Year after Yountville veterans treatment center murders, victims remembered

Victims of mass shooting a year ago at Yountville veterans treatment center remembered

PRESS DEMOCRAT
MARTIN ESPINOZATHE
March 10, 2019
YOUNTVILLE

“The unthinkable happened. Yountville was put on a new map,” he said. “We’re used to being put on the map for a lot of things. But we’re not used to, nor did we expect to be put on the national map for the location of a mass shooting.”

It’s been a year of shattered dreams and indescribable grief for Kathy Gonzales, whose daughter, Jennifer Gonzales Shushereba — and her unborn child — were among the victims in the deadly shooting at the Pathway Home for veterans in Yountville.

The lives of psychologist Gonzales Shushereba, 32, Pathway Home executive director Christine Loeber, 48, and staff therapist Jen Golick, 42, were remembered during a solemn memorial Saturday afternoon.

About 100 people, including the victims’ families and friends, Yountville residents and local community leaders, gathered for the memorial in the Community Center on Washington Street.

“I’m just so happy they haven’t forgotten them,” said Gonzales, tearfully. “I’m grateful the women can be remembered.”

Gonzales Shushereba, Loeber and Golick were killed in the March 9, 2018, tragedy by Albert Cheung Wong, 36, a troubled Army combat veteran who had been treated for nearly a year at the nonprofit veterans residential treatment center on the grounds of the Veterans Home of California. Cheung Wong then shot himself.

The shooting shattered the tranquility of the bucolic Napa Valley town, thrusting it onto a national stage as Yountville became the latest site of a mass shooting in America, Yountville town manager Steve Rogers said during the memorial.
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Missing Army Reservist's Body Found in St. Louis

Missing Army veteran found murdered in St. Louis may be victim of Craigslist killing
FOX News
October 16, 2015

Police said an Army reservist found dead in a St. Louis alley Thursday had been shot, while family members said he was going to look at a used car advertised on Craigslist before his disappearance.

These undated photos show Robert Polk, 22, an Army reservist found murdered Thursday Oct. 15, 2015,
12 days after his family said he left his home to look at a used car advertised on Craigslist.
(St. Louis Metropolitan Police)

Workers for a demolition company found the body of Robert Lovings Polk, 22, in the Baden area of north St. Louis.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Polk's remains were concealed behind a piece of drywall in a garage. Worker Daniel Parker told the Post-Dispatch that he and his colleagues had smelled a strong odor when they had been at the property the previous two days, but assumed it was a dead animal.

"It really did freak me out because we never knew when we removed that drywall that we would find a dead body there, " worker Jerry Montaque told KTVI. "It stunned me; I just had to get myself together and walk away for a minute."
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Fort Hood Leaves Soldiers Still Asking Who Is Accountable to Them

Justice not served at Fort Hood with Hasan conviction and still has not been. Too many questions unanswered and too few held accountable for what they allowed to happen. Ft. Hood victims and survivors deserve answers but unless the media is pushing that point, lawmakers supposedly in charge of what the DOD does and does not do, will never happen.

Wounded Times has been screaming about this since it happened.

Like everyone else I was stunned but I was also remembering what I saw at Fort Hood when I was there a few months before. Soldiers and families hanging around the food court much like civilian families do at the mall. Shopping carriages filled with supplies for families and usually young children hitching a ride from Mom and Dad. Unlike the mall, this is a close community where you have to show a military ID before getting in. It was a place where they were supposed to feel safe.

The shooting was at Fort Hood but every member of the military felt it.

Purple Hearts for those killed and wounded at Fort Hood are an acknowledgment of what was done to some of them, but not to all of them. The aftermath of the Fort Hood massacre was, as we discovered far worse than originally imagined.

Well finally the Wall Street Journal has taken a look at what was not done after this deadly day from hell. As you'll read, it was written from someone who didn't just read about it. She was there when it happened!

The Army’s Fort Hood Disgrace
No one who supervised the shooter has been held to account, but the victims are denied pay and benefits.
Wall Street Journal
By KATHY PLATONI
March 19, 2015

It was more than five years ago that the gunshots rang out, but those of us who survived can still hear their echoes. On Nov. 5, 2009, an Army psychiatrist named Nidal Hasan—an American radicalized by extremist Islamic beliefs—opened fire on his fellow soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas, killing 14 people, including an unborn child, and wounding 32.

I was there. A beloved friend, Capt. John Gaffaney, died at my knees. I was slated to become the shooter’s direct supervisor and later learned I was at the top of his hit list.

That day has faded from the minds of most Americans. But the survivors and the families of the deceased continually relive its horror. They also continue to face betrayal by the government they served.

It is a gross miscarriage of justice that no one who supervised the shooter—overlooked his behavior and promoted him—has been held accountable. That the massacre is still labeled an incident of workplace violence committed by a disgruntled employee is delusional and contemptible. Because the massacre was not recognized as a terrorist attack, victims were deemed ineligible for combat-injury benefits, the Purple Heart, and its civilian counterpart, the Defense of Freedom medal. Three successive defense secretaries refused to change this designation, and five years passed.

