Between what we are told and what happens is the blank space of PTSD

Would Santiago Cisneros III still be alive if he was actually told what PTSD was? Would he have reacted the way he did facing police officers the day he was shot if during the two years he had been to the VA, he got the help he needed?

Officer: 'The only thing I could think of... is that I was going to die'
By KATU.com Staff
Published: Apr 5, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. – Two Portland police officers were holding a routine meeting on the top of parking garage when they came under fire from a suspect armed with a shotgun, according to investigators who reviewed the incident.

The officers were not hit but returned fire and killed Santiago Cisneros, III.

In a 2009 interview with KOMO, Cisneros said he had tried to kill himself just eight months after leaving Iraq. He said the military didn’t give him the help he needed after returning home.

Cisneros’s father said his son struggled to adjust to civilian life and had some minor run-ins with the law. Despite that, he said before his death that Cisneros had been working and generally doing better.

Shattered soldiers say there was no help
KOMO News
By Liz Rocca
Published: Mar 26, 2009


The military contends it's more prepared than ever to deal with PTSD.

In fact, Fort Lewis - the very post that K-10 ran away from - was one of the first to screen every returning soldier for both physical and mental problems.

Soldiers are screened upon their return to post with a lengthy questionnaire and face-to-face meeting. They are screened a second time 90 days later.

Dr. Murray Raskind, a Veterans Administration psychiatrist who treats PTSD, says the military is getting better, but the screening isn't foolproof.

"The question is does the soldier recognize that they have a problem and are they willing to say that they have a problem?"

Raskind says too many soldiers are still reluctant to admit they are struggling for fear it will create a paper trail that will ruin their careers.

And, Raskind says, it can sometimes take up to a year for problems to surface.

Santiago Cisneros never dreamed he'd have trouble adjusting to civilian life again.

"It took a while to realize I was dealing with PTSD because I didn't know what post-traumatic stress disorder was. I had no clue"

Cisneros finally found help through the Veterans Administration and the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Northern California.

"I've started to build a foundation of hope and humanity again," Cisneros says.

Arthur Smith is getting treatment from a civilian therapist, and has resigned himself to living life as a fugitive.

"I don't mind saying that I'll never go back - if I do I'll break out," he says.

But K-10 says his dangerous rage should have raised significant red flags for the Army.