Assistant Chief Brian Hopkins Honored For Saving Suicidal Veteran

Hopkins honored for going above and beyond duty

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Eric Bernsee

September 29, 2017

"Apparently it was the anniversary of a day on which something very bad happened to the Marine and his unit in Iraq, Hopkins said.As officers prepared to make contact with him he placed his military dress cap back on his head, put the car in gear and started driving toward the west exit of the parking lot."

With Greencastle City Police officers dutifully assembled Thursday afternoon for training on the new lifesaving equipment, they took time to honor a lifesaver of their own.

Banner Graphic/ERIC BERNSEE With the rest of the Greencastle Police Department assembled behind him, Police Chief Tom Sutherlin (left) presents an award for actions above and beyond the call of duty to Assistant Chief Brian Hopkins for his actions during a crisis situation on Aug. 17.

Assistant Chief Brian Hopkins was surprised with an award for going above and beyond the call of duty on Aug. 17, 2017.

Before settling into training on the new AED (automated external defibrillator), a portable electronic device that diagnoses and can correct arrhythmia of the heart, Chief Tom Sutherlin read a citation about Hopkins prepared by Capt. Charles Inman.

“I was surprised,” Hopkins said after the squad meeting was over.

He recalled how he had already gone to bed the night of Aug. 17 when the call came in concerning a possibly suicidal person, a medically retired Marine Corps veteran in full dress uniform.

The man’s fiancée told police the 36-year-old was suffering from severe PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and seemed intent upon taking his own life through “suicide by cop.”

While responding to the scene, Capt. Inman reported, “I contacted Assistant Chief Hopkins to advise him of the situation. Recognizing the seriousness of the call, Hopkins advised he would be en route from his residence to assist in the investigation.”

In fact, Hopkins was up and out in no time.

“I’m one of those people,” he said, “who prepares everything,” laying out his clothes and all the night before.

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PTSD veteran attempted suicide by cop at Little Caesars

Fake assault rifle scare at Little Caesars

SAN ANTONIO -- Employees at an East Side pizza shop got a scare Wednesday night when an Army vet barged in carrying assault rifles.

Police say the 30-year-old vet walked into the Little Caesars near South W.W. White near Martin Luther King Drive with two fake assault-type rifles just before 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"The officers were very quick to respond, and we were in the right place at the right time," said Sgt. Javier Salazar. "Everybody pulled together as a team and we got the job done."

Police say the man taunted officers from the lobby, and held a gun to his face before surrendering. The vet, who reportedly suffers from P.T.S.D., also told police he needed help and wanted to commit suicide by cop. The man was taken into custody, and police say he will be charged with making terroristic threats.
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Soldier Deals with Life After PTSD Breakdown

Soldier Deals with Life After PTSD Breakdown

Retha Colclasure
9/21/2011
The wounds of war aren`t always visible. More people are becoming aware of that. One year after a PTSD breakdown, one soldier`s family is glad he`s still alive.

One year ago tonight, Brock Savelkoul went into a convenience store in Watford City with guns. He then drove off, drunk, and led law enforcement on a high-speed chase that ended in a standoff in an attempt at suicide by cop.

Today, his friends and family are glad he`s still alive.

There`s nothing quite like a soldier`s homecoming. But after the hugs, the kisses and the tears of joy over the reunion, many soldiers are faced with the different reality of civilian life.

"You come back, you`re thrown into civilian life, and you`re rewired," said Joan Daigle, who`s a friend of the Savelkoul family.

That`s something Daigle found out when her son returned home and suffered from severe post traumatic stress disorder.

Daigle said, "I had no clue what was coming."

Many family members don`t. That`s why when Brock Savelkoul took off in a pickup truck, drunk, with weapons and suffering from a PTS blackout his family didn`t know what to think.

"It was a complete shock," said Angie Heinze, Brock`s sister. "It was a nightmare, this can`t be my brother. I knew it wasn`t the real Brock, had to be something else going on."

Brock had been diagnosed with PTSD, but the diagnosis wasn`t enough.
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Iraq War veteran with PTSD wanted police to kill him

He lived. He lived to tell a story of what many come home with after combat. Lived to see police knowing the difference between facing a criminal and seeing a veteran in a lot of pain. Lived long enough to see what justice really is when he went before a judge in a Veteran's Court. Above all of this, lived long enough to know what it is like to get help to heal.

Iraq War veteran with PTSD could have charges dropped in police standoff
Charges could be dismissed in police standoff
7:46 AM, Jun. 16, 2011
Written by
Kevin Grasha

EAST LANSING - Ten months ago, Brad Eifert, then an Army sergeant, faced charges that could have sent him to prison for the rest of his life.

