Veteran committed suicide at Occupy Burlington Vermont

Protesters: Veteran shoots self at Vt. encampment

Paramedics rush a shooting victim from the Occupy Burlington, Vt., encampment at City Hall Park to an ambulance Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011. The public was not believed to be at risk after the afternoon shooting at City Hall Park in Burlington, but the circumstances are still being investigated, said Burlington Police Deputy Chief Andi Higbee. (AP Photo/Burlington Free Press, Ryan Mercer)

By Dave Gram
Associated Press
November 11, 2011

"This person has clearly needed more help than we were capable of giving him here at this park," said Emily Reynolds, a University of Vermont student and a leader in the local Occupy movement.

If government provided better mental health services, she said, "this probably wouldn't have happened."

BURLINGTON, Vt.—Police said preliminary investigations show a 35-year-old military veteran fatally shot himself in the head Thursday at an Occupy Wall Street encampment in Vermont's largest city.

Burlington police said the name of the Chittenden County resident is being withheld because his family has not been fully notified.

The man shot himself inside a tent in City Hall Park on Thursday afternoon. Mike Noble, a spokesman for the Fletcher Allen Health Care hospital in Burlington, confirmed that the man had died. Noble said he could provide no other details.


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