadow medics working with the wounded and dead, and bring them out of the Demilitarized Zone. He would radio in dog tags about who was wounded and how badly. For Marines killed in action, he would collect their personal effects from the body.
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Man Arrested for Drinking and Driving his Motorcyle Naked

Cop stops naked motorcyclist
A sheriff's officer is surprised to see a motorcyclist riding without a stitch of clothing. WCJB reports.
cllick link for video

Man Arrested for Drinking and Driving his Motorcyle Naked
by TV20 News Desk · Sep 15th 2009 · See more Local News

OCALA - He told sheriff's deputies he had just come from the restaurant "Hooters" when they stopped him on his motorcycle.

The problem was, he was completely naked.

Captain Mike Rolls was driving along Highway 200 in Marion County early Tuesday morning, when he saw something that made him do a double take.

It was 45-year-old Dante Kraus, naked and driving a motorcycle.

Captain Mike Rolls with the Marion County Sheriff's Office says,

"You could see from his feet which were bare, all the way up to his shoulders that he didn't have any clothing on."

Even after Captain Rolls drove up beside the naked Kraus, he didn't appear to be concerned, but instead jumped on the I-75.
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Man Arrested for Drinking and Driving his Motorcyle Naked

Excessive force lawsuit in Florida after Hurricane Ivan

When you think of what life is like after a hurricane comes thru, houses destroyed after neighborhoods have been evacuated, it's easy to understand how people can be hyper-vigilant. This sounds as if everyone was trying to do the right thing when all hell broke loose.

We moved to Central Florida from Massachusetts right before all the hurricanes hit. Charlie was the worst for us. I remember walking around, looking at all the damage on my street, in shock. None of my neighbors evacuated because Charlie was not supposed to hit here. None of us bordered up our windows either. Adding in all that stress, topping it off with an evacuated neighborhood, it's easy to understand all that happened that day to the people involved in this.

'Excessive force' lawsuit filed over post-Ivan confrontation (with documents)
Andrew Gant
Daily News
A federal lawsuit is stirring in Santa Rosa County, four years after the plaintiffs say they were beaten - one Tasered - and wrongfully arrested during post-Hurricane Ivan looting.

Daniel and Cathy Thompson of Navarre and former Navarre resident Edgar Knowling are seeking unspecified damages from Sheriff Wendell Hall and seven others for "blatant use of excessive force," according to their complaints.

"Since the incident ... (the Sheriff's Office) has also engaged in a course of misconduct to cover up, conceal and/or manipulate facts surrounding the case," according to the plaintiffs' complaint.

One defendant, former Pinellas County Sheriff's Deputy Richard Farnham - accused of being the main aggressor - already has been convicted of civil rights violations in his own trial.

The Sheriff's Office, the Thompsons and Knowling all declined to comment on the case, but the complaints are long and detailed.

The facts

Knowling spotted two strangers near a neighbor's garage on Tidewater Lane late Sept. 20, 2004, four days after Ivan struck and knocked out power and devastated homes in Navarre.

Knowling, a retired Air Force colonel, was armed with a long-barreled shotgun that night. He fired a warning shot into the ground and told the men to get away from his evacuated neighbor's home.

Nearby, Daniel Thompson, a retired New York City police captain, heard the gunshot, woke up and came outside with his chrome revolver.

But the men in the garage weren't looters. They were sheriff's deputies investigating prior reports of looting, according to court records.

What happened next is disputed.
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