Survivors of the massacre and the families of the dead are now finding some measure of justice. Congress has rewritten the language governing fallen warriors, and Army Secretary John McHugh has announced that Fort Hood victims will receive long-overdue medals. They will be offered burial plots at Arlington National Cemetery and compensation pay upon retirement. But further details remain unclear. For instance, Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning, whom Hasan shot six times, told reporters last year that because his injuries were not classified as combat-related, he lost roughly $70,000 in benefits and $2,500 a month in pay. Will he be made whole?
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One Of Army’s Most Wanted Arrested In South Florida

US Marshals: One Of Army’s Most Wanted Arrested In South Florida
CBS News
Carey Codd
March 13, 2014

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The US Marshals said it was James Jones’ face that ultimately gave him away and sent him back behind bars.

For more than 3 decades the Marshals say Jones lived an apparently quiet life in South Florida after escaping prison following his conviction for murdering a fellow Army private in 1974.

Investigators say Jones lived most recently in Deerfield Beach using the name of one of his old friends, Bruce Walter Keith. But thanks to facial recognition technology, the Marshal’s say Jones’ past caught up to him.

“The first words out his mouth were, ‘I knew it would catch up to me one day,’” said U.S. Marshal’s Spokesperson Barry Golden, describing the moments after Jones’ arrest on Thursday.

Following his arrest at his workplace in Pompano Beach on Thursday, Golden said Jones admitted his true identity and his fingerprints confirmed it. Golden said Marshals used facial recognition technology on Jones’ old mugshot and found his current driver’s license photo under his fake name.
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Bricks from Fort Hood Massacre building being sent to families

Fort Hood: Fund For Shooting Victims, Families, Dissolved
Our Town Texas

Fort Hood officials have indicated that the building where the shooting happened will be torn down.

Parry said that about $1,500 of the fund has been held back for shipping to send bricks from the building to family members of those who lost loved ones and to those who survived.

FORT HOOD (January 23, 2014) A fund established in the aftermath of the deadly Nov. 5 2009 shooting rampage on Fort Hood has been dissolved after distributing almost $1 million to families of the 13 who died as well as to survivors.

The fund administered by the Fort Hood Chapter of the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) totaled just more than $970,000.

AUSA Chairman Bill Parry said all of the 32 survivors and the next of kin for each of the 13 people killed were given assistance from the fund.
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Gunman killed 12 at Navy yard, press slammed thousands

Here is another headline for you
VA: Aaron Alexis never sought treatment for PTSD

Washington Navy Yard Day From Hell leaving 12 dead and 8 injured along with hundreds in shock. Family and friends of the shooter are dealing with a lot of questions along with family and friends of his victims. Reporters are trying to figure out how to get more attention for their reports by making sure they PTSD tied into the motive.

The headlines are starting to show up like this one from USA Today
PTSD reportedly affected alleged shooter

Why not? After all, using PTSD doesn't cost them anything but it does cost veterans with PTSD more stress because reporters focus on the minority of veterans committing crimes instead of the real suffering going on.

VA claims
Post-9/11 (Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts) claims make up 21% of the total inventory and 22% of the backlog Gulf War (definition) claims make up 23% of the total inventory and 21% of the backlog
Peacetime (period between end of Vietnam and Gulf War) claims make up 11% of the total inventory and 11% of the backlog
Vietnam claims make up 37% of the total inventory and 38% of the backlog
Korean War claims make 4% of the total inventory and 4% of the backlog
World War II claims make up 3% of the total inventory and 3% of the backlog
Other era claims make up 1% of the total inventory and 1% of the backlog

While not all of these claims are for PTSD there are hundreds of thousands of veterans with PTSD from all wars. The truth is they are more likely to commit suicide than commit any kind of crime but the press doesn't focus on that part. There are 55 veterans a day trying to kill themselves while at least 22 a day succeed.

Washington gunman hails from New York, called ‘sweet,’ ‘peaceful’ despite rap sheet The 6-foot-one, 190-pound shooter was born in Queens, according to the FBI. Friends described him as a ‘sweet’ and ‘peaceful’ guy who studied Buddhism, but he had a history of anger-driven incidents that got him in trouble with the law, arrest records show. (New York Daily News, Ginger Adams Otis, September 16, 2013)

The "peaceful guy" decided to kill people yesterday but the press decided they would yet again make sure they tied PTSD to the story.

I talk to these guys all the time and they are more likely to harm themselves than anyone else. The systems treating them are pitiful examples of what is wrong. When you read a story about someone like the shooter being treated it is more an example of the failures of these "systems" than a reflection of what a veteran is.

