More veterans killed by police this year but some survived

Keep in mind as you read these, there are many more but these are just some of the ones on Wounded Times.  There are more being killed but more are surviving.  The horrible fact is, it all depends on where they live and how well the officers are trained. Even with the best training, if we had actually taken care of veterans with PTSD and helped them heal, police officers wouldn't have to face off with them and families wouldn't have to grieve for them.

Police shootings from 2013 as more and more police officers have to decide to shoot or not.

In August of 2014 the family of Brian Beaird settled a lawsuit.

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Los Angeles City Council agreed Wednesday to pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a disabled veteran who was fatally shot by Los Angeles police after a pursuit. The family of 51-year-old Brian Beaird filed a wrongful death lawsuit in May, seeking $20 million in damages. Beaird was shot and killed by Los Angeles police last Dec. 13 at the end of an hour-long car chase that was broadcast on TV.

January 2014 Gulf War Veteran with PTSD, Parminder Singh Shergill, killed by police in California

SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY (CBS13) – The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office has found that two Lodi police officers who shot and killed a mentally ill man were justified in their actions, and will not face criminal charges.

Police Corporal Scott Bratton and Officer Adam Lockie responded to a 911 call on January 25 made by Parminder Singh Shergill’s sister-in-law where she tells a 911 dispatcher that Shergill is a paranoid schizophrenic who is “going crazy” and was attacking her mother-in-law inside the house.

The officers shot Shergill after, they say, he charged at them while outside and carrying a knife in his hand. However, Shergill’s family disputes the police’s account and filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in April accusing the officers of using excessive force.

February 2014

David Linley Chicago, Iraq veteran,

But his final firefight was on his suburban street 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Chicago, and the enemy was local police. When it ended, he'd traded 17 years in uniform for 16 years behind bars. The trouble is, Linley has never gotten that treatment. "I've seen a psychiatrist about every six months for 30 minutes, which is absolutely useless," he says. "I have received no treatment for PTSD at all--nothing." Linley says he sought an antidepressant in anticipation of a VA-sponsored prison PTSD-counseling group. Such counseling depresses Linley, so he wanted to get on an antidepressant for the sessions. He took Celexa, prescribed by a corrections psychiatrist, for about a year, awaiting the counseling. But the VA never came, prison officials say, because there weren't enough veterans seeking such help there. Linley says he stopped being "doped up" on the medicine, which made him "foggy and nauseous," once it became clear the VA wasn't coming.

Esteban Nandin, 25 year old Iraq veteran with PTSD, shot by police in California but survived

Jedadiah Zillmer, Afghanistan veteran, shot and killed by police in Washington

"The Spokesman-Review said Zillmer left the Army in September 2012. A relative told the newspaper that family members suspected he might be suffering from post-traumatic stress but no diagnosis had been made.

Zillmer was shot in the foot during combat in Afghanistan in 2011 and lost part of a toe, the newspaper said.

He was among a group of soldiers who were denied disability benefits from the Army and sued, the newspaper said. A federal judge upheld the Army’s decision in September."

Bobby Canipe, 70, of Lincolnton, "for an expired tag. Deputies said Canipe got out of his truck and grabbed a walking cane out of the bed of his pickup. The deputy thought the cane was a weapon."

Derick Morgan, 30, a vet suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, whipped out a gun in front of his wife and pointed it at his head, threatening to shoot himself.

John Edward Chesney, Vietnam veteran 62, was shot after about an hour-long standoff with police in the 900 block of Broadway. He had a replica.

March
Brian McLeod, 25, Army Fort Lewis veteran, killed by Deputy Sheriff

April
Homeless veteran James Boyd

May
Jerome Christmas PTSD, shot and killed by Shreveport Police

Issac Sims "survived until he returned home. Slivers of glass from broken windows lie beneath walls pocked with bullet holes. In a corner of the garage, a faint stain on the concrete floor has turned the color of rust, time darkening the blood that emptied from his body. Sims was killed here May 25, Memorial Day weekend, a year after his discharge from the Army and thousands of miles from Iraq. He endured two tours there only to die at age 26 in his parents’ home on Kansas City’s decaying east side. The fatal shots were fired not by insurgents but by police. The distinction may have eluded his damaged mind."

An unidentified male soldier surrendered to Fayetteville police late Tuesday following a 90-minute standoff in the parking lot of a Walmart on Skibo Road.

Officers responding to the west Fayetteville store at about 10:30 p.m. found the man inside a car. According to authorities, he was threatening to harm himself.
Jonathan Russ was arrested outside his Phenix City home on Maggy Court in the Silver Leaf subdivision. Police initially went to the home for a welfare check on a child. Russ answered the door with a gun and wouldn't let the officer inside, Phenix City Police Lt. Jason Whitten tells News 3.

June

Denver A police officer shot and killed a suicidal military veteran after the man aimed a rifle at the officer in the driveway of his home, according to police.

