Mother: Fort Bragg soldier convicted in cop shooting had PTSDPosted 6:46 p.m. Wednesday

Mother: Fort Bragg soldier convicted in cop shooting had PTSD
Posted 6:46 p.m. Wednesday



FORT BRAGG, N.C. — The mother of a Fort Bragg soldier convicted of shooting at police and firemen wants less prison time and more understanding for her son. Lawyers for Staff Sgt. Joshua Eisenhauer said post-traumatic stress disorder played a role in his actions during a four-hour standoff, but the judge said that didn't matter and sentenced him to up to 18 years.

Eisenhauer, who served two terms in Afghanistan, fired several shots at police and firefighters responding to a fire at his apartment in January 2012.

Eisenhauer’s mother, Dawn Erickson, who lives and works in Afghanistan, has filed a motion for relief with the courts to try and get her son out of jail and into a mental health facility to treat him for PTSD. “We can only hope that there is justice in North Carolina. I didn’t see it on August 6th,” said Erickson.

Iraq Veteran Getting Help After False Report Led to SWAT Standoff

Man in custody after West Toledo standoff 
Toledo Blade
BY MIKE SIGOV BLADE STAFF WRITER
September 7, 2015

Mr. McGranahan had served two tours of duty in Iraq, been wounded in the back, and awarded a Purple Heart. The woman, Shirley Mowery, said her grandson suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, but was not capable of hurting anyone.

Toledo police have identified Donald McGranahan II as the main taken in custody after a standoff with police in West Toledo today.

Shortly after 1 p.m. a police SWAT team led him away from the house in the 1400 block of Gage Road where he’d been holding them at bay for about two hours. He was wearing body armor, police said. Mr. McGranahan, 32, called 911 just after 11 a.m. and said he had just shot his girlfriend at the home and that he had her children tied up in the bathroom, police said.

The caller also allegedly threatened to shoot police, they said.

Police negotiators went to the home, where they later learned the caller’s claims about hurting a woman and children were false.

The woman he mentioned was safe and in another location and no children were at the house or harmed, Toledo Police Lt. Joe Heffernan said.

Toledo Police Chief George Kral said Mr. McGranahan surrendered after negotiators had him speak with his relatives.

After searching the home, police determined no one else was inside and though several loaded firearms were later found in the house, the man had not wielded one during the standoff.
read more here



UPDATE 9/8/2015
Man taken into custody after standoff pleads not guilty

Kansas City Veteran's Death Behind VA National Review

Death of Iraq veteran from Kansas City leads the VA to a nationwide review of wait times
Kansas City Star
BY MARY SANCHEZ
September 3, 2015

After two tours in Iraq, Issac Sims was determined to be 70 percent disabled from PTSD from his military service. He also had hearing loss and traumatic brain injury, possibly the results of an improvised explosive device that detonated. On the day he died, he’d spent the morning taking his father’s Hummer to nearby fields, bouncing over the terrain, acting as if he were patrolling for IEDs.

Joy.

For the first since her son’s death in what is often termed “suicide by cop,” Patricia Sims said she felt joy.

“This is for the next soldier,” Sims said Thursday.

Her son, Issac Shawn Sims, was an Iraq veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder when he practically goaded police to shoot him over Memorial Day weekend 2014. Sims held Kansas City officers at bay for five hours at his family’s East Side home. He died of multiple gunshot wounds, police accounts said, after pointing a rifle at officers.

Sims was 26.

Now the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will conduct a nationwide review of wait times and occupancy rates for relevant inpatient and other programs, as recommended by the Office of Inspector General. The report assessed Sims’ treatment and was released Wednesday. The report labeled Sims’ care as “inadequate.” The review came after a request by Rep. Kevin Yoder.

That Patricia Sims’ son’s case could possibly lead to substantial action is “one small step.”

Sims’ parents said they had tried in vain to get him help for his PTSD at the VA, a mere 2 miles from their home.

The family said Sims had been told he’d have to wait 30 days for inpatient treatment for PTSD.
read more here

Just a reminder we were told the same thing BACK IN THE 90's and Congress blamed the VA back then too instead of fixing anything!

Lawyers Want Fort Bragg Soldier's Sentence Changed

Lawyers seek corrected sentence for Fort Bragg soldier suffering from PTSD
FayObserver
By Greg Barnes Staff writer
August 18, 2015

Lawyers, family members and psychiatrists contend that Eisenhauer's severe PTSD and addiction to a prescription anti-anxiety medication caused him to have a flashback, believing he was shooting at enemy insurgents in Afghanistan.

Joshua Eisenhauer
Staff Sgt. Joshua Eisenhauer talks to one of his lawyers during his sentencing Thursday.

A lawyer for Fort Bragg Staff Sgt. Joshua Eisenhauer has filed a motion seeking to correct a sentence handed down Aug. 6 that landed Eisenhauer in prison for up to 18 years for shooting at police and firefighters in 2012.

In his motion for appropriate relief, lawyer Larry McGlothlin argues that the state did not substantially rebut defense testimony that Eisenhauer suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder and needs immediate professional treatment. The motion was filed Monday afternoon in Cumberland County Superior Court.

Eisenhauer pleaded guilty in February to shooting at police and firefighters after they responded to a report of a fire at Austin Creek Apartments in west Fayetteville on Jan. 13, 2012. Police shot Eisenhauer four times during a standoff. Police and firefighters escaped serious injury.

On Aug. 6, Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons sentenced Eisenhauer to between 10 and 18 years in prison after listening to about four hours of testimony.

Among those who testified, psychiatrist G. Martin Woodard said that on the night of the incident, Eisenhauer suffered from severe PTSD that was exacerbated by alcohol and anti-anxiety medications.
read more here

PTSD Veteran Getting Help After 3 Hour Standoff WIth Police

Armed Army vet with PTSD gets help after barricading self
ABC 7 News Fort Myers
Posted: Jul 07, 2015

After confirming the vet suffers from PTSD, negotiators built a rapport with the man and after three hours were able to coax him out safely.