Fort Campbell 2 murders, 7 suicides in only 31 days

Deadly spring at Fort Campbell drew blitz reaction
Documents confirm 2 murders, 7 suicides in only 31 days
The Leaf Chronicle
Phillip Grey
Jul. 16, 2013

CLARKSVILLE, TENN. — An explosion of events between March and April 2012 was largely the catalyst for action at Fort Campbell and surrounding communities, resulting in a community-wide declaration of war on PTSD and military suicides alike.

The period began March 15 with a slaying and police standoff in the Clarksville subdivision of Quicksilver Court.

Sgt. 1st Class Frederic N. Moses was shot by fellow 5th Special Forces Group member Sgt. Benjamin Schweitzer. Both were veterans of numerous deployments, and the victim had just returned from a combat deployment in February 2012.

Moses died on a neighbor’s front porch, bleeding out while seeking help. Schweitzer barricaded himself in a house, then wounded a police officer before being captured. The standoff riveted the city and focused attention on soldier-related violence spilling out of Fort Campbell’s gates.

Over the following weeks, rumor had it that Quicksilver Court was just the warning shot in a month of tragedy. A review of 17 Fort Campbell suicide reports from 2011 and 2012 by The Leaf-Chronicle and news partner WSMV-TV Channel 4 shows the rumors were true.

In only 31 days, there were two murders and seven suicides, nearly equaling the worst months of combat casualties for Fort Campbell units in Iraq and Afghanistan during the 10 years prior.
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Marine's slain wife remembered as caring, humble

Marine's slain wife remembered as caring, humble
The Bakersfield Californian
BY LAURA LIERA
Californian staff writer
Jun 11 2013

Family and friends of Rubi Estefania Smith comforted each other Tuesday morning as they stood in front of the Fountain of Chimes at the Greenlawn Funeral Homes Cemetery in northeast Bakersfield.

With tears running down their faces and dark sunglasses hiding their pain, about 50 people watched as Smith's mother and stepfather placed her ashes in a wall of the fountain.

Smith, 21 was stabbed by her husband, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Esteban J. Smith, 23, in North Carolina. Her body was found at a motel on May 26 near Camp Lejeune, N.C., where Esteban was stationed,Texas police said. Esteban later went on a shooting rampage and was killed in west Texas.

The mother of Esteban, Rosalva Jimenez, sat next to the mother of Smith throughout the memorial, and both hugged each other for support.
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Rubi Estefania Smith's funeral
Family members and friends gathered at Green Lawn Mortuary and Cemetery on River Blvd. to place the ashes of Rubi Estefania Smith in a wall of a fountain and remember the young woman. Rubi Estefania Smith is believed to have been fatally stabbed by her husband Esteban Smith, a Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base; N.C.

Marines arrested as suspect is murder of Sergeant and his wife

Brooklyn Marine Sgt. Jan Pawel Pietrzak and his wife, Quiana, seen in August wedding photo, were found tortured and slain Oct. 15 in their home near San Diego.

Brooklyn Marine sergeant & wife tortured, slain in Calif.; 4 of his men are arrested
BY CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Updated Thursday, November 6th 2008, 12:30 PM


A Brooklyn-raised Marine sergeant and his new bride were tortured and killed execution-style in their California home - allegedly by four other Marines under his command.

Sgt. Jan Pawel Pietrzak, who was raised in Bensonhurst, and his wife, Quiana, were found bound and gagged in the ransacked house, each shot in the head.

Pietrzak was the suspects' sergeant at Camp Pendleton, Quiana's mother said Wednesday.

"They're monsters," Faye Jenkins told the Daily News. "They're monsters."

Pietrzak's mother, Henryka Pietrzak-Varga, said she had prepared herself "for the possibility that my son could die in Iraq."

"But to die like this, in their own home?" she told The News. "They were good kids. They didn't deserve to die like this."

Investigators said the motive for murder was "financial gain." Neither mother believes that.

"When I found out what they did to them, it was like they killed me, too," Pietrzak-Varga said.

A spokesman for the Riverside County district attorney's office would not comment on reports that Pietrzak was killed by his own men.

Detectives also did not divulge what the accused Marines were looking for, but the suspects were tied to the crime by items found in their homes and on the military base.

Charged with murder and other crimes are Pvt. Emrys John, 18, of Maryland; Lance Cpl. Tyrone Miller, 20, of North Carolina; Pvt. Kevin Darnell Cox, 20, of Tennessee, and Pvt. Kesuan Sykes, 21, of California.

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linked from RawStory

3 More Charged In Homeless Milwaukee Man's Killing

3 More Charged In Homeless Milwaukee Man's Killing
Man Found On Trail

UPDATED: 10:25 pm CDT October 29, 2008
MILWAUKEE -- Three more people, two from Milwaukee and one from Okauchee, are facing murder charges in the killing of a homeless man on a trail near the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Milwaukee.

According to criminal complaints, the killing happened early last Thursday after a group of people went to the tent where Kelly Graf, 29, was sleeping to confront him about naked pictures of a girl that he had been showing on his cell phone.

