Iraq veteran, shot by police, was outspoken on combat PTSD

Armed man killed by Portland police was Iraq vet
San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, March 5, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A man fatally wounded by Portland police after they say he fired at them was an Iraq war veteran who had talked about the challenges of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Santiago A. Cisneros III, 32, died of the wounds he received Monday night, the Multnomah County medical examiner's office said.

Two officers said the man had a shotgun and fired at them when they encountered him on a parking lot roof in northeast Portland. They said they returned fire.

Cisneros died at a Portland hospital. No officers were injured.

Cisneros was an Army combat veteran who was one of three soldiers who spoke to KOMO-TV in Seattle in 2009 about the struggles they faced with PTSD, the television station reported Tuesday. He said then he had tried to kill himself just eight months after leaving Iraq.

"I fought a war back there in Iraq. I didn't know I was going to have to fight a war back here in the United States within myself," Cisneros said in the KOMO interview.
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Shattered soldiers say there was no help
KOMO News
By Liz Rocca
Published: Mar 26, 2009

Army Combat Veteran Santiago Cisneros tried to kill himself just eight months after leaving Iraq.

"I fought a war back there in Iraq. I didn't know I was going to have to fight a war back here in the United States within myself," says Santiago.

All three men told the Problem Solvers they are shattered soldiers, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and didn't get the help they needed from the military they served.

Susan Avila-Smith is a veteran and an advocate for military members suffering from trauma and says these soldiers need help now.

"It's imperative to understand these people went over there, were trained to kill, they killed, they came back and there's no debriefing, there's no 'ok, we're going to train you how to adapt to society now,'" she says.