An apartment complex was put on lockdown Tuesday after a Fort Myers Army veteran reportedly suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder called police claiming someone was after him.

Fort Myers police responded to The Park at Venato off Winkler Avenue in reference to the man who reportedly barricaded himself with a gun inside one of the units Tuesday morning.

We are told the vet is now getting treatment and no charges are filed against him.

According to a resident, the man locked himself inside an apartment in building 3870 just before 9 a.m.
read more here

Tensions High During Standoff At Dallas Police Headquarters

Dallas police HQ shooting: Suspect killed during standoff
By Jason Hanna and Joe Sutton, CNN
Updated 2:44 PM ET, Sat June 13, 2015

UPDATE
Dallas police HQ attack: Suspect shot after standoff
By Jason Hanna, Ben Brumfield and Joe Sutton, CNN
Updated 11:29 AM ET, Sat June 13, 2015
Video Source: CNN
Standoff continues after Dallas Police HQ attack
WFAA
WFAA Staff
9:25 a.m. CDT June 13, 2015

"Witnesses observed what they believed to be multiple suspects firing guns at the Dallas Police Department's headquarters," Chief Brown said. "The suspects were parked in front of police headquarters. As police officers arrived, the suspects rammed Dallas police officers' squad cars and began shooting at the officers, striking the squad cars but missing the officers."

The area around Dallas police headquarters was sealed off after suspicious packages were found following a shootout. (Photo: WFAA)

DALLAS — Dallas police were in a standoff Saturday morning after suspects in an armored van opened fire on the department's headquarters before leading officers on a chase to Hutchins, about 10 miles southeast.

Just before 9 a.m., police executed a planned detonation on the vehicle as the standoff reached roughly eight hours.

The armored van was "disabled" by police at 5:40 a.m. Sources told News 8 that the suspect in the armored van may have been injured in the initial shootout Saturday.

Police had not communicated with the suspect for quite some time, as of 8:30 a.m. Police were using robots to examine the suspect's vehicle.

The South Side on Lamar apartment complex in the 1400 block of South Lamar was evacuated as a precaution after one or more bombs were discovered outside police headquarters. read more here

PTSD on Trial: Iraq Veteran Gets 5 Years in Jail After Standoff?

Hamilton man suffering from PTSD gets five years in standoff that injured two 
Press Of Atlantic City
By LYNDA COHEN, Staff Writer
Posted: Friday, May 22, 2015

MAYS LANDING — A Hamilton Township man whose untreated post-traumatic stress disorder led to a standoff with police and the shooting of a patrol car was sentenced to five years in prison Friday.

Vincent Hamburg Sr., 31, at one time faced a charge of attempted murder for shooting at an unmanned police car during the incident that began late Nov. 14, 2013 at his father's Hamilton Township home.

The standoff began when he says he blacked out as a result of alcohol-treated anxiety brought on by his PTSD. His father and then-fiancee were assaulted in the incident.

After police were called, the two victims came outside, but Hamburg -- armed with a rifle owned by his father -- kept police at bay for hours. Just before surrendering, he shot into a police car that was parked in the driveway.

"My service in Iraq is a highlight in my life," Hamburg wrote in a letter to U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo about his PTSD. "I expected sad memories of lost comrade from a war setting, yet had no idea my service overseas would have a lifelong effect on my daily living. More importantly, I am sad at what my PTSD has done to the lives of those I care deeply for and am closest to in my life." read more here

Parents Want Answers After PTSD Veteran Shot By Police

Southern Illinois parents seek answers in fatal Texas police shooting of their veteran son
The Southern Illinoisan
BIANCA MONTES VICTORIA ADVOCATE
May 14, 2015

VICTORIA, TEXAS — The Southern Illinois parents of a 25-year-old veteran fatally shot by police officers at his home this past month in southeast Texas want answers. Answers they say Victoria, Texas, police officials have been reluctant to offer.

Brandon Lawrence, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, is from Southern Illinois, and his parents and siblings reside in Murphysboro and De Soto, according to his obituary.

On Saturday, April 25, officers responded to a disturbance call in Victoria, Texas. At the scene, one of the officers observed a man inside his own residence holding a 23-inch machete.

Police Chief J.J. Craig said at a news conference the next day that officers ordered the suspect, Lawrence, out of his residence. He said they also ordered him more than 30 times to drop his weapon.

Lawrence didn't comply and was fatally shot outside his home, Craig said.
read more here

original report
Afghanistan Veteran Killed By Police in Texas

When Will Nation Make Veterans High Profile Story?

I was watching WESH 2 News this morning and they were reporting on the protest in Orlando over the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. They called it a "high profile" story.

'We're human beings. We all need to care about each other and that's not what I'm seeing," demonstrator Krystal Pherai said.

She is right. We should care about each other. What she isn't seeing is what is happening to veterans all over the country everyday in America. They come home from wherever they are sent and simply don't get the help they need to be pulled from the brink of total despair. No matter how many times we've heard the American people care about them, the result is always the same. They are forgotten about. People move on until the next scandal and they become a story that is supposed to matter.

What doesn't matter is people forget all about everything they just learned. Their suffering doesn't end, nothing substantial happens and then the next time a reporter covers another scandal, folks get to pretend it is something new. The cycle goes on and on as history is repeated.

They have no clue how bad it has been for veterans. This report out of Boise sums up what the average citizen isn't aware of.

Boise Police Department On average, Boise police officers encounter approximately one veteran per week facing a crisis and in need of assistance, and officers are provided the opportunity to aid in referring the veteran to one of the network partners. These interactions demonstrate the value of the program, and that its objective is being met.

