Dad Grieves “Why he had to pay that price, we don’t know”

Titus Latchison won't be counted among the deaths by the DOD. He won't be counted among the suicide deaths by the VA. He won't even be counted as one of the veterans killed by police officers after a standoff ended what was a call for help to save his life. Only his family will remember he was suffering for his service.

"Titus Latchison’s wife, Daphanie Latchison, said her husband began to show signs of PTSD when he came back from Iraq in 2006. It was his second deployment. His first was to Afghanistan in 2003."

Whenever you read the number "22 a day" regarding how many veterans take their own lives in this country everyday, there are a lot more not included in that total. The stunning numbers of veterans committing suicide show the rates have not decreased but this story should remind everyone, we will never know how many more are simply not counted because they do not fit into an easy, exasperating, soundbite.

A tragic encounter
Killeen Daily Herald
Jacob Brooks and Clay Thorp
September 20, 2015

“Why he had to pay that price, we don’t know,” said Latchison’s father, Bobby Latchison, a retired sergeant first class and Desert Storm veteran.

Eric J. Shelton | Herald

The father of Titus Latchison, Bobby Latchison, covers his face as he talks about the Sept. 4 death of his son on Tuesday.

As he wielded two knives, Army combat veteran Titus Latchison walked out of the front door of his home in west Killeen on April 4, 2014, and confronted police armed with Tasers and handguns.

Latchison’s family said he was trying to prevent his own suicide that day in a desperate 911 call for help. But as police commanded Latchison to drop his weapons, officers say the veteran charged at them and they had no choice but to fire on the troubled soldier.

Latchison’s life had just become a living hell.

Ramifications

Latchison, 37, survived the shooting, but as surgeons rushed to save his life, they removed one of his lungs, his spleen and more than half of his lower intestines, his family said. He was put into a medically induced coma at Scott & White Hospital in Temple.

The family says Latchison was in the coma when police charged him with aggravated assault against a police officer.

“They came and told me I had to leave, that he was under arrest. ... No family members could see him,” said Latchison’s mother, Juanita Guillory, a Killeen resident. “I was tore up from the floor up. This is my son and he can’t do anything for himself.”

Because of his shooting injuries, his physical body withered away. The 6-foot-1 former Army sergeant went from 280 pounds at the time of the shooting to 150 pounds when he died Sept. 4, a loss of 130 pounds in 17 months.
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