July
Icarus Randolph
"We were failed, they failed," Ida Allen, sister of the man killed said. "The city failed us." Police say Icarus Randolph charged at an officer with a knife after they were called to the scene by family for a report of a suicidal person. His family says Randolph's mother made a call for law enforcement to check on his mental wellness, saying he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after serving in the Iraq war as a Marine."

Justin Neil Davis, 24, shot and killed by police in Germantown,

McNeal Vallandinghan, who attended Houston High School with Davis and also served in the military, said Davis had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and took medications for PTSD and to help him sleep.

Vallandinghan said he was the last one to talk to Davis before the police arrived at Cameron Brown Park around 9:45 p.m. Tuesday and found Davis in his car with a rifle. He said Davis told him he had been at the VA about 6:30 p.m. to have an MRI on his back, and that while he was there, told a VA employee he was having suicidal thoughts before he left.

Scott P. Wines Jr., 29, served six tours in Iraq as a Marine and is now attending outpatient counseling twice a week to cope with what he experienced overseas, said defense attorney Rory Driscole.

August
Jacinto Zavala, 21,"veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder was shot by police early Wednesday morning shortly after allegedly telling a 911 dispatcher that "they are going to have a shoot-out."

James Michael Marcantonio, 28, is a decorated combat veteran of the Iraq war who suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome that possibly triggered the altercation in which the officer was shot, according to court filings by his defense attorney.

September
The wife of Jeffrey Johnson, the 33-year-old father and veteran killed during an officer-involved shooting last Friday, says he was dealing with post traumatic stress disorder.

William Smith served in the Army from 2003-2007. He said his son was not the same when he returned from his second tour. Following several years of difficulty where the younger Smith struggled with PTSD, several criminal arrests and the use of illegal street drugs, former US Army Sergeant William Smith was shot and killed by a New Mexico state policeman on Friday.

October
Anthony Eric Chavez, 24 subdued by a stun gun



In November police officers in Las Vegas were going over their policy

Officers had ordered the driver to exit the vehicle, and when he failed to comply, they devised a plan to flush him out. One officer would fire a beanbag round to shatter the car’s rear window. Another would then shoot a canister of pepper spray.

A witness filmed the standoff in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the early hours of Dec. 12, 2011. The video shows the plan mutate into a killing. The beanbag round was fired. Less than a second later, before the pepper spray could be shot, a third officer blasted seven rounds from his assault rifle into the Cadillac.

The car’s wheels stopped, the smoke dissipated. Four bullets had hit the driver. He was unarmed. Stanley Gibson, a 43-year-old Army veteran, served in the Persian Gulf War two decades earlier and remained besieged by post-traumatic stress disorder. He carried home memories of picking up charred corpses along the so-called Highway of Death, where U.S. forces bombed Iraqi troops retreating from Kuwait near the war’s end in 1991.

Nathan Boyd

called a Veterans Crisis Hotline and told a dispatcher that he had weapons and wanted to commit suicide by forcing law enforcement officers to shoot him.

Boyd’s call went to a New York call center, and soon afterward Tulsa police began searching for the 46-year-old U.S. Army veteran. At around 9:15 p.m., crisis and patrol officers finally tracked his pickup truck to a QuikTrip convenience store at 21st Street and 129th East Avenue.

About 10 minutes later, Officer Demita Kinard said, Boyd exited the pickup with a weapon in hand that was later identified as a pellet gun. That’s when 19-year police department veteran Gregory Douglass fired once, striking Boyd in the neck.

Donald Wendt

Bradenton Police SWAT Officer Jason Nuttall — a 15-year veteran — shot Donald Wendt, 50, who was employed as a firefighter for the Bradenton Fire Department.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting.

Bradenton Police Chief Michael Radzilowski said Wendt served two tours of military duty in Afghanistan and may have been suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Brandon Henry "is facing several charges, including assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, assault with a deadly weapon against a government official, and fleeing or eluding arrest. Jacksonville police say Henry was driving a vehicle that was first being chased by Camp Lejeune police.

December
Nicholas McGehee, 28

The deputy had responded to a 4 a.m. call, expecting to help 28-year-old Nicholas McGehee with a lacerated foot at a home near the intersection of Aberdeen Lane and Merion Drive. A Utah Highway Patrol trooper went with the deputy to assist, said Tooele County Sheriff Frank Park.

But through a window of the home, the officers saw a man holding a shotgun, the sheriff said.

"As they approached the house, [they could see] there was evidently more going on than the medical," Park said.

At some point, McGehee’s wife came out of the house. While the trooper helped her to his car for safety, McGehee came out holding a handgun, Park said.

Donald Wendt's Mom wanted to know when this would end. A lot of families are asking the same question. How do so many survive combat only to die on our streets and in their homes? How many times to police officers have to struggle with all of this? Any idea how many police officers are veterans too? This isn't easy for them either. None of this is easy