At least they are talking about what veterans are going through. Too bad it hasn't become a "high profile" news story. The population of Boise is 214,237 yet every week they have to respond to a veteran in crisis. There are only 16,725 in Boise.

There is the National Veterans Crisis Line veterans can call 1-800-273-8255 24-7. But over and over again we find that veterans are still committing suicide double the civilian population.

There is now an investigation into veterans being put on hold by the Crisis Line topped off with the fact that when veterans call the VA the automated phone message says "If this is an emergency call 911.

The VA has the Veterans Center where veterans are supposed to be able to get help they need before they end up in crisis.
The Vet Center

Ten Minutes Away
As fate would have it, there was a Vet Center just 10 minutes down the road from where Beatty worked at Fort Belvoir.

“When I walked in there, everything changed for me,” she said. “I had individual sessions with a female therapist, and 12 weeks of Cognitive Processing Therapy to specifically address my PTSD. I also completed a 12-week trauma group that was designed for women Veterans. I had always felt alone in my trauma, but being surrounded by supportive women who understood what I was going through was comforting. It helped me a lot.”

On April 4th a freeway was shut down because there was a police standoff with a suicidal veteran.

WacoTrib.com It was then that the man told officers he was trying to get to the Veterans Administration hospital in Temple when he ran out of gasoline.

Police confirmed he was a veteran and took him to the hospital. Investigators were waiting Saturday afternoon to talk to doctors and decide whether to file charges, Dickson said.

But here is another one that was resolved and the veteran is finally getting help.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Less than one week after being found not guilty by a Travis County jury on charges of assaulting a police officer, Marine veteran Gene Vela says he will check himself into a Veteran Affairs clinic in Temple on Tuesday.

In an exclusive interview with KXAN’s Sally Hernandez, Vela, 31, says he’ll be getting treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Treatment was something he was trying to do for months before he was shot three times by Austin police during a stand-off in November 2013, the day before Veteran’s Day.

Why didn't he get help before that? Why did it all this happen?
Brian Babb, Oregon National Guard, had PTSD and TBI. He called for help because he was suicidal. He ended up being shot by police instead.

Veteran’s family pledges to push for changes
Brian Babb’s relatives are proposing a new protocol for police responding to similar incidents in the future
The Register-Guard
By Christian Hill
MAY 3, 2015 (Edited for summary)

The therapist called police to Babb’s home in west Eugene after Babb reported to her that he was contemplating suicide and had fired a handgun in his home.

The therapist, Becky Higgins, remained on the phone with Babb for about 45 minutes. She said her client was beginning to calm down and had unloaded the handgun.

But Higgins said Babb walked away from the call after police directed Babb over a loudspeaker mounted on an armored vehicle to exit his home unarmed, and when a 911 dispatcher directed Higgins over her objections to hang up her line so a crisis negotiator on scene could get in touch with Babb.

Higgins said she had repeated to the 911 dispatcher that Babb had unloaded the handgun, but it’s unclear what information got to the officers on scene.

“We have said that we believe there were multiple points in time that if where a single action had been changed, he would be alive,” said Ronda McGowan, Babb’s other sister. “It would have been a better outcome.”
read more here

May 1, 2015
Officials layout a moment by moment timeline of events leading to the fatal shooting of Brian Babb by a Eugene Police Officer during a standoff in Eugene March 30th, 2015. (Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard)
My first thought was why didn't the negotiator talk to his therapist? After all, she was on the phone with 9-11.

“Nothing I’ve said here is intended to suggest there was no possible alternative or no possible better outcome or nothing could have fallen differently,” Gardner said. “We have the benefit of lots of information now that we didn’t have then.”

It is also puzzling as to why they didn't use tear gas or a flash grenade?

A stun grenade, also known as a flash grenade or flashbang, is a non-lethal explosive device used to temporarily disorient an enemy's senses. It is designed to produce a blinding flash of light and intensely loud noise "bang" of greater than 170 decibels (dB) without causing permanent injury.

After the roommate walked out of the house, there was no one else in the home other than Babb.

So yes, veterans should be a high profile story. The question is, when will the national media notice a national crisis for our veterans?

Soldier Found Dead After SWAT Standoff

UPDATE

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WJCL) — A army spokesperson has released the name of the Soldier found dead by Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department SWAT Wednesday in the Century at Fenwick Apartments in the Berwick area. The Soldier was Spc. Roobelson Viciere, 30, 3rd Infantry Division Artillery.

On Wednesday SCMPD says the solider died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a five-hour police standoff. After the SWAT team finally moved in, they found him dead in his residence in the Century at Fenwick Apartments.

Fenwick Village apartment after SWAT incident 
WTOC News
By Alyssa Hyman
Posted: Apr 29, 2015

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - According to Julian Miller, spokesman for the SCMPD, police and SWAT responded to a barricaded gunman inside of Fenwick Village Wednesday afternoon.

The threat is now over after SWAT made entry into the residence and found the active duty Army member dead after the man threatened suicide.

Neither police nor SWAT fired their weapons, and the man, described by police in his early-30s, was alone in the residence at the time of the entry.

The Army is withholding the man's name until the Army can contact other family members.

Residents are now allowed back into their homes and town houses and children are just now being bused home

Fenwick Village is located at Ogeechee and Berwick Boulevard.

Police received a call around 11:30 a.m. about a man barricaded in his home with weapons.

Multiple units responded to the situation including SWAT, hostage negotiators, fire and more.
read more here

Linked from Army Times

Former Marine Charged with Murder in Shooting Death of Wife

Former Marine charged with murder in shooting death of wife at Jemison doctor's office 
AL.com
By Carol Robinson
April 13, 2015

A domestic shooting on Monday, April 13, 2015 led to the fatal shooting of Leaj Jarvis Price, 24. Her husband, 26-year-old Eric Heath Price, is charged with murder. Facebook

Authorities late this afternoon charged a man with murder in the shooting death of his wife at a Jemison doctor's office earlier today.

