Quantico Marine Corps Sued After Triple Killing on Base

Marine Base Blamed for Triple Killing
Courthouse News
By KATHERINE PROCTOR
February 1, 2016

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - The Quantico Marine Corps base's failure to monitor a mentally ill sergeant allowed him to kill his ex-girlfriend, her boyfriend and himself in the barracks, the late woman's father claims in Federal Court.

Isaac Castro sued the United States on behalf of his late daughter Sara Castromata's estate, claiming the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va. mishandled the medical records and weapons of Sgt. Eusebio Lopez.

Lopez, who had documented head trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, was transferred to Quantico, Va. from Camp Lejeune, N.C. in May 2012. Castro claims the Quantico base never obtained or reviewed Lopez's medical records, and that the sergeant stopped receiving treatment for his mental disability as a result.

Lopez moved into Quantico barracks in September 2012, but base command did not ensure that his weapons were registered and stored at the armory, Castro says. His weapons included a semi-automatic pistol, a shotgun and several large knives.
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Marine shooter had suffered brain injury

Report: Marine shooter had suffered brain injury
By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press
December 16, 2013

McLEAN, Va. (AP) — A distraught Marine who fatally shot his ex-girlfriend and a colleague before killing himself at the Quantico Marine Corps base was suicidal, had signs of traumatic brain injury and should have received better psychological care, a military investigation found.

Sgt. Eusebio Lopez was receiving treatment in North Carolina after his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device in Iraq, but his medical care stopped abruptly when he was transferred to Quantico in 2012, according to a report obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The reason appeared to be two-fold: His new doctors didn't know about his previous treatment and he didn't speak up.

The report also found problems with the response to the shooting because unarmed Marines were deployed to secure the perimeter around the barracks. Two of the bodies were not found until nearly four hours after the shots were fired.

Lopez shot Lance Cpl. Sara Castromata, 19, and Cpl. Jacob Wooley, 23, inside a barracks at the Officer Candidates School after a night of drinking. Lopez was upset Castromata had ended a relationship with him and had begun dating Wooley, according to the report obtained Thursday.
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Marine from Ohio found dead at Quantico

UPDATED: Quantico Marine found dead identified
Inside Nova
October 14, 2013

Authorities have identified the Marine found dead in base housing Saturday as Cpl. Daniel B. Vilevac, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan.

Vilevac is a native of Cuyahoga, Ohio, and served as a instructor of combat water survival at The Basic School.

Base officials said military police responded to a 911 call in base housing late Saturday, where they found Vilevac dead from an apparent gunshot wound in what they called “an isolated incident.” They have not said whether the case is a homicide.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating.
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Marine Corps Base Quantico Marine accused of making threats

Sgt. Edward Cunningham accused of making threats at marine base
By Jennifer Donelan
April 5, 2013

A Marine at Marine Corps Base Quantico is in custody for allegedly making death threats toward fellow Marines and co-workers on base. The threats follow a deadly shooting on the base where just two weeks ago a Marine killed two others before turning the gun on himself.

Sgt. Edward Charles Cunningham, 31, was sent for a behavioral health screening after the alleged threats last week, Lt. Agustin Solivan tells ABC7. He was cleared and sent back to his position in the communications branch on base.
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3 Marines dead in apparent double murder-suicide at Quantico

UPDATE APRIL 25, 2013
Head of Marine Corps Officer Candidates School relieved of command
UPDATE
Marine shooter identified
Marine Sgt. Eusebio Lopez, 25, shot and killed two fellow Marines before turning the gun on himself Thursday evening at the base at which they were stationed in Quantico, Va.
The two victims were Marine Lance Cpl. Sara Castro-Mata, 19, from Oakley, Calif., and 23-year-old Cpl. Jacob Wooley from Guntown, Miss. All three were staff at the Officer Candidates School, where they trained new Marine officers.

