Police shooting of PTSD soldier captured on video

After reading this report I wasn't sure I wanted to watch the video. It turned out to be ok because the videographer was far enough away that it is not too horrible to watch until you hear the gunshots.

I believe it is important to watch for several reasons that are not talked about enough. The first one is, Gordon himself. He's an example of what is not working for their sake. His family now has to grieve over his death but so do all the police officers involved. We never really talk about them. His friends and all those he served with will grieve and so will their families because they will wonder if the same thing can happen to their own veteran. The list of people suffering residual traumas goes on but we don't talk about them because to tell the truth, most people in this country are not talking about the veterans at all.

The film captured of this shooting is from a distance, far above the chaos. That is the way most view what is happening to our veterans, yet when you are paying attention to all of this, from our point of view, it all spreads out pulling more into the center of their lives.

Family of soldier killed by police says he came home from war a ‘different person’
KITV News
Jan 17, 2013

HONOLULU —The young Hawaii-based soldier who was shot and killed by police in a hail of bullets early Tuesday morning suffered from a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder. That's the claim being made by a spokesperson on behalf of Pfc. Gregory Gordon's parents, Todd and Tracey Gordon.

Amateur video of a shooting in Waikiki Tuesday morning.

"He was a good person, and when he came back from the war he was not the same," said Amanda Cureton. "He came back a completely different person."

Cureton told KITV4 Gordon's PTSD was so bad, that he would often call relatives back home in Alabama in tears, and suffered frequent panic attacks.

"He'd come home on leave once and saw garbage bags on the side of the road, and had a literal panic attack because he thought they were bombs that were being placed," she said.

Gordon, 22, of Ashford, Alabama, was extremely drunk when he was shot and killed by police officers just before 4 a.m. Officers on foot patrol noticed Gordon driving erratically, which included traveling in the wrong direction down a one-way street.

Police say at one point Gordon attempted to run over a police officer on Kuhio Avenue, who then fired his weapon in self-defense. The soldier was eventually surrounded by several patrol cars on Ala Wai Boulevard, but amateur video shows him repeatedly ramming police vehicles in an apparent effort to get away.
read more here

Original report
Schofield Barracks Soldier Shot by Police

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