One week after discharge, veteran accused of attempted murder?

Charges: Army veteran shot 2 in downtown encounter
KTVA News
Thursday, May 17th 2018

Police say an Army veteran, accused of shooting and wounding two people in Anchorage Wednesday, claimed that he opened fire when one of them approached him with a hammer in an ongoing dispute.

Rusty Tuuaga, 34, was taken into custody on charges including attempted murder after the shooting, which left a man with life-threatening injuries and a woman with non-life-threatening injuries. Police said overnight that the incident appeared to be drug-related.

U.S. Army Alaska officials said Thursday that Tuuaga had left the Army last week on May 6, as a specialist with Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s 725th Support Battalion.

A charging document in the case, written by Assistant District Attorney Arne Soldwedel, said the wounded man said Tuuaga’s first name “several times” when police reached the 600 block of East 5th Avenue shortly after 8:45 p.m. The victims were taken to separate Anchorage hospitals with torso wounds, with the man arriving in critical condition.

Surveillance video from the shooting showed the victims getting out of a Jeep Grand Cherokee, then approaching a sport-utility vehicle they had blocked in; one of them had “an item that may have been a hammer” in his hand.
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PTSD on Trial: Florida Ret. Air Force Major

Retired Air Force major guilty of trying to kill 2 family members
WSVN 7 News Miami
February 10, 2017

Maffei shot Katherine and Robert multiple times as his 4-year-old son begged him to stop.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A retired Air Force Major is facing 25 years to life in prison after a jury found him guilty, Thursday night, of trying to kill his wife and father-in-law.

Thomas Maffei claimed prescription medications sent him into a rage on Nov. 2, 2012, when he opened fire on his then-wife, Katherine Ranta, and her father, Robert, at her Coral Springs apartment. Both victims survived their gunshot wounds.

Katherine and Robert tearfully sat in the courtroom as a jury foreman read the guilty verdict. The jury took just six hours to find Maffei guilty on two counts of attempted first-degree murder.
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Thomas Maffei’s defense attorneys claim post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety caused him to go to the Veterans Affairs clinic on Nov. 2, 2012, where he received prescription pills and a tranquilizer. Hours later, he went to his then-wife’s Coral Springs apartment and shot her and her father.

Justice For Staff Sgt. Cory Griffin?

Staff Sgt. Cory Griffin's story caused me to write Deadly Decade of PTSD Healing Prevention in March. Since then his Mom, Debbie, has been an inspirational champion in the fight to get justice for veterans like her son. Not just legal justice, but all the way around.

There was no justice for Cory while serving at Fort Carson. Griffin was charged, convicted and sentenced to 8 years in prison. But this is not the end of the story, since many people are fighting to make sure that true justice is delivered for Cory.

A press release from Uniformed Services Justice and Advocacy Group, you can read what is all so easy to ignore.

Take a look at the following quotes in the press release and then look at what has been missing in all the talk about PTSD Awareness month. That started way back in 2010 by Congress yet it has all gotten worse because Congress has failed to become aware of anything that actually worked.

"Staff Sergeant Griffin is a twenty-seven year old man who served in the United States Army for eight years. During the course of his service he spent 12 months in Iraq, 9 months in Afghanistan and another 8 months in Qatar on a classified assignment, guarding a high-value asset. He spent additional time in Germany and at various state-side duty stations, including Ft. Carson."

Griffin would not have missed had he actually targeted his friend instead of hitting a thumb.

"There's another critical, common sense consideration here: the Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) of SSG Cory Griffin–he was 19 Delta, a Cavalry Scout who also served on a sniper team in Afghanistan. He was a Sharpshooter. If you ask no other question about this case, ask this one: Does it make any sense at all that a man who served in some of the most dangerous places on the planet as a sniper would miss an intended target at close range? For those of us with any respect or any experience in the US military know, if a highly-trained US Army Sniper had intended to kill a man at close range, he'd be dead."

Everyone Griffin served with trusted him with their lives because of what he could do when he intended to hit a target. The rest of the story about what happened that night can be found on the above link and you really should read it especially if the other missing links will ever make sense.

The case against him is one of assumption after assumption and you will read them.  A gun was shot yet when officers responded, Griffin was not arrested and charged with attempted murder began this farce of justice for Griffen, or did it?