3 Marines dead in apparent double murder-suicide at Quantico
WTOP News
Friday - 3/22/2013, 8:02am ET

QUANTICO, Va. - Three active duty Marines -- two men and one woman assigned to the Officer Candidate School at Marine Base Quantico -- are dead in an apparent double murder-suicide that locked down the Prince William County base for several hours.

"Our thoughts are prayers are with them at this time. This is truly a tragic loss for the Marine Corps, which has had a number of tragic losses in the last couple of weeks," said Col. David W. Maxwell, Quantico base commander, during a 7 a.m. news conference.

"I want to express my sincere condolences to the families, the friends and the Marines of the three Marines we lost last night," an emotional Maxwell said in prepared remarks that last just over 4 minutes.
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Marine impersonator, online stalker found guilty

Man Guilty of Impersonating US Marine and Threatening Women Online
November 30, 2012

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) - A man was sentenced to over a year in prison in Alexandria Friday for impersonating as a U.S. Marine and threatening women he met online.

James M. Johnson of Roxboro, N.C., was sentenced to 15 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for posing as a Marine and threatening 11 women he met through Internet dating websites.

Johnson, 29, pled guilty on July 30, to one count of cyber-stalking and one count of making interstate threats.

According to his plea agreement, he created an online dating profile posing as “Shawn Davis”, a U.S. Marine purportedly stationed at Quantico.

He used photographs of a uniformed Marine in his dating profile and created a false back-story on “Davis’s” family and military history.
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Marines open combat school for women

Marine Corps opens combat school in Quantico, Va. to women
Hadi Mizban / AP file
A female US soldier escorts Iraqi woman out of the danger zone, after a suicide car bomb exploded nearby in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2004.
By Jeff Black, msnbc.com
A Marine Corps school that trains infantry combat officers is now enrolling women, the Marine Corps Times reported, marking the first time female members of the front-line fighting force would be specifically groomed for direct combat roles. The Corps is seeking out female volunteers to attend the Infantry Officers Course in Quantico, Va., Gen. Joseph Dunford, the Marine Corps' assistant commandant, told the paper.
According to the Marine Corps Times:

It’s a monumental — if controversial — move for the Marine Corps, which until now barred female Marines from the program and required instead that they attend other courses aimed at preparing them for assignments in support roles such as logistics, personnel administration and aircraft maintenance, among others.

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Marine killed by train in Va

Marine killed by train in Va.
Authorities said a 20-year-old Marine stationed at Marine Corps Base Quantico was killed early Sunday morning in an incident involving a train.
According to police were called to a railroad crossing at Henderson Road on the Quantico base at approximately 12:45 a.m. Sunday and discovered the body of Lance Cpl. Lucas G. Lowe, who was stationed on the base. The investigation into Lowe's death is continuing.
Marine killed by train in Va

Judge Rules PTSD covered under disability law

Federal appeals court rules Rehabilitation Act extends to post-traumatic stress
Nick Fiske at 6:48 AM ET



[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia [official website] on Wednesday reversed [opinion, PDF] a district court ruling and found that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [NIMH backgrounder] may qualify as a disability under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 [text, DOC]. The plaintiff in the case, Martin Desmond, alleged that he was forced to resign from the FBI New Agent Training Unit [FBI backgrounder] in Quantico, VA when his superiors learned that he suffered from PTSD.

Desmond argued that his dismissal from the program constituted discrimination based on disability, in violation of Section 501 of the Act. In its ruling, the court explained that under the Rehabilitation Act a plaintiff is disabled if "(1) he suffers from an impairment; (2) the impairment limits an activity that constitutes a major life activity under the Act; and (3) the limitation is substantial." Finding that PTSD qualified as a "mental impairment" and that sleep constituted a "major life activity," the court concluded that the condition was covered by the Act where evidence of significant sleeplessness exists. The case was remanded for further proceedings.
go here for more
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/07/federal-appeals-court-rules.php