Murder-suicide investigation includes police officer

Murder, suicide suspected in case involving Big Stone Gap police officer

Bristol Herald Courier
Nick Shepherd
Mar 12, 2019

JASPER, Va. — Authorities believe two people found dead in Lee County, including a Big Stone Gap police officer, was the result of a murder-suicide.

Early Sunday morning, the Virginia State Police were called to a traffic crash on Route 23 at the 28 mile marker in Lee County. A 2015 GMC pickup truck had been traveling north on Route 23 when it ran off the side of the highway into the median, according to a news release.

VSP Trooper D.G. Giles arrived at the crash and found two people dead inside the truck. They were identified as Bailey S. Smith, 21, of Duffield, Virginia and Emeri A. Connery, 26, of Coolville, Ohio. Both had gunshot wounds.
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Marine From Virginia Dead After Gunfire With State Police in Michigan

Member of Marines dies after gunfire on Drummond Island
Associated Press
September 25, 2015

DRUMMOND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — State police say two federal agents were helping search for a missing member of the U.S. Marines when they exchanged gunfire with him on northern Michigan’s Drummond Island.

Hours later Thursday, state police found 38-year-old Aaron Andrew Furness of Woodbridge, Virginia, dead inside a remote cabin. Police say Friday the cause is under investigation.
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UPDATE

Marine died of self-inflicted wound after firing at agents on Michigan island
MLIVE,com
By John Tunison
September 29, 2015

MICHIGAN -- A 38-year-old U.S. Marine died of a self-inflicted injury after firing upon federal agents who were looking for him last week on Drummond Island

State police on Tuesday, Sept. 29 said an autopsy confirmed the cause of death for Aaron Andrew Furness, 38, of West Bloomfield.

Furness was a U.S. Marine gunnery sergeant based at Quantico, Va.

His obituary indicates he served 19 years in the Marines and was deployed for several months in 2007 and 2008 in Iraq.
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Soldier from Fort Carson Killed Walking Across Freeway

Fort Carson soldier killed while trying to walk across Colorado Springs freeway
The Gazette
By Stephen Hobbs
Published: August 31, 2014

A 23-year-old Fort Carson soldier died after he was struck by two cars on Interstate 25 near midnight Saturday, the Colorado State Patrol said.

The man was trying to cross northbound I-25, from the southbound lane near the South Academy Boulevard exit, troopers said.

A spokesman from Fort Carson confirmed he was a soldier there, but the post declined to give other details.

His name is being withheld until next of kin are notified, troopers said.
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New Mexico State Police to investigate Iraq veteran's shooting death

State police to investigate veteran's shooting death
KOB.com
By: Elizabeth Reed
Updated: 03/14/2014

ALBUQUERQUE -- New Mexico State Police have agreed to investigate the shooting death of an Iraq War veteran.

The announcement comes one week after the district attorney said charges may never be filed.

The incident started in Ventana Ranch about a year ago. Police said Jonathan Mitchell was spotted in his driveway holding a gun when a neighbor, Donnie Pearson, drove by. Pearson told police he heard about an armed man in the neighborhood and went to look for him.

Police said footage taken from their helicopter showed Mitchell fired first at Pearson and then Pearson shot back, killing him.
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Strangers rushed to rescue 5 kids trapped in car in pond

5 children in serious condition after being pulled from car in pond
NBC News
By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer
November 21, 2013

Five children were in serious condition after being submerged in a frigid Minnesota pond for half an hour of more after a car accident, authorities said.

The children, who ranged in age from 1 to 7, were not responsive when rescuers got to them, a city spokesman told the Associated Press. The State Police later listed all five as being in serious condition.

The driver of the Pontiac Grand Am, Marion Guerrido, 23, escaped when it landed in the water, state police said. She had no apparent injuries.

State Patrol spokesman Lt. Eric Roeske said passersby and a person who lived in a nearby apartment jumped into the pond to rescue the kids but the bottom was too mucky.
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Assault sends MOH Dakota Meyer to Kentucky hospital

MoH recipient Meyer injured in altercation
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Dec 13, 2012

COLUMBIA, Ky. — Kentucky State Police are investigating an alleged assault on Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported Meyer was involved in the altercation over the weekend at a venue near Columbia.

WYMT-TV reports Meyer was injured badly enough that he was treated at a local hospital and released.
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Massachusetts Police about to repeat DOD failure

Massachusetts Police about to repeat DOD failure
by
Chaplain Kathie

If they make the mistake of copying what the military is doing, then the police department is about to make it a lot worse for their officers coming back from combat.