The complaint quotes witnesses as saying they took Graf from the tent, beat him and took him to the trail where Matthew McAfee, 26, shot him in the head and cut his throat.

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http://www.channel3000.com/news/17840085/detail.html

Wave of shootings, fatal stabbings rock city streets

Vivian West (second from right) mourned the death of her son, Troy West, 42, during a vigil last night in the Dorchester park where he was found fatally stabbed Monday. No arrests have been made in the case. (PHOTOS BY TRAVIS DOVE FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)

Violence, grief, and disbelief in Dorchester
Wave of shootings, fatal stabbings rock city streets
By Brian R. Ballou
Globe Staff / August 29, 2008

Troy West loved to draw, capturing family members and inanimate objects on his sketching pad. He wrote poems with such flair that his male friends asked him to pen love letters to their girlfriends so they could pass the sweet words off as their own. And he often spent hours listening to his vast music collection, smooth oldies that reminded him of his days growing up in Dorchester.

It was a 42-year life embedded in the arts, a life that was brutally silenced by at least 25 stab wounds. His body was found Monday on a park bench not far from the home he shared with his niece. Police have not made any arrests in the case.

"I never thought anything like this would happen to one of my children," Vivian West, 74, said, sitting in her Dorchester apartment yesterday with other grieving relatives, all trying to sort out the details of funeral arrangements and a peace vigil scheduled for last night at King Street Park, where a passerby discovered her son's body. They were also trying to sort out how such an ending could befall Troy West.
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Preacher killed wife, stuffed body in freezer, police say

Preacher killed wife, stuffed body in freezer, police say
Story Highlights
NEW: Anthony Hopkins denied bail at initial court appearance

Preacher is charged with murder, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse and incest

He was arrested after delivering sermon at his Alabama church

Case began when daughter told police she'd been sexually abused

(CNN) -- An evangelical preacher killed his wife several years ago and stuffed her body in a freezer after she caught him abusing their daughter, according to police and court documents.


Anthony Hopkins appeared in court Thursday to face murder, rape and incest charges.

Anthony Hopkins, 37, was arrested Monday night at the Inspirational Tabernacle Church of God in Christ in Jackson, Alabama, just after he had delivered a sermon to a congregation that included his seven other children, officials said.

He faces charges including murder, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse and incest.

Hopkins was denied bail Thursday when he appeared before Mobile County District Judge George Hardesty. The case is set for arraignment next week, Hardesty's clerk said.

The case began Monday, when the daughter, now 19, went to the Mobile Police Department's Child Advocacy Center and reported that she had been sexually abused by Hopkins since she was 11 years old, according to an affidavit filed in support of a search warrant of the preacher's home in Mobile.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/31/preacher.freezer/index.html

Houston family seeks helping finding dad's killers

Houston family seeks helping finding dad's killers
By KEVIN MORAN Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
July 30, 2008, 3:26PM

Nadir Ijaz spent his 24th birthday trying to help track down his father's killers.

"My dad was my angel," the Texas A&M University student said Wednesday as he joined with family members, Houston police and Crime Stoppers in appealing for information about the men who killed Mohammad Ijaz Mahmood.

Investigators are seeking the public's help in solving the July 7 killing of Mahmood, who was attacked while going about his routine in his job with a mobile paycheck-cashing service.

Mahmood, 67, was shot about 3:30 p.m. and taken away in his van from a warehouse area on Turning Basin Drive in east Houston, where he had parked to cash workers' paychecks, police said.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5915772.html

Man arrested in death Spc. Megan L. Touma

Man arrested in death of pregnant soldier

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jul 29, 2008 21:48:35 EDT

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Police in North Carolina say they’ve arrested a suspect in the death of a pregnant soldier whose body was found in a motel bathtub.

Fayetteville police said Tuesday that 27-year-old Edgar Patino has been charged with first degree murder in the death of Army Spc. Megan L. Touma.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/ap_pregnantsoldier_072908w/

Inhumanity Worth Dying For

Inhumanity Worth Dying For
By Brilliant at Breakfast

Even before I read this AP article breaking the news that Jim D. Adkisson had opened fire on a Tennessee Unitarian Universalist Church yesterday, murdering two people, I knew what the motive was. We have a Unitarian church in my hometown of Hudson, Massachusetts. Those who read my last blog may recall my doing a short photo essay last May about the more than 4600 American flags that they’d planted on their property to memorialize those troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The poet and arch-liberal Percy Bysshe Shelley once complained to a friend that there wasn’t a single religion based on charity rather than faith. The Unitarian church comes the closest to realizing Shelley’s ideal of a religion based on charity. Unitarians welcome everybody into their houses of worship, including gays. The sign outside my local Unitarian church even features the multicolored flag indicating their longstanding invitation to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. I’m not religious, to say the very least. Yet their liberal, secular humanitarianism has earned my neverending admiration and fiercest respect.

