SWAT standoff with veteran in crisis

Friends say man shot in Beaverton officer-involved shooting is a veteran
KPTV News
By Bonnie Silkman
Updated: Apr 26, 2018

BEAVERTON, OR (KPTV)
Beaverton police said they received multiple 911 calls at 11:00 Wednesday morning about a disturbance involving a gun. After they arrived, they found a man in crisis inside a truck near 148th and Farmington Road.

Officers said they communicated with the man, who was making suicidal statements through text message. After two and a half hours of negotiating, police said the man fired at officers.

Officers said police returned shots back resulting in the man being rushed to the hospital by ambulance. They did not have an update on his condition.

“They moved the SWAT trucks in, and that’s when all of a sudden it was quick fire,” said Erica, who watched the standoff unfold.

She captured the standoff on her cell phone and the video shows her ducking for cover when gunfire erupts. A baby’s cries and panic can be heard from her video.

Officers told FOX 12, before gunfire erupted, the man in crisis sat in a silver truck for hours.

“Boom, boom, boom. That’s what happened, pretty sad,” another witness said.

The standoff took place steps away from a Salvation Army Veterans and Family Center on Farmington Road, which offers veterans transitional housing.

Friends of the man who was shot said he’s a veteran who needs help.
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Aberdeen Proving Ground soldier dead after standoff

Soldier Dead After Barricade Situation At Aberdeen Proving Ground
Associated Press
CBS Baltimore
March 23, 2018

The soldier’s name is being withheld until next of kin has been notified. The soldier was assigned to the Kirk U.S. Army Health Clinic.

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (WJZ/AP) — Army officials say an incident involving a soldier who barricaded himself inside a home on a U.S. Army installation ended after a 17-hour standoff.

Aberdeen Proving Ground spokesman David Patterson says the man was alone in the home when a concerned relative called Thursday morning saying he’d locked himself inside. In a statement Friday afternoon, the installation stated emergency responders found the soldier dead inside the home early Friday morning.
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FBI gets case of Iraq veteran being beaten by Deputies

St. Tammany Sheriff Randy Smith: Deputies accused of beating veteran followed protocol
The Advocate
BY SARA PAGONES AND KATIE MOORE
MAR 23, 2018

However, Cambre's complaint was turned over to the FBI this week, not by the Sheriff's Office, but by 22nd Judicial District Attorney Warren Montgomery following what he called a "preliminary investigation" by his office.

Army veteran Chris Cambre, who says he was beaten by St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's deputies during a welfare check in January, is shown the following day with a facial laceration. Photo provided by Chris Cambre

St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith is defending the five deputies who are accused of beating a military veteran in January, saying that they followed protocol during the incident, including the agency's policy on use of force.

Chris Cambre, a 48-year-old Pearl River resident, said he was severely beaten, Tased and handcuffed by the deputies on the night of Jan. 21, when law enforcement officials came to check on him at his trailer.

Cambre, who is a veteran of the Iraq War, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and had posted on social media that he was struggling, prompting someone to call the police.

A report written by a Pearl River police officer who was on the scene corroborates Cambre's claim that he had behaved calmly and had showed the deputies that he was not armed when they arrived with their weapons drawn.

The officer and Cambre both say that he did not resist the deputies prior to the beating.
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Connecticut Police lose weapons if they seek help for PTSD? Seriously?

Police Seek Exemption From Gun Law For Mental Health Treatment
CT News Junkie
by Christine Stuart
Mar 8, 2018

The bill the officers are supporting would carve out an exemption for law enforcement and allow them to get their service weapon back even if they sought mental health treatment. At the moment, no matter who you are in Connecticut, if you voluntarily check yourself into an in-patient mental health facility you get your firearms taken away for six months.

HARTFORD, CT — Four. That’s the number of police officers in Connecticut who have taken their own lives over the past seven months.

And that’s only the number a group of law enforcement officers at the state Capitol Tuesday to testify knew about. There’s no data on police suicide collected by the state. The Federal Bureau of Investigations collections information about deaths in the line of duty, but not suicide.

James Rascati, a clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at Yale University, said he’s personally dealt with the suicides of seven officers over the past 15 years.

“It’s one of the most devastating events any law enforcement agency can experience,” Rascati said.

Ron Mercado, an officer from Bridgeport, said his department still struggles daily with the recent suicide of one of its officers on Dec. 4.

“It’s difficult to focus when you’re still thinking to yourself whether you could have gotten him some more help,” Mercado said. “It doesn’t get any easier.”