Eric "Heath" Price, a 26-year-old former U.S. Marine, was taken to UAB Hospital where he remains under police guard.

Price's family members say he was wounded during the takedown, but law enforcement officials say Price shot himself in the head and is expected to survive.

Jemison Police Chief Shane Fulmer identified the victim as 24-year-old Leaj Jarvis Price. She died on the scene from a gunshot wound to the head.

Price apparently posted on Facebook shortly after the shooting of his wife. "im sorry everyone, its been real, good bye and i love you all" and "I dei today."

The Facebook page was taken down just before 11:30 a.m.
read more here

Veteran Gets Home Detention After Police Standoff

Veteran accused of shooting at police on home detention
By The Associated Press
POSTED: 04/10/15

ATLANTIC CITY
A veteran accused of shooting at Atlantic City police officers during a standoff is out of jail.

A judge is allowing 36-year-old Christopher Gerace to stay with his brother as long as he wears a monitoring bracelet while he awaits trial.

Gerace barricaded himself in the home in July and the standoff ended after he ran naked out the back door and was subdued.
read more here

Police standoff in Atlantic City brings focus to veterans' problems
Press Of Atlantic City
By LYNDA COHEN Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 9, 2014

“Our family had put our faith in his commanders and they have failed him and us,” Gerace’s wife wrote in a June 2012 email to government officials. “I am not only concerned about our situation, but how you may continue to fail soldiers who need help in the future.”

ATLANTIC CITY — Christopher Gerace’s untreated post-military mental health issues could have been deadly, his family said.

The Army and Marine veteran barricaded himself inside his parents’ Chelsea Heights home late Tuesday, with a large collection of weapons and a insistence that he didn’t want to live.

With Gerace cursing at hostage negotiators and shooting at police, those on scene said they feared it would end in “suicide by cop.” Instead, about an hour and 45 minutes after the call came in, the Atlantic City native ran from his childhood home naked, and was taken into custody.

“Here’s a guy who goes in, eyes wide open and wants to serve his country, and comes out a battered individual, a hurting individual, and doesn’t know how to cope,” said Capt. Tim Friel, who helped talk Gerace out without anyone hurt.

It’s a prime example of the problems with the Department of Veterans Affairs and its lacking of service for suffering veterans, U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, said Wednesday. Despite a bipartisan effort to fund services, the problems being uncovered daily are worse than the day before, he said.

“You can throw all the money at it you want, but if it’s not administered properly, the veterans are not going to get the help they need,” he said.
read more here

Standoff on 1-35 With Texas Veteran Ends With Help

I-35 closed during 2-hour standoff with veteran on freeway 
WacoTrib.com
By OLIVIA MESSER
April 4, 2015

It was then that the man told officers he was trying to get to the Veterans Administration hospital in Temple when he ran out of gasoline.

Police confirmed he was a veteran and took him to the hospital. Investigators were waiting Saturday afternoon to talk to doctors and decide whether to file charges, Dickson said.

Lorena police and supporting agencies safely ended a two-hour standoff with a veteran threatening to harm himself on Interstate 35 near the Rosenthal Road exit Saturday morning.

Both north- and southbound lanes of the highway as well as the access roads were closed by the Texas Department of Transportation until the man surrendered about 10:45 a.m.

Traffic was detoured around the area for approximately two hours.
read more here

Suicide Awareness Not the Same As What We Need to Change

Failing More Veterans
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 22, 2015

Three years ago, a life was lost because of what we failed to do. Oh, sure, some just want to blame police officers faced with a veteran in crisis caused by PTSD. The truth is whenever these veterans reach this point, we're all responsible.

When the report came out two years ago, I posted it Veteran Marine with PTSD shot and killed by police but should have said our fingerprints are all over the bullet.

(The link is still good to Knox News)
Family: Maryville man killed after shooting at police suffered from PTSD

Theodore “T.J.” Jones IV was shot and killed at about 4 a.m. Thursday when he advanced on officers who had surrounded him at a former business at 1811 E. Broadway Ave., Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp said.

On Thursday afternoon, Jones’ father took to Facebook to share his grief.

“Today, I feel great pain. My beloved son, Theodore ‘T.J.’ Jones IV, last night suffered another flashback to his combat service as a U.S. Marine,” wrote Theodore Jones III of Maryville.

“He has lost the battle with PTSD. This morning, he sits within sight of Creator and Jesus. He now smokes the pipe with other warriors who have fought to defend their beliefs.”

You may think this story is old news. It isn't. After Jones was buried, the heartache didn't end. It didn't end for the family. It didn't end for police officers. Above all, it didn't end for the line of families afterwards all facing planning funerals for veterans who did not die in combat but perished because of it.

Blount Marine, victim of PTSD, remembered in awareness walk
Daily Times
By Joel Davis
March 22, 2015

Lance Cpl. Theodore “T.J.” Jones IV is not forgotten.

Mark A. Large | The Daily Times
Lea Jones Glarner writes on a banner in memory
of her brother LCPL Theodore Jones IV
Saturday at the pavilion behind the Blount
County Courthouse.

Jones was remembered Saturday during Blount County’s second annual post-traumatic stress disorder Awareness Walk.

It marks two year since his death on March 21, 2013, in an armed standoff with police.

The mile-long walk began in the parking lot outside the courthouse near the greenway. The Blount County Veterans Affairs Office was involved in organizing it.

”This is one of the hardest days of the year for me,” his father, Theodore “Theo” Jones III, said. “My son suffered with PTSD.

It is something that none of us in this family knew or understood in time to help him or to save him, but we have many young young men and women right here in our own community that are still suffering and still waiting on treatment and are still afraid to acknowledge that they need help because of the ridicule they sometimes can get in the community.”

People need to start writing letters to their lawmakers to force better and more timely treatment for those suffering from PTSD, Jones said.