Over the decades, they have fought effectively for women’s and gay rights, sheltered the homeless, fed the hungry. Yet this admirable body of work was considered too liberal by an unemployed man, such as the kind they would've gone out of their way to help, who’d taken two lives yesterday, including a church usher who’d bravely put his own body in the way to shield the others.

A signed, four page letter was found in the SUV of the miscreant explaining his intentions to kill as many people as possible then himself during a children’s production of Annie. The church’s views and biases were too liberal for Jim D. Adkisson.

Yes. To some people (think Conservatives), helping the downtrodden, helpless and disadvantaged is a sin worth dying for, a sin worthy of Old Testament vengeance. Murder is a lesser sin than fighting for gay rights or equal rights for women.
go here for more
http://airamerica.com/blog/2008/jul/28/inhumanity-worth-dying

If you read the Sermon on the Mount, you will get a better understanding of what Unitarian Universalists are. Aside from not believing in the Holy Trinity, they get the message of Christ.

I am Greek Orthodox and fully believe in the Holy Trinity. Others do not. I believe in freewill and our seeking redemption for sins thru Christ, as well as the ability of people to become saints in service of the Lord. The willingness to die for what they believe in required a special connection between God and themselves. When we think of the "willingness to die" it is not just the physical body, but also willing to surrender the personal desires that stand in the way of truly being connected to God. If we are willing to not stand in judgment of others, as the Bible tells us, then we are doing the will of God. It's far to easy to judge others than to try to understand them or put ourselves in their place. If we look at only the "sin" we see, then we do not look at the needs they have as a human, as a child of God. If we refuse to acknowledge that Christ said all sins are equal in the eyes of God, then compassion for all is unobtainable.

Matthew 5
The Beatitudes 1Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,
2and he began to teach them saying:
3"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn,for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek,for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful,for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart,for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers,for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=MATT%205-7

My greatest wish is not to see God with my own eyes. I can see the existence of Him everyday. I see it when I come in contact with other Chaplains, setting themselves aside and taking care of the needs of others. I see Him when I witness the compassion of a nurse taking care of a dying patient in a hospice. I see Him when I look at picture of a solider cradling a wounded child in his arms. I see it when I watch a fire engine rushing to the home burning because they know someone's life may be in danger. I see it when a police officer is trying to stop a person with evil intent from taking the life of someone else. The existence of God can be seen in others if we take the time to look for Him in them.

My greatest wish is to hear the sound of Christ's voice with my own ears. People tend to get things pretty twisted up in their own minds when they do not understand what God really wants out of them. Saul did. After Christ was crucified, Saul was convinced that followers of Christ were evil. He did all he could to hunt them down and wanted nothing more than to see them obliterated. He believed it was what God wanted. He had things twisted inside his own brain until he heard the voice of Christ calling down to him. Saul understood how wrong he had been and dedicated the rest of his life spreading Christianity to the gentiles. He became known as Paul.

There are many people today getting things twisted in their own minds. They believe that vengeance is their's to take instead of God's.

The Fulfillment of the Law
17"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
19Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=MATT%205-7

What does this mean? It means that we are to keep the commandments. They are not cruel or hateful, but a love letter from God. The first part of them is about loving God and the rest are about loving each other, treating them the same way we want to be treated. The words "until everything is accomplished" confuses me. This part gets twisted up in my own brain because of what comes next.

Murder
21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.'
22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother[b]will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,[c]' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
23"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,
24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
25"Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.[d]

When you read Leviticus it is very hard to understand this part. Could it be that things got twisted up there as well? This is what I mean when I say it would be the greatest wish to hear the voice of Christ so that I would be able to understand what He was talking about in the Sermon on the Mount. I try to live my life by the Beatitudes and will keep trying until I do hear His voice.

What I do know is that to hate anyone as much as this man did, blaming the people of Tennessee Unitarian Universalist Church for all that was wrong in his own life, had everything to do with hatred. Adkisson wanted to find someone to blame for what he lacked in his life and he took his anger out on the closest target because of what he heard with his ears from others. When we try to do what we believe is right, what God wants, we either take care of each other or take it out on each other. Seems to me that when we take care of each other, that has more to do with God than hatred ever could.



Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

http://www.namguardianangel.org/

http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Air Force Colonel Philip Shue’s death finally ruled murder

Judge rules Shue death a murder
by Anita Porterfield June 18, 2008

In a surprise move today, both the Plaintiff and the Defendant in the Tracy Shue vs. USAA Life Insurance Company agreed to submit their cases directly to Judge William Palmer and waive the Jury trial that began on June 9.


Judge Palmer ruled that the cause of Air Force Colonel Philip Shue’s death was murder and that USAA had no duty to cancel the $500,000.00 life insurance policy that Shue’s ex-wife Nancy Shue Timpson carried on his life.


“Finally the truth is out,” said Tracy Shue, Col. Philip Shue’s widow.


“This case has never been about money and it has never been about the state of insurance law in Texas,” commented Jason Davis, Shue’s attorney. “It has always been about justice and exposing the truth about what happened to Col. Shue.”