One of the barriers to treatment the officers are looking to the General Assembly this year to resolve was adopted as part of the landmark 2013 legislation banning assault weapons and large capacity magazines post-Sandy Hook.
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Sanford Police searching for missing person with PTSD

Sanford police seek help finding missing man, 42
Police searching for Alejandro Moran
Click Orlando
February 02, 2018

SANFORD, Fla. - Sanford police are asking for the public's help in finding a missing 42-year-old man.

Police said they responded around 2:33 a.m. Friday to the Slumberland Motel in the 2600 block of South Orlando Drive regarding a missing/suicidal person identified as Alejandro Moran.

Moran then left the area on foot prior to law enforcement arrival. Police said Moran has only been in Sanford for two months and is not familiar with the area.

Moran suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression, police said.
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Veterans Help Sheriff's Department to Help PTSD Veterans

Local veterans reach out to sheriff's office to help veterans struggling with PTSD
Payson Roundup
by Alexis Bechman roundup staff reporter
Jan 30, 2018

After reading that sheriff’s deputies had shot and killed a disturbed young veteran who had threatened deputies with a shotgun, two local Vietnam veterans were moved to do something.

Bud Huffman and Jim Muhr left the service decades ago, but have had to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder ever since.

Now they hope to reach out to other local veterans struggling to avoid another such tragedy.

In June, Jacob Brown had a PTSD attack on his birthday near his home in Beaver Valley Estates. Frightened, Brown’s wife fled the area with their children and went to Prescott to stay with family. Alone, Brown stormed around the two-story rental. Surveillance cameras, which Brown had installed inside and outside the home, picked up his movements.

On the phone, Brown told his uncle he wanted to kill himself, but couldn’t reach the trigger on his shotgun. His uncle called 911 for help. The two deputies had moved onto the porch with guns drawn when Brown stormed out of his home. Brown ignored orders to put down his weapon, so the officers fired on him.

“When I read that article it broke my heart,” Muhr said. “There are a lot of veterans that need a lot of help. Bud and I wanted to do something and with our backgrounds in PTSD, we felt we understand what veterans are going through.”

Both Muhr and Huffman recently met with GCSO supervisors, deputies and correctional officers in both Payson and Globe to offer their assistance as members of the Payson Veterans Advocacy Committee. Generally, officers have little training in how to deal with someone suffering from PTSD and the sheriff’s office doesn’t have a special unit to deal with things like a confrontation with a mentally ill person or even a hostage-taking situation.
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90 percent of Colorado Springs VA PTSD patients waiting longer

Report: Wait times falsified for 90 percent of Colorado Springs VA PTSD patients

KKTV 11 News

November 16, 2017

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (The Gazette) - An internal Department of Veterans Affairs watchdog told Congress Thursday that nine in ten PTSD patients at a Colorado Springs VA clinic had their wait times "inaccurately recorded."

Patients in Colorado Springs waited weeks and months longer for care than was recorded in VA records, making some of the agency's worst wait times in America even longer.

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And gee, no shocker members of Congress pushing for the VA to be privatized slammed the VA instead of apologizing for not fixing the problems that have been reported for DECADES!

But here is a better report from FOX 31

Investigation: Denver VA hospital used improper waitlist for veterans’ mental health care

and in that report there was this,

Smothers went to Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Cory Gardner of Colorado, saying he had uncovered the unauthorized lists on spreadsheets in the VA computer system.They requested the investigation along with other members of Colorado’s congressional delegation, including Mike Coffman.“Putting veterans on secret waitlists is not acceptable. The VA should implement changes to provide the highest quality care for our veterans and hold wrongdoers accountable,” Johnson said in a statement.

You can read more of that here 

But whatever you read, consider the following.

2008
Associated Press report: "Peake promised to "virtually eliminate" the current list of 69,000 veterans who have waited more than 30 days for an appointment to get VA medical care.


2014

FROM NPR The inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs has affirmed that some 1,700 patients at the Phoenix VA hospital were put on unofficial wait lists and subjected to treatment delays of up to 115 days.In an interim report released Wednesday, the inspector general's office reported it had "substantiated that significant delays in access to care negatively impacted the quality of care" at Phoenix HCS.