“They don’t get follow-up treatment for years. It’s not fair. It’s not right to our American heroes. We owe them more.”
read more here

Why is it our fault? Simple. Within days of this tragedy this report was released about a study by RAND Corp on what the military was actually doing to help the servicemen and women in uniform. No one seemed to care that the military failed them first.

MILITARY SUICIDES ARE UP, DESPITE 900 PREVENTION PROGRAMS
NextGov
By Bob Brewin
March 21, 2013


The Defense Department runs 900 suicide prevention programs, yet the number of military suicides has more than doubled since 2001, the head of the Pentagon’s suicide prevention office told lawmakers Thursday.

Jacqueline Garrick, acting director of the Defense Suicide Prevention Office, told the House Armed Services Committee that the Pentagon has identified 291 suicides in fiscal 2012 with investigations into another 59 pending. This is up from 160 in 2001. She said the suicide rate for 2012 is expected to increase once death investigations have been completed and a final manner of death determination is issued.

Lt. Gen. Howard Bromberg, Army deputy chief of staff for personnel, said the service had a record number of 324 potential suicides in 2012, more than double the previous record of 148 in 2009. Both Garrick and Bromberg said the military suicide profile matched that of suicides in the general population -- young, white males younger than 30 with only a high school education.

Eliminating the perception that seeking mental health care could cripple a career and lead to loss of a security clearance is one of the most “critical aspects” of suicide reduction, Bromberg told the hearing. He said there should be a top-down emphasis that seeking help is not a sign of weakness.

Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., who is also a physician and commands an Army Reserve brigade, said he has personal experience with soldier suicides -- one death and two attempts in his unit. He expressed frustration with the military’s inability to stamp out mental health care’s stigma. Heck noted that when he returned from Iraq in 2008, he asked, “Why are we still developing a stigma reduction campaign?” read more here

I left this comment.

The answer they are looking for has been right in front of them. End Resilience Training! In 2009 I gave the strongest warning possible that if they pushed "Comprehensive Soldier Fitness" suicides would go up. I was right but had no power to get anyone in the DOD or Congress to listen to what 30 years of research, living with it and helping veterans taught me. Too many know what works but it doesn't have to be tied to huge contracts that have to be refunded. Nextgov has a report out "Military Suicides are up despite 900 prevention programs" and these programs are tied to contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars but are renewed even though RAND said they did not work with the military culture among other issues. Tired of spending hours trying to undo the damage this approach has produced because it does more harm than good.

Military brass were also answering questions. The problem was no one in Congress ever gather the facts, statistics or reports enough to actually ask them questions as to why after all these years of "prevention" suicides actually increased at the same time combat deaths decreased.

Military evaluating suicide prevention programs
Stars and Stripes
Megan McCloskey
Published: March 21, 2013

Preparing to testify before the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Military Personnel Thursday, March 21, 2013, at the U.S. Capitol are, left to right, Jacqueline Garrick, acting director of the DOD's Defense Suicide Prevention Office; Lt. Gen. Howard B. Bromberg, Army Deputy Chief of Staff G-1; Vice Adm. Scott R. Van Buskirk, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education; Lt. Gen. Darrell D. Jones, Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services; Brig. Gen. .Robert F. Hedelund, Director of Marine and Family Programs for the Marine Corps; and Dr. Jerry Reed Jr., director of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center.
JOE GROMELSKI/STARS AND STRIPES

WASHINGTON — After another rise in the military suicide rate last year, the services on Thursday outlined to Congress their efforts to reverse the trend and evaluate their prevention programs.
Last year the Army set another record with 324 suicides. For active duty, the 183 suicides in 2012 far exceeded the previous record of 148 in 2009.

“While most Army suicides continue to be among junior enlisted soldiers, the number of suicides by non-commissioned officers has increased over each of the last three years,”

The overall program review has fallen to the Pentagon’s relatively new Defense Suicide Prevention Office, which opened in 2011.

By the end of September, it should complete its comprehensive inventory of all the service’s programs and will have identified gaps and overlaps in the various efforts, Jacqueline Garrick, acting director of the prevention office, told the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel. From there the office will begin to streamline and unify what is offered across the services, she said.

Although she didn’t answer questions about how they were evaluating the programs – besides collecting data from the branches – she said it was a top priority of her office.
read more here

So the DOD failed them first and we didn't manage to fight them to fix anything. Then the VA failed them but hey, why bother to tell the truth on how long all of this had been going on? After all, the press has a short memory on all of this.

Remember the uproar over Candy Land with the VA pushing pills? It came out as if it was all new news. Oh, ya right. I forgot that we're not supposed to remember that this was a matter of life and death. Far too many deaths for far too long.

Deal is reached in lawsuit over veteran's death reported by Kate Willtrout for the Virgina Pilot shows it was going on for the sister of a Navy veteran.

Kelli Grese - a Navy veteran like her twin sister - killed herself on Veterans Day in 2010. She overdosed on Seroquel, an antipsychotic medication that was part of a cocktail of drugs prescribed by doctors at the Hampton Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Darla Grese, of Virginia Beach, filed a malpractice suit against the medical center, seeking $5 million. It was scheduled for trial in Norfolk in April. On Tuesday, Grese and the U.S. government reached a settlement, according to her lawyer, Bob Haddad: If a judge approves the deal, the government will pay Grese $100,000.

Grese hopes publicity about the suit will draw more attention to the treatment of veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, both of which her sister battled.

In a single year, Grese said in an interview, doctors at the Hampton facility prescribed 5,370 pills of Klonopin, used to treat anxiety disorders, for her sister.

What was the result of all of this? More deaths that didn't need to happen.

While the false reports of 22 suicides a day were not even close and the VA admitted the numbers were an average of 21 states provided by limited data, everyone simply assumes those numbers are true. Yet state after state produced more shocking numbers.

