Parents say Fort Bragg soldier charged with shooting at firefighters has PTSD

Parents want Army to care for shooting suspect
By Joe Gould
Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Apr 29, 2012

The parents of a Fort Bragg, N.C., soldier charged with shooting at police and firefighters who responded to a fire at his home said he suffered from combat-related stress and believed he was being attacked by insurgents.

The soldier, Staff Sgt. Joshua “Ike” Eisenhauer, 30, shot at emergency workers who came to fight a small fire on his deck Jan. 13. No emergency workers were seriously injured in the shootout, but Eisenhauer was hospitalized for gunshot wounds.

He has since recovered and was charged with 15 counts of attempted murder, nine counts of assault with a deadly weapon on a government official and six counts of assault on a law enforcement officer with a firearm.

In separate letters to Army Times, Eisenhauer’s parents — Mark Eisenhauer and Dawn Erickson — said their son was traumatized after two deployments and called on the Army to “assume responsibility” and take over the prosecution from the state.

Mark Eisenhauer said in the letter, “the Army should take care of its own even when that means prosecutions of its own. The Army has the facilities to provide the physical and psychiatric care or soldier needs to recover and become a useful member of civilian society again.”

According to Eisenhauer’s father, his son said he had “flashbacked to combat in Afghanistan.” He awoke to the sound of footsteps on the stairs outside his apartment, saw flames, smelled smoke, and “fired on the ‘insurgents’ who were actually firemen and police officers.”
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