Play a game of seek what they hide and discover how long they have been failing the veterans. 
(Hint: You'll have to track it back to the Revolutionary War) 

Female Veteran Lived to Help Others, Killed During SWAT Standoff

Police officers kill U.S. Army war veteran with mental health issues

Local 10 News
By Andrea Torres - Digital Reporter/Producer , Madeleine Wright - Reporter
August 27, 2017

SUNRISE, Fla. - Kristen Ambury was a U.S. Army explosive ordnance specialist and an emergency medical technician. The 28-year-old war veteran worked for the American Heart Association, and trained others to save lives as a critical care paramedic for the American Medical Response.

The Broward College and Broward Fire Academy graduate trained to save lives. She worked with Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue and also loved dogs. She died when The Sunrise Police Department could not help her Friday.

Broward Sheriffs' Office deputies said SWAT broke into her home to try to save her life. Sunrise police officers responded to the Water's Edge apartments because she was suicidal. Relatives said she appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and struggled with her mental health.

Broward Sheriffs' Office deputies said SWAT broke into her home to try to save her life. Sunrise police officers responded to the Water's Edge apartments because she was suicidal. Relatives said she appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and struggled with her mental health.
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PTSD on Trial: Man Went For Help First, Before Shooting

Man on trial in deputy shooting says he intended to only harm himself

Oregon Live

Everton Bailey Jr.

August 25, 2017

Everton Bailey Jr. | The Oregonian/OregonLive Steven Wilson testifies in his own defense during his trial in Clackamas County Circuit Court on August 25, 2017. Wilson, 40, is accused of grabbing a county deputy's gun and shooting them both in November 2016. Wilson said he meant to grab the gun, kill himself and didn't intend to injure the deputy. (Everton Bailey Jr./The Oregonian)

Steven Wilson felt suicidal last fall and had gone to Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center for help, but was released hours later. He returned to his Portland apartment, later grabbed his psychiatric medication and went to a nearby MAX stop. Then he threw the pills on the ground.

A voice inside his head told him: If you're serious about killing yourself, you don't need your medicine, Wilson told the jury Friday during his attempted murder trial. The voice also said he needed to die to keep his mother alive.

From there, Wilson testified, he remembers only snippets. He's accused of shooting a Clackamas County deputy with the deputy's own gun in a Nov. 15, 2016 encounter that left them both injured.

Wilson, 40, said he somehow got to a home in Clackamas where his mother no longer lived and took a blanket off a neighbor's porch.

He doesn't remember later walking into traffic along Southeast Sunnyside Road during the early morning traffic commute, he said. Nor being hit by at least one car or the two women who stopped to try to help him afterward.

He said he doesn't remember the deputy who responded to the scene, but said he did recall at some point seeing a gun in front of him and a voice in his head repeatedly telling him, "Grab the gun and kill yourself."

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Quiet Hollers Songwriter Takes On Mental Health Challenges

For Quiet Hollers, the song comes first

Lacrosse Tribune

Michale Martin

August 25, 2017

His wife has a panic disorder and Wilde suffers from depression — something alluded to in the song, “Medicine”. Meanwhile a close friend, a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, took his own life.

For a while it looked like Quiet Hollers were going to be pegged as an Americana or roots band — or maybe even an alt country band. But the latest album by the Louisville, Kentucky-based band — “Amen Breaks” — makes it clear that those kinds of “boxes” are far too small to contain the band’s creativity.

The Hollers are doing a show at the Cavalier Theater on Sept 2. The band’s latest album has elements of post-punk and indie-leaning sounds, as well as hip-hop-style drum machines, soaring synthesizers, string quartets and harmony-laden choruses. Despite the disparate styles and sounds, it’s all somehow held together by Shadwick Wilde’s thoughtful songwriting.

Wilde, the band’s primary songwriter, explained that the album was inspired by life challenges faced by friends and family. 

“It’s kind of an amalgam of things that have been in the forefront of my mind, about mental health and mental illness — these things that have touched the lives of virtually everyone I know, myself included,” Wilde said.

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Siblings Suffer After Suicide But Go Without Help to Heal

After a suicide, sibling survivors are often overlooked

NPR
Cheryl Platzman Weinstock
August 25, 2017 

"I think people don't understand how profound a loss of a sibling can be. They help shape your trajectory and sense of self." Julie Cerel, a psychologist and president of the American Association of Suicidology  

Ryan Steen (left) found himself "on edge" and isolated for years after his younger brother, Tyler, died by suicide. Courtesy of Ryan Steen

When Taylor Porco's brother, Jordan, died by suicide during his freshman year of college in February 2011, people told her to be strong for her parents, who were incapacitated by their grief. Hardly anyone seemed to notice that Porco, only 14 at the time, was suffering and suicidal.