Col. Philip Shue died of massive head injuries in a car crash on April 16, 2003. Examination of his body revealed torn and shredded duct tape wrapped tightly around his wrists and ankles, his nipples and areolas surgically removed, the first knuckle of his left pinkie finger cut off, an ear lobe half-way severed, and a deep gash carved from his sternum to his navel.


Both the Bexar County Medical Examiner Vincent diMayo and Kendall County Justice of the Peace Nancy White ruled that Shue’s death was a suicide.

go here for more
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/judge-rules-shue-death-murder

UK PTSD: David Bradly 4 life sentences for killing family

Gulf War veteran gets life for executing family

Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom

By Paul Stokes
Last Updated: 7:43pm BST 09/04/2008



A former soldier who executed four members of his family with a smuggled handgun has been jailed for at least 15 years.

David Bradley, 43, shot his uncle, aunt and two cousins with the silenced 7.65mm pistol he obtained from a Croat in return for a pack of cigarettes while serving in Bosnia.


Bradley was taken in by his victims at 17

He was said to have been left mentally ill as a result of serving during the troubles in Northern Ireland.

Bradley, who became a cannabis-smoking loner, will only be transferred to prison once doctors deem him sane enough to leave a top security mental hospital.

A judge imposed four life sentences today before the Home Secretary ordered Bradley be detained at Rampton for indefinite treatment.

The severity of his illness means it may never be safe for him to be released.

Bradley, a bachelor, was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder when carried out the five-hour killing spree at the family home 21 months ago.

He was said to have been plagued by nightmares and flashbacks of atrocities he witnessed while serving as a private with a Royal Artillery unit in Ulster.

Paul Sloan QC told Newcastle upon Tyne Crown Court, he was exposed to then common-place shootings and bombings during a tour of duty.



He said: “He was the target of bricks and stones thrown by rioters. On one occasion a grenade was thrown at his squad but failed to explode.

"He witnessed the gruesome mutilation of a rioter when a bomb exploded in hand before it was thrown. And later in Bosnia he came under fire.”

Bradley never told military authorities about his problems but found himself living in constant fear, unable to sleep and resorting to solo binge-drinking and smoking cannabis to relax.

He was discharged from the Army in 1995 with an exemplary record but was unable to find a job.

He sought medical help but failed to take prescribed drugs.

Behind the Bloodshed, Some Backstory of Lance Cpl. Acevedo

You read the story of Marine Lance Cpl. Eric Acevedo, the other day. With much admiration for Lily of Healing Combat Trauma, I am posting the follow up she did on the story. Lily is a friend and very talented. I just wish reporters would take the same interest in the stories they write to do such a fantastic job of telling the stories behind the stories.

Lily Casura
Published writer and editor; Journalist & blogger; Harvard grad; compassionate human being; Friend of Veterans

March 27, 2008
Behind the Bloodshed, Some Backstory
Another day, another lurid headline. A Marine Lance Corporal in Texas, recently returned from three back-to-back tours of duty in Iraq, and allegedly suffering from PTSD, breaks into his former girlfriend's home, stabs her to death and then waits, "covered with blood and looking dazed," in the parking lot for police to arrive and arrest him. On the surface, another brutal domestic violence story, with a very tragic ending. Behind the headlines, though, more questions than answers about troops' after-care, and whether ethnicity (the Marine in question is Hispanic) plays or ought to play a part in how PTSD is diagnosed and treated.

First, some facts. Marine Lance Corporal Eric R. Acevedo, 22, was arrested over the weekend for allegedly murdering his former live-in girlfriend, in Saginaw, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has been covering the story, and it's typically gruesome, but it's also a tragedy for all concerned. The victim, who was a single mother; the alleged perpetrator, who will likely do substantial prison time; and both people's families -- the 10 year old girl who now grows up motherless, as well as Acevedo's family, who believed he was struggling with PTSD, but was sent back to Iraq.
go here for the rest
http://www.healingcombattrauma.com/2008/03/the-ugly-backst.html

UK another murder on mentally handicapped innocent

Deborah Orr: We must protect disabled people against this wave of barbaric and hateful crimes
He died in his mother's arms, so badly beaten that his uncle did not at first recognise his face

Wednesday, 30 January 2008


Brent Martin's story should, and could, have been a story of quiet success. The 23-year-old had struggled in his short life with his learning difficulties, and those struggles more than once had become so serious that he had been compelled to spend long periods in psychiatric hospitals. Even a generation ago, such a history might have condemned a young man to an institutionalised life. But we are more enlightened now, in theory at least.


Martin, released in spring of last year into the care of his family, was recognised as a man who was quite capable of living independently, supporting himself through work, paying his taxes, living and loving like the equal member of a civilised society that he was, or should have been. In August last year, he was winning. He was about to start a new job as a landscape gardener, about to move into a flat and live on his own for the first time, and enjoying the time that he spent with his girlfriend.