Actually the farce began while military leaders refused to obey the law and dismissed the importance of post deployment screenings further compounding their total lack of regard to their failure of leadership while pushing a prevention program that had failed far too many.

It continued when members of the Senate Armed Services Committee knew that the leaders needed to do the post-deployment screenings but they were not being done and did nothing to hold any of them accountable.

Then it was all made even worse when no one was ever held accountable for anything other than the veterans being charged with crimes after they did everything to save lives in combat.

Justice for Cory? Hardly.

Man convicted of shooting Iraq Veteran 5 times

Harrisburg man convicted of attempted murder for shooting soldier 5 times during robbery
PennLive
By Matt Miller
October 29, 2014

Durbin, an Iraq War veteran, testified Tuesday that he was accosted and shot while sleeping in his car on Allison Hill after giving a fellow soldier a ride home. He said he could not positively identify Betts as the gunman.

A Dauphin County jury took about an hour Wednesday afternoon to convict a Harrisburg man of attempted murder for shooting a National Guard sergeant five times during a June 2013 robbery in the city.

For Tasai Betts, 18, the verdict equated to a loss on a very big gamble.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Jack Canavan said he will seek a 25- to 50-year state prison term for Betts when Judge Deborah Essis Curcillo sentences him in January.
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Attempted murder charges filed by Navy after stabbing

Charges filed in stabbing at Navy barracks
ABC 27 News
Posted: Jul 25, 2014

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - The Navy has filed charges against one of its sailors for repeatedly stabbing another in a barracks near a naval hospital.

The Navy said Friday that Petty Officer 3rd Class Wilbur Harwell is charged with attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon.
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Man charged in attacking others for second time in two weeks

Police: Man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after stabbing 2 in Bellingham
Bellingham Herald
Posted by SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL
February 8, 2014

BELLINGHAM — For the second time in two weeks, a former U.S. Marine suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder was arrested in a violent episode after stabbing two men in the common area of their home Saturday, Feb. 8, according to police.

Police say Jonathan L. Pablik, 24, stabbed two men, ages 63 and 53, in an unprovoked rage around 5 p.m. Saturday evening while the men were playing a dice game and “minding their own business” at their home in the 1800 block of Alabama Street, Bellingham Police Lt. Bob Vander Yacht said. It was not known if Pablik also lives in the home, which is rented by the room and has shared common areas.

Pablik was booked into Whatcom County Jail late Saturday night on suspicion of two counts of second-degree attempted murder, according to a police news release.
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Hero grabbed gun after Vancouver VA employee shot on campus

VA campus shooting victim had sought restraining order
The Columbian
Suspect allegedly had tried to get him to leave his wife, family
By Paris Achen and Emily Gillespie Published: February 5, 2014

Tuesday afternoon’s shooting in an office on the U.S. Veterans Affairs campus in Vancouver involved a male victim, who last year sought a restraining order against the woman who is the alleged shooter.

Deborah A. Lennon, suspected of shooting her former supervisor, is scheduled to appear today in court.

The former Veterans Affairs employee faces charges in Clark County Superior Court of first-degree attempted murder, stalking, cyberstalking and first-degree assault.

The victim, Allen Bricker, 45, sought a protection order against Lennon in January 2013, alleging that she was stalking him with daily emails, according to court documents obtained by The Columbian.

Lennon, 46, of Vancouver walked into Bricker’s fourth-floor office about 4 p.m. Tuesday, pulled out a handgun and shot Bricker twice in the chest, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.

Veterans Affairs employee and former Marine Neil Burkhardt, 31, of Portland then wrestled the gun from Lennon, detaining her until police arrived.
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UPDATE

It was the second workplace shooting in two days in the southwest Washington city.

On Monday, a paint company driver fatally shot a company manager and then killed himself at a Vancouver business park.

Police found the manager, Ryan E. Momeny, 45, lying dead in front of the Benjamin Moore Paint distribution center. Robert R. Brown, 64, a company driver, was found inside a vehicle in the parking lot, dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Vancouver police said.

Legal twist reconnects 2 sailors: attacker and victim

Legal twist reconnects 2 sailors: attacker and victim
The Virginian-Pilot
By Dianna Cahn
Published: December 20, 2013

It was a bizarre and horrific scene: a sailor going berserk in the galley of a Navy barge at a local shipyard and slashing the throat of a shipmate.