Leo F. Polizoti of Worcester, a law enforcement psychologist for 34 years, said some police departments give returning veterans a two-to-four-week transition period when they return to work to gradually reacclimate to the department and police work. He recently developed a critical incident resilience training program for police departments that is similar to one the Army is working on. The program helps officers learn how to better handle critical stress incidents before they go to combat as well as traumatic experiences on the job such as deadly car accidents.


“If we can help them to develop more resilience before going over there, they'll have more resiliency and less psychological problems with their return,” he said.

I am not sure who started this claim that "resiliency" training works but I do know all the evidence is in and it is a monstrous failure. Numbers don't lie. The number of suicides in the military has gone up since they began to take this approach. For July alone, the Army lost 32 to suicide, Marines lost 4 but 17 more attempted it.

This approach began in 2003.

AMEDD To Introduce Battlemind Video

September 02, 2008
Army News Service
FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas -- The Army Medical Department Center and School, co-developers of Battlemind training, will release a new Battlemind training video next year to help foster resiliency in deploying Soldiers.

Battlemind training, or "Armor for the Mind," is the U.S. Army's psychological resiliency-building program. It was first developed by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, D.C., as a result of compiled data from a land-combat study.

The mental-health training that came about from this study builds on Soldiers' proven strengths, and consists of two critical components: self-confidence and mental toughness. It teaches Soldiers how to apply those critical components when they leave for deployment and how to use those same survival skills when they transition back home.

The program focuses on a Soldier's inner strength to face fear and adversity in combat and other military deployments with courage. The training is divided into three sections: Deployment Cycle, Life Cycle and Soldier Support, and is given at pivotal points in a Soldier's career. The training is mandatory and is currently being facilitated by Army chaplains who are taught how to conduct the training at the AMEDDC&S.

The new movie-like training video, developed with AMEDD Television, was created to cover the deployment portion of Battlemind training.

"What we've learned is that education directed toward younger Soldiers and young adults has to be more plug-n-play," said Mike Hagan, chief of the Battlemind Training Office at the AMEDDC&S. "Therefore, what we wanted to do was to create something that was entertaining and realistic and also that gets the messages across in sound bites, because this is how they (young Soldiers) receive messages, and that was my goal for doing this production."

The training, to be given prior to deployment, will cover the seven deployment phases and promote resilience in dealing with the psychological impacts that Soldiers could face during combat and other military deployments.

The way Battlemind training is taught has been modified several times since its inception in 2003.
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But the DOD changed the name as if the title of the program was the problem. In tiny print on the right side of the banner you see "formerly Battlemind" in other words, the same thing.

One more factor in all of this is the VA's Suicide Prevention Hotline. If Battlemind worked when it began in 2003, would they need to have one in 2007?

July 30, 2007
VA’s Suicide Hot Line Begins Operations
Nicholson: “Help a Phone Call Away”

WASHINGTON – To ensure veterans with emotional crises have round-the-clock access to trained professionals, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has begun operation of a national suicide prevention hot line for veterans.

“Veterans need to know these VA professionals are literally a phone call away,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. “All service members who experience the stresses of combat can have wounds on their minds as well as their bodies. Veterans should see mental health services as another benefit they have earned, which the men and women of VA are honored to provide.”

The toll-free hot line number is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). VA’s hot line will be staffed by mental health professionals in Canandaigua, N.Y. They will take toll-free calls from across the country and work closely with local VA mental health providers to help callers.

To operate the national hot line, VA is partnering with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

“The hot line will put veterans in touch – any time of the day or night, any day of the week, from anywhere in the country – with trained, caring professionals who can help,” added Nicholson. “This is another example of the VA’s commitment to provide world-class health care for our nation’s veterans, especially combat veterans newly returned from Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The suicide hot line is among several enhancements to mental health care that Nicholson has announced this year. In mid July, the Department’s top mental health professionals convened in the Washington, D.C., area to review the services provided to veterans of the Global War on Terror.

VA is the largest provider of mental health care in the nation. This year, the Department will spent about $3 billion for mental health. More than 9,000 mental health professionals, backed up by primary care physicians and other health professionals in every VA medical center and outpatient clinic, provide mental health care to about 1 million veterans each year.