Then, on 23 August, he was chased for a mile and a half through two estates in Sunderland. Repeatedly, he was set upon by 21-year-old William Hughes, and two boys of 16 and 17. Between them – they had trained as boxers – they bet £5 that one of them could knock him out with their fists. Their attacks got more frenzied until they started kicking Brent, and stamping on him. They removed his lower clothing, at the end, and took photographs of their bloodied selves to mark the occasion.

Brent died in his mother's arms of a massive head injury. He had been so badly beaten that his uncle did not at first recognise his face. Hughes and the 16-year-old admitted murder, while the 17-year-old was found guilty of murder at Newcastle Crown Court last week, after telling witnesses that "he was not going down for a muppet". All three have been warned that they face mandatory life imprisonment, when sentencing takes place next month.




Practical counter-measures are needed when such additional stresses are being perpetrated against already vulnerable people in such a widespread manner. The advances that have been made towards the full participation of disabled people in everyday life are still fragile, and they need to be defended. A concentrated effort to reduce the barbaric lack of stigma around such a cowardly form of criminality is absolutely essential.

click post title for the rest

It doesn't matter what country you live in because it happens here too. Remember the homeless people killed here in Orlando and other parts of the country. Why do they do it?

Zimbabwe National Army Soldier beheads five-year-old son

Soldier beheads five-year-old son
January 21, 2008 - 6:18AM

A soldier has been arrested in the Zimbabwean town of Chitungwiza for beheading his five-year-old son, clubbing his mother-in-law to death and attempting to kill his stepdaughter, reports said.

Police had to shoot 35-year-old Zimbabwe National Army soldier Isaac Sibanda in the leg to disable him at the scene of the crime, a police spokesman told the official Sunday Mail.

He is reported to have had an argument with his wife in the early hours of the morning. She ran out of their bedroom and the soldier then turned on other members of the family.

"Sibanda allegedly took a hoe, which he used to slay his mother-in-law. He proceeded to chop off his son's head using the same hoe," police spokesman Andrew Phiri said.

"We shot him in the leg after he slit and pulled out his dead son's intestines," Phiri told the Sunday Mail.
The incident has left residents of Chitungwiza, 20 kilometres south of Harare, in a state of shock.

Sibanda, who is recovering from the gunshot wound at Harare Central Hospital is being charged with a double murder and an attempted murder.
click post title for link

And yet people were up in arms over the crimes reported in the NY Times by our veterans. You can pass this man off as a animal and you very well maybe right. You could also be wrong. He could have been so changed by what has been going on over there that he was not in his right mind when he did this to his family. While it happened in Zimbabwe, it has in fact happened here as well. It happened in Lake Mary Florida a couple of years ago. A Gulf War veteran hacked his son to death.

Monday, June 19, 2006

GULF WAR VET MURDERS FAMILY

Shocked residents get 'feelings out' about slashings

About 75 seek grief counseling after the gruesome deaths of a mother and son in Seminole.
Sandra Pedicini
Sentinel Staff Writer
June 19, 2006

LAKE MARY -- Residents still reeling after a neighbor beheaded his wife inside their home and slashed their son to death in a neighbor's yard met with grief counselors Sunday night to deal with their anguish."It sort of let me get my feelings out about how he died," said Sally Zouain, 10, a friend of Nico Duzant, who was slain the day he turned 11.

Father's Day was a somber occasion for residents of the Greenwood Lakes subdivision.

About 75 people sought counseling at Greenwood Lakes Middle School, two days after Franklyn Duzant went on a rampage wielding a samurai sword.

Counselors helped parents who were feeling emotions including anger, shock, grief, helplessness and worry about how Nico's violent death could affect their children, Seminole County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Carrie Hoeppner said.

Meanwhile, new details about the 40-year-old suspect emerged Sunday, including that Nico was his adopted son and that he served in the Army during the Persian Gulf War, according to a longtime family friend. Karen Arsenault, 51, of Sanford painted a picture of a loving family but one in which both spouses had medical problems.

Franklyn Duzant suffered from arthritis and back problems, which he attributed to the war, she said."He said all his health problems were from Desert Storm," said Arsenault, who brought flowers to the Duzant home. "He felt like he may have got exposed to some chemicals somehow."More recently, she said, he had had a tumor removed from his neck.

Evangeline "Gigi" Duzant, his wife, suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome and reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome and was in "excruciating" pain, Arsenault said. Evangeline Duzant, 52, had adopted Nico from "a very poor family in Alaska . . . a mother who gave up her children," Arsenault said. Franklyn Duzant later adopted the boy as well.Arsenault said she didn't know whether the family had financial troubles. Franklyn wasn't working, she said, and she didn't think Evangeline was either.