"I was really depressed and in such extreme pain. Nothing, literally, mattered to me after he died. All I wanted was my brother back. I never loved someone as much as I loved him," she says.

Porco's experience is hardly unique. Approximately 25,000 people each year become sibling survivors of suicide, according to the support group, Sibling Survivors of Suicide Loss. Those who lose a sibling to suicide at any age can experience anger, complicated grief reactions, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and thoughts of taking their own lives.

Until recently, these survivors often fell under the radar. They were overlooked in medical research, and no one understood what they were going through or how to support them. But, according to several studies of survivors, those who lose a sibling to suicide, especially one of the same sex or close in age, have more serious mood disorders and thoughts of suicide themselves than survivors who lose a sibling for any other reason. 
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Elderly Veteran With PTSD Shot and Killed

Neighbor: South Knox County man killed by deputies suffered from PTSD
USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee
Hayes Hickman
May 24, 2017

A South Knox County man shot and killed in an armed confrontation with sheriff's deputies Tuesday night has been identified by his neighbor as an elderly veteran who was known to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder.

Albert Gagnier, 74, fired several shots from his house and while standing in the street, then fired at deputies as they responded to the scene in the Woodhaven subdivision, according to his neighbor Amanda Moore.

It was common knowledge among the neighborhood that Gagnier suffered from mental illness, she said. She did not know the details of his military service.

"Everybody just knows Mr. Al loses his mind sometimes, but he's never done anything like this," Moore told the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee on Wednesday. "He usually just yells at kids in the neighborhood."
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Suicidal Call For Help Leaves Afghanistan Veteran Dead

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.
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Joshua Dunne Wife's Anguished 911 Call Released After Police Shooting

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."
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Sister Begs For Help While Vietnam Veteran Brother Sits in Jail With PTSD

Veterans 911: What’s Being Done to Combat Suicide After Service
FOX 40 News
BY NIKKI LAURENZO
NOVEMBER 23, 2016

On July 28, right after he was released from Doctors Behavioral Health Center in Modesto, Scott went to Costco. He was shot by an off-duty police officer after lunging at him with a knife, according to investigators.

He survived and is now in the Stanislaus County Jail.
It's a bond that began when they were kids, growing even stronger as they got older. Suzanne Perez said she tried everything.

"It was very hard. I wanted to make him better,” she said.

As the big sister, she felt a sense of responsibility.

“It was out of my control, and that was hard to accept,” Perez said.

Her brother, Gary Scott, is a Vietnam veteran who she said is battling severe depression and early signs of multiple sclerosis.

“He felt like it was hopeless, like nobody could help him. So he wanted to end his life,” Perez explained, fighting back tears.

She said she knew her brother was going to do something, but she didn’t imagine what was about to happen.
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Shame of Texas From WWII To Today

Commentary: The shame of Texas
The Statesman
OPINION By Drs. Octavio N. Martinez, Jr. and William S. Bush
Special to the American-Statesman
Sept. 4, 2016

Where if all else fails, the criminal justice system picks up the pieces — and too many of our veterans and loved ones are ending up homeless, marginalized and unseen. For if we do not do enough, one thing is certain: The shame of Texas will continue.

A shortage of available beds in the state’s system of psychiatric hospitals has left nearly 400 Texans languishing for months, sometimes years, on a waiting list. This is according to a recent Texas Tribune article, which describes examples of individuals who wound up accessing care only after being charged with a crime.

Over half of the current residents in Texas’ psychiatric hospitals are “forensic” commitments through the criminal justice system, which is often the only way that low-income people with mental illness can access treatment. Further compounding these daunting problems is the continued use of “crumbling, century-old state hospitals” built in an earlier time when mental health and mental illness were poorly understood — even by credentialed experts.

This depressing state of affairs recalls an earlier period, in the decade after World War II, when similar conditions sparked a mass movement that decried inadequate mental health care as “the shame of Texas.”
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76 Year Old Veteran Killed Himself At VA After Being Turned Away

Veteran Kills Himself in Parking Lot of V.A. Hospital on Long Island
New York Times
By KRISTINA REBELO
AUG. 24, 2016

“He went to the E.R. and was denied service,” one of the people, who currently works at the hospital, said. “And then he went to his car and shot himself.”

A 76-year-old veteran committed suicide on Sunday in the parking lot of the Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Long Island, where he had been a patient, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

Peter A. Kaisen, of Islip, was pronounced dead after he shot himself outside Building 92, the nursing home at the medical center.