The number of veterans committing suicide are double the civilian rate. What is even more troubling is the majority of those deaths are 50 and over, meaning veterans from the wars civilians have forgotten about.

And then there are the reports of younger veterans, all trained in suicide prevention, coming home and committing suicide triple their peer rate.

We can talk all we want about raising awareness on the heartache but if we continue to just talk about those we fail, we will fail even more.

We need to start taking a look at what was done to them while we were being told it was being done for them!

If we don't then more families will have to suffer for what we fail to do for the men and women prepared to die for the sake of others but not prepared to live back home!

Austin Veteran Getting Help For PTSD After Standoff

Marine vet seeks treatment for PTSD after acquittal in officer involved shooting trial 
KCAN News
By Calily Bien
Published: March 9, 2015

“It’s time for the Austin Police Department to evolve it’s mental health approach in dealing with citizens with mental health in this community,” explains Davis. Vela agrees adding “I think it sends a message, whether they hear it and do anything about it, I don’t know.”

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Less than one week after being found not guilty by a Travis County jury on charges of assaulting a police officer, Marine veteran Gene Vela says he will check himself into a Veteran Affairs clinic in Temple on Tuesday.

In an exclusive interview with KXAN’s Sally Hernandez, Vela, 31, says he’ll be getting treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Treatment was something he was trying to do for months before he was shot three times by Austin police during a stand-off in November 2013, the day before Veteran’s Day.
read more here

Lawsuit After Navy Yard Shooting Shows Failures

Navy Yard Shooting Lawsuit Moved out of Florida 
Broward Palm Beach Times
By Chris Joseph
Feb. 19 2015

The original lawsuit pointed out several multi-million dollar contracts The Experts, Inc. has had with the U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. The suit also names the U.S. Navy, the Department of Veterans Affairs and two defense contractors as defendants. The family has been seeking $37.5 million in damages.

photo: United States Department of the Navy (CCTV), FBI via Wikimedia Commons CCTV footage of Aaron Alexis on September 16, 2013

The lawsuit filed by the family of Florida resident Mary DeLorenzo Knight, one of the victims slain by Aaron Alexis during the Washington Navy Yard massacre in 2013, has been ordered out of Florida by a federal judge. The suit, filed in December 2013, alleges negligence by the government. 

Alexis, who had been contracted by Fort Lauderdale-based The Experts Inc., had access to the building in the Naval Yard in Washington D.C.

On September 16, Alexis shot and killed DeLorenzo and twelve others before he was killed during a standoff with police.

DeLorenzo Knight's sister, Patricia DeLorenzo, filed the lawsuit against the government in Tampa, but U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday ordered it transferred out of the state to Washington, D.C. since the shooting took place there.

DeLorenzo's suit argues that, prior to the shootings, Alexis had been behaving erratically, but that The Experts Inc. failed to report his behavior to the U.S. Navy.

DeLorenzo's family is the first of the victims' families to come forth with a lawsuit of this kind since the tragedy, saying that the government also failed to give Alexis -- who suffered from mental problems -- the proper security clearance.

The suit claims the VA never treated Alexis's mental illness when he was admitted to a VA E.R. for insomnia a month before the shootings. He had also been arrested multiple times for post-traumatic stress disorder, anger management and alcohol abuse.
read more here

Boise Police Department Awarded for Efforts to Help Veterans in Crisis

Chief accepts award on behalf of community veterans resource network
Boise Police Department
News Release
Michael F. Masterson
Chief of Police
Contact: Lynn Hightower
Communications Director
Thursday, January 08, 2015

On average, Boise police officers encounter approximately one veteran per week facing a crisis and in need of assistance, and officers are provided the opportunity to aid in referring the veteran to one of the network partners. These interactions demonstrate the value of the program, and that its objective is being met.

Boise Police Chief Michael Masterson thanked and congratulated members of the group Joining Forces for Treasure Valley Veterans for their work over the past five years. The group, brought together by the Chief and other members of the Boise Police Department is made up of over 50 organizations across the Treasure Valley providing community resources for local veterans in need. Masterson credits the success of JFTVV for the Boise Police Department recently being named the recipient of the annual IACP and Cisco Systems Community Policing Award for 2014. This is the second straight year that Boise PD has received the prestigious international award.

“This award is not the work of any one person, or a small group of people, or even one organization,” Masterson said on Thursday. “This award is a coordinated community response involving dozens of people across the Treasure Valley coming together with great ideas and a dedication to helping the men and women who served our country and helped give us the quality of life that we enjoy here in Southern Idaho.”

In July 2009, Boise police confronted one of Idaho's most decorated soldiers, George Nickel, a military veteran diagnosed with PTSD and suffering from a traumatic brain injury, in a deadly force encounter.

Fortunately, no one was hurt. This encounter became the focal point for a community policing initiative called Joining Forces for Treasure Valley Veterans that has not only saved lives but has led to a plethora of improved services for military veterans in crisis.

Boise police played the lead role in facilitating 50 stakeholders from a variety of disciplines who meet monthly to coordinate a multitude of veterans resources including housing, transportation, employment, alcohol and substance abuse treatment, suicide prevention, coordination of benefits, education counseling, and veterans treatment court services. What started with a small group of criminal justice system professionals has expanded to a coordinated community response (CCR). The network currently consists of 86 individuals representing 21 different community based organizations supporting their active military and veterans. It's a no cost, highly successful, community-based initiative, focused on building trust, communication, and cooperative relationships which can be easily replicated and transferred to other communities.