The Iraq War veteran's struggles with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol abuse had caused him to spiral out of control.

He hit a low point on Aug. 9, 2010, shooting a handgun nine times into the ground, according to documents connected to his Army discharge, as police officers surrounded him in a wooded area near his Okemos home.

It was a suicide attempt - his third that year, according to the documents, which were filed last month. He wanted police that night to shoot and kill him.

In February, Eifert's case was transferred to Jordon's veterans' court program, which focuses on treatment in lieu of incarceration.

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Iraq War veteran with PTSD could have charges dropped

PTSD Iraq Vet faces charges after wanting cops to kill him

How does a combat veteran want to survive combat but wants to die back home? Any ideas? This is the question everyone in the media should be asking. To lose more when they come home and are supposed to be "safe" is wrong beyond any words.

Iraq war veteran who pointed pellet gun at KC police faces charges

Jackson County prosecutors have filed charges against a Kansas City man who allegedly lured police to his house last week in hopes they would kill him.

Officers wounded him in the shoulder after he allegedly pointed a pellet gun at them from a second-story window.

Pendleton dismantled bombs while serving in the Army during the Iraq war, and he has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, court records said.

Read more: Iraq war veteran who pointed pellet gun

Now they need to teach us how to get back

"They teach us how to get over there," he said. "Now they need to teach us how to get back."
MINOT, ND -- At 8:20 p.m. on Sept. 21, 2010, Iraq veteran Brock Savelkoul decided it was time to die.

Aftershock: The Blast That Shook Psycho Platoon
by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, and Daniel Zwerdling, NPR March 22, 2011, 1:05 p.m.


MINOT, ND -- At 8:20 p.m. on Sept. 21, 2010, Iraq veteran Brock Savelkoul decided it was time to die. He lurched from his black Tacoma pickup truck, gripping a 9-mm pistol. In front of him, a half dozen law enforcement officers crouched behind patrol cars with their weapons drawn. They had surrounded him on a muddy red road after an hour-long chase that reached speeds of 105 miles per hour. Savelkoul stared at the ring of men and women before ducking into the cab of his truck. He cranked up the radio. A country song about whiskey and cigarettes wafted out across an endless sprawl of North Dakota farmland, stubbled from the recent harvest. Sleet was falling, chilling the air. Savelkoul, 29, walked slowly toward the officers. He gestured wildly with his gun. "Go ahead, shoot me! ... Please, shoot me," he yelled, his face illuminated in a chiaroscuro of blazing spotlights and the deepening darkness. "Do it. Pull it. Do I have to point my gun at you to ... do it?"

Twenty feet away, the officers shifted nervously. Some placed their fingers on the triggers of their shotguns and took aim at Savelkoul's chest. They were exhausted, on edge after the chase and long standoff. They knew only the sketchiest of details about the man in front of them, his blond hair short, his face twisted in grief and anger. Dispatchers had told them that Savelkoul had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. They warned that he might have been drinking. Family members told police that Savelkoul had fled his home with six weapons, including a semiautomatic assault rifle and several hundred rounds of hollow point ammunition. To Megan Christopher, a trooper with the North Dakota Highway Patrol, Savelkoul's intentions seemed obvious. "Suicide by cop," she thought. "He wants to go out in a blaze of glory."

As it happened, Savelkoul's state of mind was of interest not only to the cops, but to some of the nation's top military officers and medical researchers.

More than 2 million troops have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. Tens of thousands have returned with a bedeviling mix of psychological and cognitive problems. For decades, doctors have recognized that soldiers can suffer lasting wounds from the sheer terror of combat, a condition referred to today as post-traumatic stress disorder. They also have come to know that blows to the head from roadside bombs -- the signature weapon in Iraq and Afghanistan -- can result in mild traumatic injuries to the brain, or concussions, that can leave soldiers unable to remember, to follow orders, to think normally.

Now it is becoming clear that soldiers like Savelkoul are coming home afflicted with both conditions, in numbers never seen before. Studies have estimated that about 20 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered a mild traumatic brain injury while deployed. Of those, anywhere between 5 percent to nearly 50 percent may suffer both PTSD and lingering problems from traumatic brain injuries. It is an epidemic so new that doctors aren't even sure what to call it, let alone how best to diagnose and treat it.