The hospital is part of the Veterans Affairs medical system, the nation’s largest integrated health care organization, which has been under scrutiny since 2014, when the department confirmed that numerous patients had died awaiting treatment at a V.A. hospital in Phoenix. Officials there had tried to cover up long waiting times for 1,700 veterans seeking medical care. A study released by the Government Accountability Office in April indicated that the system had yet to fix its scheduling problems.

Why Mr. Kaisen decided to end his life was not immediately known, but two people connected to the hospital who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss his death said that he had been frustrated that he was unable to see an emergency-room physician for reasons related to his mental health. “He went to the E.R. and was denied service,” one of the people, who currently works at the hospital, said. “And then he went to his car and shot himself.”
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SWAT Standoff Ended After 11 Hours

Scottsbluff man arrested after 11-hour standoff
Star Herald
MAUNETTE LOEKS and DEAN TORSKE
Star-Herald Staff
August 20, 2016

UPDATE, 11:15 A.M.: Sheriff Mark Overman has confirmed reports that the man involved in the stand-off is a Vietnam veteran who has been suffering some recent emotional issues. Family members called in the report, but the man has mostly made threats to himself. 

Standoff nearing its sixth hour SHANA EMERICK/Courtesy Photo

Neighbor Shana Emrick provided photos of SWAT team and bomb robot teams readying at the site of a standoff Saturday.

After more than 11 hours, a standoff at a rural residence ended with officers taking the man into custody.

Scotts Bluff County Sheriff’s deputies and the Scottsbluff SWAT Team took Daniel Converse, 65, of Scottsbluff, into custody at about 6:45 p.m. Sheriff Mark Overman reported authorities had obtained a warrant for the man, charging him with two felony counts of terroristic threats.

“I am just proud of all of the efforts of all of the officers that we were able to get this resolved. It took quite a while, but we got it resolved peacefully,” Overman said.

The standoff began at about 7:30 a.m. when Scotts Bluff County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a residence at County Road H and County Road 19, about six miles west of Scottsbluff. A woman reported to deputies that a man at the residence was armed with a hand grenade. He was outside of the residence when deputies initially arrived, but went back into the residence.

“They (deputies) challenged him and tried to get him to stop, but he retreated into his house,” Overman said. “He was holding something in his hands that deputies said was the size and shape of a grenade.”
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VA Deploys Mobile Medical Unit to Orlando

What happened on early Sunday morning will not be the end of the story for a very long time. Some will eventually recover but no one will be the same. Some will end up needing help for PTSD. The thing is, if what you are experiencing is not gone or at least easier in 30 days, get help. Make sure you talk to a trauma specialist. The sooner you get help, the sooner you can help others.

VA Deploys Mental Health Staff in Orlando After Mass Shooting
Military.com
Bryant Jordan
June 13, 2016

The Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Orlando is providing emergency mental health assistance to people affected by the bloody rampage at a nightclub early Sunday that killed 49 and left 53 wounded.

In a statement released Monday afternoon, the VA said its services would be available to veterans and department employees, as well as the general public "in the wake of the tragic mass shooting."

Police say Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old U.S. citizen and Muslim who lived in Fort Pierce, Florida, entered The Pulse, a gay nightspot, early Sunday morning and opened fire with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a 9mm Glock handgun.

The medical center's Mobile Medical Unit is located at the Beardall Senior Center, 800 Delaney Ave., about three miles from The Pulse nightclub at 1912 South Orange Ave. The mobile unit will remain open Monday night until 11 p.m., officials said, and can be contacted at 321-277-6672.
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Mental Health Crisis Calls Up 84% in San Diego

Report: Mental Health Calls Increase 84% Since 2009
KPBS
By City News Service
Monday, June 6, 2016

Calls to law enforcement in San Diego regarding mental health issues have risen 84 percent over the past six years, the San Diego Association of Governments reported Monday.

In 2009, there were more than 17,000 such calls, according to SANDAG's Criminal Justice Research Division. By 2015, the total was up to 31,700 after a steady annual climb in the number of mental health incidents.

SANDAG said the figures don't include calls to police for other reasons, but for which mental illness was later found to be an underlying cause.

Law enforcement representatives told SANDAG that reasons for the climb include increased drug use, greater public awareness of mental health issues, a growing number of people with such problems but no stable residence, fewer programs to help patients, a jump in the number of people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and legislative changes that resulted in incarcerated people being released and no longer taking medication.
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