The delusional violence in March 2007 landed one man in prison and the other in an operating room. It also trapped the two sailors in a prism of legal turns that continue to this day.

After two trials and more than five years in prison, the attacker, Seaman Richard Mott, has been on duty at Norfolk Naval Station since September. His conviction for attempted murder was set aside this summer, after he had been paroled.

Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, Mott is monitored daily to ensure he takes his medications. His supervisors at the naval station say his illness is under control.

The victim, Jose Garcia, sits at home in Kansas, embittered by constant pain and post-traumatic stress disorder that has been, at times, debilitating. He blames the Navy for forcing him to relive his nightmare and leaving him to fall through the cracks when he needed help most.

"I feel like they care more about what's happening to the other guy," Garcia says. "No one has checked on me at all. The only time I've ever gotten a call is if they need something from me."

Neither man was on active duty in July, when the appeals court handed down its ruling, but the decision has brought attacker and victim back in the Navy's reach for one final legal and financial twist.
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Man Celebrating Birthday Stabbed Homeless Veteran 70 Times

Sad update
Homeless veteran stabbed 70 times in Doylestown dies

Man Celebrating Birthday Stabbed Homeless Veteran 70 Times: DA
A 21-year-old man is arrested, accused of stabbing a homeless veteran near a train station in Doylestown
By Lauren DiSanto
Friday, Jul 5, 2013

A man who had been out celebrating his 21st birthday is facing charges for allegedly stabbing a homeless veteran 70 times near a Doylestown, Pa., train station, authorities said.

Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler says Doylestown resident Dale “Bugsy” Wakefield was charged with attempted murder and other counts after being arrested Thursday in Baltimore.
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Fort Campbell Mom gets 25 years for setting fire killing kids

Woman gets 25 years for fatal fire at Campbell
By Bruce Schreiner
The Associated Press Posted : Thursday Dec 13, 2012

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A woman accused of trying to collect on her Army husband’s life insurance policy has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for setting fire to her home and killing two of her children at Fort Campbell.

A sobbing Billi Jo Smallwood maintained her innocence at her sentencing Thursday in federal court in Louisville. Family, friends and jail guards portrayed her as caring and deeply religious.
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Iraq War Vet Gets 3 Life Terms in Slaying Attempts

Iraq War Vet Gets 3 Life Terms in Slaying Attempts
Nov 07, 2012
Fresno Bee
by Marc Benjamin

An Iraq war veteran was sentenced to three consecutive life terms and two sentences of 25 years to life for trying to kill his estranged wife, her brother and mother in their Reedley, Ca. home in 2009.

Judge Edward Sarkisian Jr. imposed the sentence Tuesday against Dejon Baskin, 29, a former U.S. Marine.

Baskin was found guilty in September of three counts of attempted murder. The charges carried sentencing enhancements, including premeditation and using a gun and a knife.

On July 16, 2009, he held his wife, Rachel Laura Baskin, and her mother and brother hostage, stabbing and shooting them.

Defense lawyer Eric Schweitzer tried to establish that Baskin's behavior was triggered by post-traumatic stress disorder from his service in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said he was sure Baskin, who was trained to kill using a knife and gun, didn't intend to kill anyone.
read more here on Military.com

Army veteran gets 30 years for trying to kill girlfriend

Army veteran gets 30 years for trying to kill girlfriend
Capital Gazette.com
Posted: Tuesday, November 6, 2012
By HEATHER RAWLYK
Staff Writer

An Army veteran who survived a deadly 2004 attack in Baghdad and spoke about the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on “60 Minutes” was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday for trying to kill his girlfriend in Severn last winter.

Jarob Derringer Walsh, 30, pleaded guilty in September to attempted second-degree murder before Judge William C. Mulford II in county Circuit Court in Annapolis.

“I don’t see this as a case of how we treat our veterans ...” Mulford said. “I see this as a case of how we treat victims of domestic violence and how we treat those who abuse women. And that’s what you are — someone who abuses women.”