VA Suicide Hotline has received almost 225,000 calls was a headline on this blog for February 2010. One more indication that Battlemind did not work. Had it worked, there wouldn't be that many contemplating suicide. If either program was really successful, the numbers would have gone down. What no one is talking about is the fact that many veterans, survivors of combat, found it so impossible to live after combat they felt the need to call the Suicide Prevention Hotline in the first place. While they have managed to save a lot of lives and claim rescues in the thousands, it is further proof that resiliency training has been a failure. Reporter James Dao of The New York Times reported "The hot line has chalked up 10,000 rescues since 2007." Taking Calls From Veterans on the Brink July 30, 2010.

Again, numbers don't lie.

Every year we're reading the numbers go up, attempted suicides go up and the calls pouring into the Suicide Prevention Hotline go up. If Battlemind, no matter what title they put on the program, worked, then it would have been proven in the numbers. So why do they continue to support a failed approach like this? Eight years? How many more years of data do they need to wake up and finally understand that in the battle to save their lives they are unarmed?

Does anyone do any research anymore before they consider replicating a failed program? How could any police department even consider using this to save the lives of their own people?

War's trauma comes home
By Elaine Thompson TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

When one of his police officers returned from two tours of duty in Iraq, Rowley Police Chief Robert R. Barker could tell he just wasn't the same.

Chief Barker said 30-year-old Thomas Lantych had been an active reserve police officer who had shown a lot of promise during the year before he was deployed. But a few months after he returned, authorities began to notice erratic behavior by the officer, who was also a full-time firefighter in Beverly.

A month after being placed on medical leave to get counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder, Mr. Lantych's vehicle struck and killed a motorist. Police said he seemed emotionless at the scene and investigators subsequently determined that the crash had been overwhelmingly avoidable. Mr. Lantych was convicted of vehicular homicide earlier this year and is now serving a year in jail.

“He wasn't grounded like he was before he left. It seemed like he was hyperemotional. He seemed, I guess, I would classify it as euphoric,” Chief Barker said in a recent telephone interview.

A. Wayne Sampson, executive director of the Grafton-based Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said law enforcement leaders are concerned about police officers who resume their duties or join the profession after serving their country in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's of greater concern for law enforcement than other professions, he said, because police work can trigger flashbacks of combat experiences. A loud noise or sight of a handgun, for example, could cause an officer to become hypervigilant — as if he's in combat — resulting in a wide range of reactions from hiding behind his vehicle to crying.
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Battlemind did not work then and it will not work now. They don't use slingshots anymore to defeat a gigantic enemy but in this case, the stone is just a pebble.

What works? They were already doing it when they have Crisis Intervention Teams responding right after a traumatic event. In this case, most of the time, it is many months after the traumatic events in combat. Ideally the sooner the better but at least it can be done as soon as possible. Let them train veterans in Crisis Intervention so that the newer combat veterans have someone to talk to who can help them heal and offer emotional support.

Maryland state trooper shot, killed

Maryland State Trooper Wesley Brown. (AP/Maryland State Police)

Maryland state trooper shot, killed
This post was updated at 11:30 a.m.

An off-duty Maryland state police officer was shot and killed early Friday in the parking lot of a Forestville area restaurant, police said.

Wesley Brown, 24, was shot shortly before 12:40 a.m. at the Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar on Donnell Drive after an incident inside the restaurant involving a “disorderly” customer who refused to pay a bill, Col. Michael Blow told reporters.


Maryland State Trooper Wesley Brown. (AP/Maryland State Police)Brown, who was working part-time as a security officer at the Applebee's, escorted the individual outside, police said. About 30 minutes later, a gunman ambushed the trooper as he exited the restaurant. The man who disputed his bill is considered a “person of interest,” police said, but they are not limiting their search to him.

CT State trooper's death ruled suicide

Trooper's Death A Suicide
September 4, 2008
A state police sergeant whose body was found Tuesday night committed suicide, the state medical examiner's office determined Wednesday.

State police Lt. J. Paul Vance said Wednesday that Sgt. Matthew Richardson, 39, had been reported missing. He declined to provide additional details, including where Richard was found or how long he had been missing. Vance said there is no criminal aspect to Richardson's death.

"It's a very heartbreaking situation," Vance said. "He served the state of Connecticut honorably."

The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head, according to the medical examiner.

Richardson joined the state police in 1998 and has served in various posts, most recently at Troop A in Southbury.
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-1brfad0904sep04,0,2155679.story

Maryland State Police need help with death of Jodie S. Davis

Body found by a road in Harford is identified
August 1, 2008
A body found in a sleeping bag along a rural Harford County road has been identified as that of an Aberdeen woman who had been shot, Maryland State Police said yesterday.

