51-year-old man seeking psychiatric care shot at Dallas VA under investigation

Family struggling with questions after VA police shoot and kill Army veteran at medical center in Dallas

Dallas Morning News
By David Tarrant
Mar 6, 2020

January shooting during confrontation with 51-year-old man seeking psychiatric care remains under investigation by the Dallas Police Department

Dallas police squad cars park outside the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center near where a man was fatally shot by hospital police Wednesday night.(Metro News Service)

On a Friday morning in early January, two cops showed up at Donovan Ashcraft’s house.

The 23-year-old from McAlester, Oklahoma, was at home with the mother of his new baby.

“Do you know Donald Ashcraft?” one of the officers asked him.

Donovan’s father, a 51-year-old Army veteran from Oklahoma City, had struggled with mental health issues for years. He’d been arrested months earlier for threatening violence with a knife. Donovan hadn’t spoken to his father since last summer. Now he feared the worst.

“Is he dead?” the son asked.

Yes, the officers told him.

Officers fatally shot the Army veteran on the night of Jan. 8 after he allegedly refused to drop a knife at the Dallas VA Medical Center.

Donald arrived at the southeast Dallas hospital seeking help "for psychiatric issues” and was seen holding the weapon, according to police statements. When he tried to walk away, VA officers followed him, trying multiple times to disarm him. “The man attempted to attack VA police with the knife, causing VA police to fatally shoot him,” according to the statement issued by the medical center.
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Veteran called crisis line, shot and killed by police

Veteran called crisis hotline, pointed gun at police, was killed by officer, Houston police say

Click 2 Houston News
Megan Kennedy
Brittany Taylor
October 27, 2018

Carroll had served in the military for four or five years and suffered from PTSD, his father-in-law told KPRC. Carroll leaves behind a 16-month-old child. 

HOUSTON - A man was shot and later died after pointing a gun at Houston police officers, the department said.

The suspect, identified by family members as a veteran, had initially called a veterans' crisis hotline for assistance, the family said. The man told the crisis hotline that he had cut himself and was armed with a gun. Houston police confirmed the department received the routed 911 call from a U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs Crisis hotline.

The man has been identified as 30-year-old Christopher Carroll.

After receiving the 911 call, investigators responded to the man's home on Eagle Creek Drive around 12:45 a.m. Saturday.

When they arrived, they located a family member attempting to calm Carroll down, said Matt Slinkard, an assistant executive chief with the special operations command with the Houston Police Department. Family members of Carroll told police he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and was currently experiencing a crisis.
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Too many veterans facing off with police officers

How much louder do they have to scream? That was the question a couple of weeks ago when we posted about veterans committing suicides in very public ways. 

Last year, veterans were facing off with law enforcement officers every week. Now there are three within 3 days.

Man taken to hospital after barricading himself inside Byron hotel
The standoff began when police went to do a welfare check and found the man had barricaded himself inside the room
Author: WMAZ Staff
July 24, 2018

When police arrived, they found the door barricaded with all the furniture inside the room.

The SWAT team was called in after family members and police were not able to make contact.

The man inside was confirmed as a military veteran, and police are saying he is under intense mental and physical stress.

No weapon was found and police say he never threatened anyone or himself.
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Man charged with Domestic Battery after Cape Coral standoff
FOX 4 News
Jul 24, 2018

CAPE CORAL, Fla. -- A several-hour long standoff with deputies ended safely Monday with the suspect in jail for Domestic Battery.

Cape Coral Police responded to a welfare check in the 900 block of SW 47th Terrace after a wife called the VA clinic to report her husband was having combat flashbacks and threatened to harm himself.

Deputies responded and attempted to contact the resident, 48-year-old Michael DeArmas, who refused to come out or cooperate with deputies. He later walked out and was taken into custody without incident.

DeArmas' wife spoke to detectives and told them that DeArmas is a combat veteran who has flashbacks and becomes delusional, especially when drinking, as the couple had been doing last weekend.

She said he had access to guns and had threatened to kill himself and their dog.
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Deadly officer involved shooting after standoff in West Central Fresno
July 21, 2018

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- With Action News cameras recording from a distance and witnesses hiding out in neighboring hotel rooms, Fresno Police officers shot a man in the parking lot of the Parkway Inn.

"Officers fired two rounds. One of those rounds struck the suspect at which point he dove right in through a broken window into the hotel room," said Deputy Chief Pat Farmer.

Officers knew they'd hit him and paramedics rushed in, but they could not save the suspect and a standoff ended.

Action News talked to some of Maya's family members, including a woman who was with him at the motel.

They say he was a good man who once served in the army.

They called him a family man who had turned his life around over the last ten years and state records show he also owned his own business.

Both weapons turned out to be pellet guns, but police say they looked very realistic, especially from a distance.
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How much louder do they have to scream? 

Sheriff Investigating Death of Veteran Shot by Wife

Brazos County neighbors react to deadly shooting
KBTX News
By Clay Falls
Apr 12, 2018

“It’s too premature for me to be able to give details of our investigation. I can confirm that he was a veteran," said Kirk.

BRAZOS COUNTY, Tex. (KBTX) - A Brazos County man is dead after the sheriff's office said his wife shot him following a fight.

Investigators were at the home in the northeast part of the county morning Thursday. The victim has been identified as 36-year-old, Jason Lee Gamez. Flashing lights and crime scene tape covered the house in rural Brazos County early Thursday along Vaquero Drive.

"I'm surprised because we walk almost every morning around the neighborhood and we have real nice people out here. There's no trouble or anything like that, so it comes as a definite surprise," said Jim Killingsworth, who lives nearby in the North Country Estates neighborhood.
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