The case stems from a violent attack in Severn on Dec . 10.
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Police Arrest Suspect In Shooting That Left Soldier Paralyzed

Ruben Ray Jurado Arrested:
 Police Arrest Suspect In Shooting That Left Soldier Paralyzed
12/26/11 09:22 PM ET
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Police on Monday arrested a suspect in a shooting that critically wounded a soldier at his Southern California homecoming party after he survived a suicide bombing attack in Afghanistan. Police said Ruben Ray Jurado turned himself in to authorities in Chino Hills, about 35 miles east of Los Angeles.

The 19-year-old had been sought in the attempted murder of 22-year-old Christopher Sullivan. Authorities allege Jurado shot Sullivan at the party Friday night after getting into an argument with the soldier's brother over football teams. Jurado, who had played football with Sullivan in high school, punched Sullivan's brother and Sullivan intervened. Jurado then pulled a gun and fired multiple shots, hitting Sullivan in the neck, San Bernardino police Sgt. Gary Robertson said.

Sullivan's relatives said the Purple Heart recipient was hit twice by gunfire, which shattered his spine and left him paralyzed. read more here Original report Soldier shot at his welcome home party

Army deserter arrested in Orlando

Army deserter arrested in Orlando, accused of attempted murder

By Anika Myers Palm, Orlando Sentinel
2:05 p.m. EDT, July 21, 2011

A U.S. Army sergeant accused of both deserting the military and an attempted murder in Tennessee was arrested Thursday morning in Orlando.

Sgt. First Class Andres Betancourt, 32, of Clermont, is in custody and under guard in a Central Florida hospital, according to the Orange County jail. Officials at the jail have refused to identify his exact location, citing safety concerns.

Betancourt, a native of Cali, Colombia, deserted a unit based at Fort Campbell, Ky., according to an Army affidavit for his arrest.

He also is facing charges of aggravated assault and attempted second-degree murder in connection with an alleged attempt to run over his girlfriend in May 2010 in Clarksville, Tenn.
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Army deserter arrested in Orlando

Soldier charged in knife attack

Soldier charged in knife attack
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Dec 23, 2010 12:38:42 EST
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — An Army sergeant who was shot during a fight at Fort Campbell has been charged with attempted murder and assault for stabbing a military police officer, officials said Thursday.

The fight broke out Tuesday when Staff Sgt. Ian J. Kriebel flagged down a military police officer who was on patrol, the military said in a statement. Kriebel and the officer began to fight and Kriebel stabbed the officer “repeatedly with a knife” in the neck and upper torso.
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Soldier charged in knife attack

Fort Hood suspect charged with attempted murder

Fort Hood suspect charged with attempted murder

By Angela K. Brown - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Dec 3, 2009 8:09:40 EST

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Army has charged the Fort Hood shooting suspect with 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

These charges are added to the 13 premeditated murder charges filed against Maj. Nidal Hasan in the wake of the Nov. 5 shooting massacre at Fort Hood.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/ap_hood_suspect_charged/

Man charged with attempted murder of Marine on leave

Bridgewater man faces attempted murder charge in shooting of Marine home on leave

BRIDGEWATER —A township man faces an attempted murder charge after he allegedly shot a 21-year-old Marine who was home on leave late Friday, authorities said.

Jared J. Armbruster, 26, allegedly shot Lance Cpl. Joseph Patischnock in the abdomen near 3rd Street and Fulton Street, Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne Forrest said. He did not immediately say what led to the shooting.

Patishnock was listed in stable condition Saturday after undergoing surgery.

At about 11:30 p.m. Friday, police responded after several 911 calls reporting that shots had been fired in the area, Forrest said. Investigators found spent bullet casings at the scene, but the victim had already been taken to the hospital.
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Schofield Barracks Soldier Charged With Attacking Wife

Soldier charged in attack on wife
Lincoln Phillips, 35, accused of attempted murder, is being held in lieu of $350,000 bail
By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com

A 35-year-old Schofield Barracks soldier was charged in the attempted murder of his wife early Wednesday morning, and a possible weapon - a bloody hammer - was found at their Ewa Beach townhouse.

Sgt. 1st Class Lincoln Phillips was charged Saturday with second-degree attempted murder. He was arrested Friday, two days after his 36-year-old wife, Tara, was taken in extremely critical condition with severe head trauma to the Queen's Medical Center, where she remains.

Phillips, who made his initial appearance in court yesterday, is being held in lieu of $350,000 bail.
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http://starbulletin.com/2008/09/09/news/story04.html