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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Ret. Air Force Col Saw Disability Check Fly Away?

Local veterans report that their disability payments have been hijacked
FLORIDA TODAY
John McCarthy
April 27, 2018

Bill Grooten was surprised to receive a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs last month confirming the change he made to banking information where his monthly VA disability check would be deposited.

The reason he was surprised was that he had made no such change.

Grooten, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, immediately contacted the VA. But by then, his $3,500 monthly disability check had already been deposited in Bank of Internet USA, an online bank headquartered in San Diego.

The VA told Grooten that his bank might have been the site of the breach. But the Bank of America said it found no evidence of unauthorized activity with Grooten's account.

Chip Hanson, who is active in the local chapter of Disabled American Veterans, said that he has heard of as many as 75 veterans in Central Florida having had similar problems.
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WFLA News Got Vietnam Veteran Justice

Target 8 helps misdiagnosed veteran get his benefits
WFLA 8 News
Steven Andrews
April 26, 2018

Stationed on Guam in 1971 during the Vietnam War, Lonnie claims his work near airfields exposed him to the herbicide Agent Orange.

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. (WFLA) - An enormous weight has been lifted off the shoulders of a Pasco County veteran and his family.

Following a series of Target 8 reports, the Department of Veterans Affairs reversed its previous denial and approved Agent Orange benefits for Navy veteran Lonnie Kilpatrick.

"Words can't even say how much we appreciate what you have done," said Lonnie's daughter Keri Ackerson.

After eight years of delays and denial, the VA reversed course.

It approved Lonnie's claim that exposure to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange left him 100 percent disabled.
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Save a firefighter in your own house

Superior mayor announces cause of fire battalion chief's death
Duluth News Tribune
By Lisa Kaczke
Apr 24, 2018

A Superior Fire Department battalion chief who retired just a few weeks ago died on April 18 after "a long and brave struggle" with mental illness, Mayor Jim Paine said on Tuesday.

Erik Sutton, 46, who had served on the Superior Fire Department for 20 years, took his own life, Paine said. Sutton had sought and received care prior to his death. Paine said he has offered his condolences and support to the fire department leadership and Sutton's mother.

"We have all agreed that while the price of his service was too high, none of us will allow his death to pass in vain," Paine said in a statement. "We will put his memory to work for our bravest civil servants as diligently as he put his own life to work for all of us and commit ourselves to ensuring that every firefighter and police officer in our service not only has full access to the care that they need, but that they feel the support to seek care when necessary."
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But he is not the first.

Local firefighter’s widow mission to save lives, numbers show firefighter suicide rising

On October 15, 2016, fallen Indian River County Fire Chief David Dangerfield said goodbye to his wife on the phone first, and then on Facebook.

After a 27-year career, Chief Dangerfield wrote in his suicide post that it was due to PTSD on the job. He posted on Facebook:

"PTSD for Firefights is real. If your loved one is experiencing signs get them help quickly. 27 years of death and babies dying in your hands is a memory that you will never get rid off. It haunted me daily until now. My love to my crews. Be safe, take care. I love you all."

This was released last month.
81 Percent of firefighters fear they will be seen as weak

The survey also found that 81 percent of firefighters fear they will be seen as weak or unfit for duty if they talk about the emotional toll of their job, and 87 percent said it keeps them from getting the help they need.

When it comes to saving lives, you need to begin in your own house to see who is in danger at the fire station.

Truckers lined up to save a life!

Truck drivers help stop a man from committing suicide
ABC News 9
By Matthew Witkos, WJRT
Apr 25, 2018

Genesee County (WJRT) -- The powerful images have been making the rounds on social media Tuesday.

Michigan state troopers out of metro Detroit say they've done this before. Several truck drivers say they've never seen or heard of this before. But without a moment of hesitation, they would do this if called up for action.

13 semi-trucks lined up underneath a metro Detroit overpass above I-696.

State troopers put them there to shorten a fall of one man attempting suicide early Tuesday morning.

These truck drivers are always on a tight schedule and are often pulling long hours to make their stops.
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