Savelkoul and four of his comrades landed on the front lines of this confounding new conflict over the minds of America's soldiers when an Iraqi rocket exploded near their trailer in January 2009. By chance, a senior Army neuropsychologist was in Iraq at the time to conduct a study on the military's tools for diagnosing concussions. After learning of the attack, he persuaded Savelkoul and the others to enroll. The men became the first fully documented victims of "pure blast" concussions -- that is, mild traumatic brain injuries caused by the force of an explosion, rather than a secondary effect, such as slamming into a Humvee wall after a roadside bomb.
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The Blast That Shook Psycho Platoon

Veteran, volunteer firefighter threatening suicide opens fire on deputies

PBSO: Man threatening suicide opens fire on deputies
Sun-Sentinel.com - Fort Lauderdale, FL,USA
By Jerome Burdi
5:01 PM EST, March 4, 2009

WEST DELRAY - A suicidal resident at Kings Point retirement community got into a shootout with deputies who showed up shortly before 11:30 p.m. Tuesday to try to prevent the man from killing himself, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said.

"Put it down! Put it down! Put it down!" deputies screamed outside the condo at 760 Normandy P.

But Dallas Adkins, Jr., 59, fired his rifle at them and the bullet hit a ballistic shield, investigators said. The two deputies shot back several times.

"Deputies knocked on the door, and he answered the door with a weapon in his hand," sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.

It is unclear where Adkins shot from, deputies said. The window next to his door was blown out.

Neighbors described him as a gentleman loner who helped ladies with their grocery bags and called men "Sir." Adkins rented a one-bedroom condominium at Kings Point for about a year and worked at a nearby Publix grocery store. In Colorado, where he grew up, Adkins volunteered for about 20 years as a firefighter in Golden, a suburb of Denver. He gave it up about 10 years ago, officials there said.

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Utah Police Learn 5 Words To Save A Veteran

Are You A Combat Veteran? Five words that can save a life when a veteran is in such pain they want to commit suicide by cop. How long does it take to ask that 5 word question and is the time spent asking that question worth the life of a combat veteran? You bet it is! It would be great if every police department across the country had the same training but department heads are reluctant to even listen about what they can do to save a veteran's life.
Domestic violence issues of combat veterans are usually tied to PTSD and self-medicating, but they are treated like criminals instead of wounded warriors. Police responding to a domestic violence call could prevent a veteran from going to jail if they asked this question as well. They could get them the help they need instead of locking them up for being wounded.
While this question will not save all of them, it's a good start. Even if it saves one life, the question is worth asking.


Utah VA creating movie to help police deal with combat veterans
February 6th, 2009 @ 7:05pm
By Jed Boal

There's a training video in the works, targeting a troubling trend among American combat veterans. Some who struggle with mental health issues end up in deadly standoffs with police, and the state Department of Veterans Affairs hopes the video will do something to prevent it.


Here's the scenario: A recent combat veteran walks into a convenience store with an assault rifle. He orders the clerk to call the police and kicks her out. This vet struggles with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and wants a confrontation with police. He may even want to die in a hailstorm of police bullets.

"These folks are still in combat mode. So as a result, they are more aggressive than someone might normally be," said Terry Schow, director of the Utah Department of Veterans Affairs.

Last year, at least three young vets committed suicide by cop. The Utah VA is making the video to better train law enforcement for those situations and these individuals.

"As they approach a situation, hopefully one of the questions they ask is: ‘Are you a combat veteran?'" Schow said.
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St. Pete police shoot armed suicidal man

St. Pete police shoot armed suicidal man
Nov 17, 2008
St. Pete police shoot armed suicidal man
ST. PETERSBURG -- A police officer shot and wounded a man that pointed a gun at officers who were responding to a report of a domestic dispute Sunday night.

The shooting victim has been identified by police as Roberto Garcia Lara, 42, of 6528 12th St. N.

The incident started when St. Petersburg police received a call from an alarm company at about 9 p.m. in reference to a woman screaming.

Police said the woman may have pushed a panic button on the alarm system at the home at 6528 12th St. N. Representatives with the alarm company heard the woman yelling and notified police.

When officers arrived, they found a "very emotional" woman in the front yard, said St. Petersburg Police spokesman Bill Doniel. The woman told police her husband was suicidal.

"She told officers they were having an argument and that he wanted to kill himself," Doniel said.
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Orlando attempted suicide by cop ends with arrest

Street shut after standoff in woods
Susan Jacobson | Sentinel Staff Writer
August 26, 2008
An armed man who Kissimmee police say threatened his ex-girlfriend was arrested Monday after he took refuge in the woods, forcing the closure of Carroll Street between Thacker Avenue and John Young Parkway. Nearby Kissimmee Utility Authority offices also were forced to close temporarily during the early-morning standoff. Eduardo Galindo, 43, was arrested on suspicion of domestic aggravated stalking and was being held Monday at the Osceola County Jail without bail. Officers tried to find Galindo, who was armed with a 9 mm handgun, overnight and confronted him in the wooded field, they said. Galindo approached SWAT team members in what investigators say was an effort to get them to shoot him, but he was subdued without serious injury. The street reopened by 9 a.m.

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