The objectives that the Joining Forces for Treasure Valley Veterans Network expected to accomplish include:

1. Develop a better understanding of services' available in the community for military veterans and their families
2. Develop a higher level of trust among partners through frequent meetings and partnerships
3. Improve the quality and timeliness of services provided to veterans
4. Identify the resources available to veterans in their communities and make them widely known to other veterans in need of services could obtain access

In 2010, the Boise Police Department worked together with Sergeant George Nickel to document his 2009 police interaction. They created a video that included the audio recordings from the dreadful night to capture the intensity of the situation. The intent of this video was to provide an opportunity for other law enforcement agencies to learn from a real-life situation of a police interaction with a veteran suffering from PTSD.
read more here

Taser ‘Could Have Saved Life’ of Iraq War Vet Shot by Police

Taser ‘Could Have Saved Life’ of Iraq War Vet Shot by Police
India West
Sunita Sohrabji
Posted: Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Mourners stood beside the casket of Indian American Iraq war veteran
Parminder Shergill, who was killed in January by Lodi, Calif., police.
(Preston Merchant photo)

Lodi, Calif., police involved in the Jan. 25 fatal shooting of Parminder Shergill, an Indian American Iraq war veteran, were not equipped with Tasers, according to Lodi Police Chief Mark Helms.

At the time of the shooting, the Lodi Police Department had only a handful of Tasers – guns that shoot darts to temporarily immobilize a person – Helms told India-West, adding that not all officers on the force were equipped with the weapon. Cpl. Scott Bratton, who killed Shergill after firing 12 shots to his chest and head, was not equipped with a Taser. Officer Adam Lockie, also involved in the tragic incident, did not have a Taser.

Manufacturers of the implement note that Taser deployments have saved more than 75,000 lives; injuries to a suspect are reduced by 60 percent. Police officers are less likely to use a lethal weapon once a Taser is deployed. Helms said that all officers of the Lodi Police Department are now equipped with Tasers.
read more here

Veteran in Standoff with Police in Georgia

Law enforcement in standoff with armed man 
Cordele Dispatch
Chris Lewis
December 31, 2014

CORDELE - Law Enforcement officials with the Crisp County Sheriff's Office Special Response Team and officers with the Cordele Police Department are currently in a standoff with an armed man who has barricades himself in his residence and is refusing to come out.

Rainey had returned from the VA Hospital earlier and that he had been previously diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. read more here

More veterans killed by police this year but some survived

Keep in mind as you read these, there are many more but these are just some of the ones on Wounded Times.  There are more being killed but more are surviving.  The horrible fact is, it all depends on where they live and how well the officers are trained. Even with the best training, if we had actually taken care of veterans with PTSD and helped them heal, police officers wouldn't have to face off with them and families wouldn't have to grieve for them.

Police shootings from 2013 as more and more police officers have to decide to shoot or not.

In August of 2014 the family of Brian Beaird settled a lawsuit.

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Los Angeles City Council agreed Wednesday to pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a disabled veteran who was fatally shot by Los Angeles police after a pursuit. The family of 51-year-old Brian Beaird filed a wrongful death lawsuit in May, seeking $20 million in damages. Beaird was shot and killed by Los Angeles police last Dec. 13 at the end of an hour-long car chase that was broadcast on TV.

January 2014 Gulf War Veteran with PTSD, Parminder Singh Shergill, killed by police in California

SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY (CBS13) – The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office has found that two Lodi police officers who shot and killed a mentally ill man were justified in their actions, and will not face criminal charges.

Police Corporal Scott Bratton and Officer Adam Lockie responded to a 911 call on January 25 made by Parminder Singh Shergill’s sister-in-law where she tells a 911 dispatcher that Shergill is a paranoid schizophrenic who is “going crazy” and was attacking her mother-in-law inside the house.

The officers shot Shergill after, they say, he charged at them while outside and carrying a knife in his hand. However, Shergill’s family disputes the police’s account and filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in April accusing the officers of using excessive force.

February 2014

David Linley Chicago, Iraq veteran,

But his final firefight was on his suburban street 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Chicago, and the enemy was local police. When it ended, he'd traded 17 years in uniform for 16 years behind bars. The trouble is, Linley has never gotten that treatment. "I've seen a psychiatrist about every six months for 30 minutes, which is absolutely useless," he says. "I have received no treatment for PTSD at all--nothing." Linley says he sought an antidepressant in anticipation of a VA-sponsored prison PTSD-counseling group. Such counseling depresses Linley, so he wanted to get on an antidepressant for the sessions. He took Celexa, prescribed by a corrections psychiatrist, for about a year, awaiting the counseling. But the VA never came, prison officials say, because there weren't enough veterans seeking such help there. Linley says he stopped being "doped up" on the medicine, which made him "foggy and nauseous," once it became clear the VA wasn't coming.

Esteban Nandin, 25 year old Iraq veteran with PTSD, shot by police in California but survived

Jedadiah Zillmer, Afghanistan veteran, shot and killed by police in Washington

"The Spokesman-Review said Zillmer left the Army in September 2012. A relative told the newspaper that family members suspected he might be suffering from post-traumatic stress but no diagnosis had been made.

Zillmer was shot in the foot during combat in Afghanistan in 2011 and lost part of a toe, the newspaper said.

He was among a group of soldiers who were denied disability benefits from the Army and sued, the newspaper said. A federal judge upheld the Army’s decision in September."

Bobby Canipe, 70, of Lincolnton, "for an expired tag. Deputies said Canipe got out of his truck and grabbed a walking cane out of the bed of his pickup. The deputy thought the cane was a weapon."

Derick Morgan, 30, a vet suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, whipped out a gun in front of his wife and pointed it at his head, threatening to shoot himself.

John Edward Chesney, Vietnam veteran 62, was shot after about an hour-long standoff with police in the 900 block of Broadway. He had a replica.

March
Brian McLeod, 25, Army Fort Lewis veteran, killed by Deputy Sheriff

April
Homeless veteran James Boyd

May
Jerome Christmas PTSD, shot and killed by Shreveport Police

Issac Sims "survived until he returned home. Slivers of glass from broken windows lie beneath walls pocked with bullet holes. In a corner of the garage, a faint stain on the concrete floor has turned the color of rust, time darkening the blood that emptied from his body. Sims was killed here May 25, Memorial Day weekend, a year after his discharge from the Army and thousands of miles from Iraq. He endured two tours there only to die at age 26 in his parents’ home on Kansas City’s decaying east side. The fatal shots were fired not by insurgents but by police. The distinction may have eluded his damaged mind."