"Frankie was not the type of person who would talk about his personal problems," Arsenault said.Instead, she said, he was a "social butterfly" who once brought her Kentucky Fried Chicken after her foot surgery in 2002 so she wouldn't have to cook. Arsenault said he adored his son, calling the boy "my man" and taking him fishing and skating."I just want everyone to know he wasn't a monster," Arsenault said.Duzant came from a "very upscale" family, Arsenault said, and many family members live in New England and along the East Coast.On Sunday afternoon, Arsenault picked up a baseball left at a makeshift memorial outside the Duzant house."Nico loved sports, I'll tell you," she said, before making the sign of the cross.Christine Detuccio, a neighbor who was next door with her children and saw Nico's body after he was killed, said she has trouble sleeping.

That's not unusual, said Dr. Alan Keck, an Altamonte Springs psychologist.

The neighborhood is likely to be suffering for quite some time -- especially the adults who witnessed Nico's death, and children, Keck said."It really does affect the whole community," he said. "It makes everybody feel vulnerable and on edge."Elementary-school teacher Julie Smith, who visited the memorial containing stuffed animals, flowers and a "happy birthday" balloon for Nico, said: "You see your neighbors, and it's just blank looks."Adults who witnessed the vicious attack could suffer from flashbacks and feel heightened senses of fear, anxiety, irritability and sleep problems, Keck said.They may even feel some guilt, wondering whether they could have done something to stop the killing or pick up on any cues that something was wrong, he said.Children are especially vulnerable to problems such as nightmares and anxiety -- particularly the fear that something bad could happen to them, too."I expect the schools will be dealing with the fallout for months to come," Keck said.Hoeppner said she became tearful at the counseling session as she listened to some of the parents' stories."They're dealing with their own loss," she said. "Now they have to explain to the children."But, she said, "there is a sense of peace he [Nico] is with his mother and he is in a safe place. If you can take away that from an experience like this, they're going to do just fine."

Duzant, facing charges of premeditated murder, remained hospitalized Sunday at Orlando Regional Medical Center with injuries he sustained."He's been sedated for the most part," Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Dennis Lemma said. "There has not been a great opportunity to talk to him."Jeannette Rivera-Lyles and Amy C. Rippel of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Sandra Pedicini can be reached at spedicini@orlandosentinel.com or 407-322-7669. PHOTO: Franklyn Duzant went on a rampage, wielding a samurai sword, beheading his wife, Evangeline, and slashing to death their son, Nico, on Friday at their home near Lake Mary, authorities said. COURTESY OF KAREN ARSENAULT -->
Copyright © 2006, Orlando Sentinel

http://namguardianangel.blogspot.com/2006/06/gulf-war-vet-murders-family.html

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

UPDATE ON GULF WAR VET'S TRIAL

Insanity led man to kill his family, defense says

Friends said Franklyn Duzant loved his family but unraveled before the slayings.

Rene Stutzman Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted February 14, 2007

SANFORD -- Franklyn "Frankie" Duzant, the doting father charged with beheading his wife and chasing down and slashing to death his 11-year-old son, sits in the Seminole County Jail, draped in only a blanket.

Jailers won't let him have clothes. They fear he might use them to hang himself. And they won't give him a fork or spoon, not even plastic. He might try to slash his wrists.

Duzant, 41, of Lake Mary is seriously mentally ill, says his attorney, Diana Tennis. He was legally insane the day he killed his wife and only child, according to defense pleadings.

That explanation -- insanity -- is the first official word from Duzant about why he killed his family June 16.

"Only insanity makes loving, caring husbands and fathers do that sort of thing," Tennis said.

At a hearing Monday, Circuit Judge Donna McIntosh must decide whether to allow Duzant, a disabled Army cook with a long history of mental illness, to plead insanity.

He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Two mental-health experts have concluded that Duzant was so delusional the day of the slayings, he did not know right from wrong, according to defense pleadings.

Although prosecutors are currently seeking the death penalty, Assistant State Attorney Tom Hastings said he would not oppose an insanity plea at Monday's hearing. The case, though, is a long way from being resolved.

http://namguardianangel.blogspot.com/2007/02/update-on-gulf-war-vets-trial.html

While horrific attacks like this are rare, they are usually gruesome beyond "just killing someone" the "normal" way with a gun or a knife or beating. These murders are as if the victim was not even human and they were hacked into pieces. A person with a normal functioning brain does not commit this kind of crime.

There have been many murders committed by combat veterans over the years. It is really nothing new what is happening with the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. While it was necessary the NY Times did the report on crimes committed so that we can take a good look behind the crimes, they should have taken the time to investigate on how many Vietnam veterans ended up in jail because of crimes they committed that should have been linked to PTSD. Who cares about them? After all, these are veterans that were cast away and no one bothers to even think about them. How many ended up in jail because of self-medicating with drugs? How many have been jailed after drunk driving because of PTSD? How many committed murder while experiencing a flashback of combat? What does society owe those we send and what do we owe the victims because we didn't take care of the warrior?

We need to get a real handle on the price humans pay being sent into combat if we are ever really going to fully understand PTSD, get the right percentages and do them any kind of justice.