The body of Jodie S. Davis, 41, was identified through fingerprints, police said. Her body was found Wednesday afternoon in the 400 block of Bush Chapel Road after a passing motorist alerted police after seeing a suspicious bag, police said. The road is near Interstate 95.

An autopsy yesterday determined that Davis' death was a homicide. The body was not by the road Tuesday night, but it may have been dumped as early at 6 a.m. Wednesday.

Anyone with information about Davis or anyone who had seen anything suspicious is asked to call state police at 410-879-2101. Calls may be kept confidential, police said.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/harford/bal-md.ha.body01aug01,0,2024940.story

James Dean's family sues after killing in standoff

Veteran's Family Sues Police, Counties
Man With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Was Killed by Officer During Standoff

By Megan Greenwell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 9, 2008; Page B06

The family of an Afghanistan combat veteran who was shot by a state trooper after a 14-hour standoff in 2006 has filed a $20 million wrongful death suit against the Maryland State Police and three Southern Maryland counties.

The lawsuit, filed by the wife and parents of James E. Dean, alleges that 16 individual officers, the state and St. Mary's, Charles and Calvert counties showed "malice or callous disregard" for Dean's life during the confrontation at his father's home Dec. 26, 2006.

State Police Sgt. Daniel Weaver killed Dean with a single shot after a tense overnight confrontation in which SWAT teams and armored vehicles surrounded the house in rural St. Mary's and tear gas was repeatedly fired through the windows.

"The actions of the law enforcement officers at the scene . . . needlessly provoked Dean and increased the danger to themselves and to Dean," the lawsuit says.

Roger J. Myerberg, an attorney for the Dean family, said relatives decided to file suit after the state and counties denied liability. His clients' primary goal, he said, is to ensure that the agencies change their tactics and procedures so that similar incidents can be avoided in the future.

"There is a long list of things that shouldn't be done or should be done differently in the future," Myerberg said.

Dean, 29, had received a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression after serving 12 months as a sergeant leading a small infantry division in Afghanistan.

His wife, Muriel, said that he had registered with the Department of Veterans Affairs as disabled but that he nonetheless received a letter instructing him to report for duty in January for a tour in Iraq.

The night before he was killed, Dean drank heavily and began throwing dishes around the home he shared with Muriel. Fearing he might try to harm himself or her, she ordered him out of the house.

"The next time you see me, it's going to be in a body bag," he told her as he left.
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I remember this story well. Think about how little the police are informed about the wounds of war. Pretty amazing how little they know considering a lot of police officers develop PTSD because of their jobs. Even worse considering while they know any day they could have their lives on the line, they do not have to come face to face with traumatic situations on a daily basis. Combat veterans, especially the ones serving in Iraq, and now Afghanistan, face everyday with no time to go home, no time to deal with it and very little help in the zone.

Police officers get to be debriefed with facts and then emotionally debriefed following a traumatic event. Soldiers don't. There are not enough mental health professionals and Chaplains serving with them. Every single law enforcement officer needs to be aware of what PTSD is in order to deal with the hundreds of thousands of veterans with PTSD, as well as the thousands of officers who have it as well. Then they need to be aware of the rest of the citizens with PTSD. Last count it was about 7 million of them.

Second West Virginia State Trooper Commits Suicide

Gall is the second State Police officer to commit an apparent suicide in the past year. Marlo Gonzales, a 13-year veteran of the force, shot himself in July with his service weapon inside his police cruiser while outside his father-in-law's house, police said.

February 14, 2008
Police believe trooper death was suicide

A West Virginia State Police corporal was found dead Tuesday in an apparent suicide, shortly after his gun and badge were taken and he was notified that he was the subject of an internal investigation.

By Gary Harki
Staff writer

A West Virginia State Police corporal was found dead Tuesday in an apparent suicide, shortly after his gun and badge were taken and he was notified that he was the subject of an internal investigation.

Cpl. V.J. Gall, 46, was found dead of a gunshot wound on the back porch of his home, said Joe Thornton, spokesman for the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety.

Gall was relieved of duty at about 6 p.m. Tuesday and told he would be placed on administrative leave on Wednesday, Thornton said.



Gall .. After Gall was notified of the internal investigation, "his service revolver and badge were taken," Thornton said. "Not a whole lot occurred after that. Apparently he left."

Troopers at the detachment were soon called out on an unrelated incident, Thornton said.
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http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200802130783