Charges: Army veteran shot 2 in downtown encounter
KTVA News
Thursday, May 17th 2018
Police say an Army veteran, accused of shooting and wounding two people in Anchorage Wednesday, claimed that he opened fire when one of them approached him with a hammer in an ongoing dispute.
Rusty Tuuaga, 34, was taken into custody on charges including attempted murder after the shooting, which left a man with life-threatening injuries and a woman with non-life-threatening injuries. Police said overnight that the incident appeared to be drug-related.
U.S. Army Alaska officials said Thursday that Tuuaga had left the Army last week on May 6, as a specialist with Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s 725th Support Battalion.
A charging document in the case, written by Assistant District Attorney Arne Soldwedel, said the wounded man said Tuuaga’s first name “several times” when police reached the 600 block of East 5th Avenue shortly after 8:45 p.m. The victims were taken to separate Anchorage hospitals with torso wounds, with the man arriving in critical condition.
Surveillance video from the shooting showed the victims getting out of a Jeep Grand Cherokee, then approaching a sport-utility vehicle they had blocked in; one of them had “an item that may have been a hammer” in his hand.
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After 3 suicide attempts, Marine veteran turns life around and graduates from veterans court
WDRB News
Fallon Glick
Posted: May 17, 2018
“Two overdoses and a car accident that I tried," Reidinger said. "The overdoses didn't work. I don't know how. They should have ... big time. And then on I-65, I drove into a median."
NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WDRB) -- A Marine Corps veteran from southern Indiana tried committing suicide three times before finally getting the help he desperately needed.
It was the darkest time in Brian Reidinger's life.
But those times were a stark difference from just years earlier when he proudly served in the United States Marine Corps.
“I fell in love," Reidinger said. "I was good at it. I succeeded in it."
Within a year of joining, he was deployed to combat in Iraq.
“I excelled in it. I was really good at it," he said. "I was good under pressure. I was good at making decisions, I was good at protecting my marines, and they were good at protecting me."
After Reidinger got out of the Marines, he moved back home and felt lost.
“One of the worst things you can tell a Marine, a combat Marine, is that you're not the same," he said. "Because we know we're not the same. It sucks being reminded of it, and I was just depressed."
He developed a drinking problem that turned into an opioid pill problem, which later turned into a heroin problem.
“It ruined my life," he said. "It took over everything."
Reidinger was in and out of jail. But then he finally accepted help through Veteran's Treatment Court of Southern Indiana.
“Which was one of the best things to ever happen to me," he said. "If it wasn't for them, I'd be dead today."
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Veteran Volunteer Firefighter Accused Of Embezzling Thousands From VFD
CBS Pittsburg
By Paul Martino
May 17, 2018
CASTLE SHANNON (KDKA) — A veteran volunteer firefighter in Castle Shannon was charged Thursday with embezzling nearly $140,000 from the department’s death benefit fund, but the state auditor general says even more money is unaccounted for.
The Allegheny County District Attorney took over the investigation after the state auditor general uncovered tens of thousands of dollars in unaccounted for money.
Castle Shannon volunteer firefighters learned they were swindled when they confronted 76-year-old John Montgomery last month. They say Montgomery told them, “Yeah, I stole it.”
“What’s sad is that this was a member of the fire department who had worked with his fellow firefighters for over 40 years and had achieved a position of trust,” attorney John Zagari said.
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Veterans fear Congress has forgotten about the military’s burn pit problems
Military Times
By: Leo Shane III
5 hours ago
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Nathanial Fink, left, and Lance Cpl. Garrett Camacho dispose of trash in a burn pit in the Khan Neshin district of Afghanistan in March 2012. (Cpl. Alfred V. Lopez/Marine Corps)
WASHINGTON — For years, Veterans Affairs leaders and administration officials have promised they won’t let health issues surrounding burn pit exposure in Iraq and Afghanistan become another “Agent Orange” in the community.
Now, advocates and a handful of lawmakers are worried it already has.
“The level of awareness among members of Congress on the problems from burn pits is abysmally low,” said Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii and an Army National Guard soldier who served in Iraq in 2004-2005. “Too few understand the urgency of the issue.”
Gabbard and Afghanistan war veteran Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., recently introduced new legislation dubbed the Burn Pits Accountability Act to require more in-depth monitoring of servicemembers’ health for signs of illnesses connected to toxic exposure in combat zones.
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Veteran kicked out of home by city, says he could be homeless
NBC 2 Tulsa
Travis Guillory
6:17 PM, May 17, 2018
Now, the retired veteran is left in limbo, trying to figure out his next move in life.
He said, "I bought the place so I could retire here and work in my garage to do my piddling and my projects and all that. So, if I have to move this thing out, I really have no other home."
HARTSHORNE, Okla. – A veteran is getting kicked out of his home by the City of Hartshorne.
William Smith has called a camper home for the last eight years on property that he owns. Now, the City of Hartshorne is telling him to pack it all up and find somewhere else to live.
William Smith said, "The hookups were here: water, sewer, and electric. Everything was here. I just figured since I had already been living in my RV and it was mine and it was paid for and I got my property paid for, I thought I was good to go for many many years."
Smith was a Navy radar engineer, constantly moving around. He explained, "To get all of my equipment on an airplane was not a thing that you could really do."
He tinkers in his garage on the property, which is the main reason he bought the land, and generally keeps to himself. So, the veteran was surprised when he got a visit from the cops.
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