An unidentified male soldier surrendered to Fayetteville police late Tuesday following a 90-minute standoff in the parking lot of a Walmart on Skibo Road.

Officers responding to the west Fayetteville store at about 10:30 p.m. found the man inside a car. According to authorities, he was threatening to harm himself.
Jonathan Russ was arrested outside his Phenix City home on Maggy Court in the Silver Leaf subdivision. Police initially went to the home for a welfare check on a child. Russ answered the door with a gun and wouldn't let the officer inside, Phenix City Police Lt. Jason Whitten tells News 3.

June

Denver A police officer shot and killed a suicidal military veteran after the man aimed a rifle at the officer in the driveway of his home, according to police.

July
Icarus Randolph
"We were failed, they failed," Ida Allen, sister of the man killed said. "The city failed us." Police say Icarus Randolph charged at an officer with a knife after they were called to the scene by family for a report of a suicidal person. His family says Randolph's mother made a call for law enforcement to check on his mental wellness, saying he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after serving in the Iraq war as a Marine."

Justin Neil Davis, 24, shot and killed by police in Germantown,

McNeal Vallandinghan, who attended Houston High School with Davis and also served in the military, said Davis had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and took medications for PTSD and to help him sleep.

Vallandinghan said he was the last one to talk to Davis before the police arrived at Cameron Brown Park around 9:45 p.m. Tuesday and found Davis in his car with a rifle. He said Davis told him he had been at the VA about 6:30 p.m. to have an MRI on his back, and that while he was there, told a VA employee he was having suicidal thoughts before he left.

Scott P. Wines Jr., 29, served six tours in Iraq as a Marine and is now attending outpatient counseling twice a week to cope with what he experienced overseas, said defense attorney Rory Driscole.

August
Jacinto Zavala, 21,"veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder was shot by police early Wednesday morning shortly after allegedly telling a 911 dispatcher that "they are going to have a shoot-out."

James Michael Marcantonio, 28, is a decorated combat veteran of the Iraq war who suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome that possibly triggered the altercation in which the officer was shot, according to court filings by his defense attorney.

September
The wife of Jeffrey Johnson, the 33-year-old father and veteran killed during an officer-involved shooting last Friday, says he was dealing with post traumatic stress disorder.

William Smith served in the Army from 2003-2007. He said his son was not the same when he returned from his second tour. Following several years of difficulty where the younger Smith struggled with PTSD, several criminal arrests and the use of illegal street drugs, former US Army Sergeant William Smith was shot and killed by a New Mexico state policeman on Friday.

October
Anthony Eric Chavez, 24 subdued by a stun gun



In November police officers in Las Vegas were going over their policy

Officers had ordered the driver to exit the vehicle, and when he failed to comply, they devised a plan to flush him out. One officer would fire a beanbag round to shatter the car’s rear window. Another would then shoot a canister of pepper spray.

A witness filmed the standoff in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the early hours of Dec. 12, 2011. The video shows the plan mutate into a killing. The beanbag round was fired. Less than a second later, before the pepper spray could be shot, a third officer blasted seven rounds from his assault rifle into the Cadillac.

The car’s wheels stopped, the smoke dissipated. Four bullets had hit the driver. He was unarmed. Stanley Gibson, a 43-year-old Army veteran, served in the Persian Gulf War two decades earlier and remained besieged by post-traumatic stress disorder. He carried home memories of picking up charred corpses along the so-called Highway of Death, where U.S. forces bombed Iraqi troops retreating from Kuwait near the war’s end in 1991.

Nathan Boyd

called a Veterans Crisis Hotline and told a dispatcher that he had weapons and wanted to commit suicide by forcing law enforcement officers to shoot him.

Boyd’s call went to a New York call center, and soon afterward Tulsa police began searching for the 46-year-old U.S. Army veteran. At around 9:15 p.m., crisis and patrol officers finally tracked his pickup truck to a QuikTrip convenience store at 21st Street and 129th East Avenue.

About 10 minutes later, Officer Demita Kinard said, Boyd exited the pickup with a weapon in hand that was later identified as a pellet gun. That’s when 19-year police department veteran Gregory Douglass fired once, striking Boyd in the neck.

Donald Wendt

Bradenton Police SWAT Officer Jason Nuttall — a 15-year veteran — shot Donald Wendt, 50, who was employed as a firefighter for the Bradenton Fire Department.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting.

Bradenton Police Chief Michael Radzilowski said Wendt served two tours of military duty in Afghanistan and may have been suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Brandon Henry "is facing several charges, including assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, assault with a deadly weapon against a government official, and fleeing or eluding arrest. Jacksonville police say Henry was driving a vehicle that was first being chased by Camp Lejeune police.

December
Nicholas McGehee, 28

The deputy had responded to a 4 a.m. call, expecting to help 28-year-old Nicholas McGehee with a lacerated foot at a home near the intersection of Aberdeen Lane and Merion Drive. A Utah Highway Patrol trooper went with the deputy to assist, said Tooele County Sheriff Frank Park.

But through a window of the home, the officers saw a man holding a shotgun, the sheriff said.

"As they approached the house, [they could see] there was evidently more going on than the medical," Park said.

At some point, McGehee’s wife came out of the house. While the trooper helped her to his car for safety, McGehee came out holding a handgun, Park said.

Donald Wendt's Mom wanted to know when this would end. A lot of families are asking the same question. How do so many survive combat only to die on our streets and in their homes? How many times to police officers have to struggle with all of this? Any idea how many police officers are veterans too? This isn't easy for them either. None of this is easy