Shooting at VA Hospital in Texas - One MD killed, Shooter killed himself.

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**d-usa**

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/06/us/texas-va-shooting/index.html

Shooter reported at El Paso VA facility 03:15
(CNN)One person was wounded Tuesday at the El Paso VA Health Care System in Texas, where an active shooter was reported, officials told CNN.

John Meza, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who represents El Paso, said a doctor was shot and that the gunman then took his own life.

A Pentagon official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, similarly said that a doctor was shot by a gunman, who later died from a self-inflicted wound.

The motive for the shooting was not immediately clear.

A spokesman for the William Beaumont Army Medical Center, which is adjacent to the VA facility, had said earlier the area was on lockdown.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz, Jim Sciutto and Chandler Friedman contributed to this report.

This strikes home because I just talked to one of our cops three days ago about what an incredible soft target we are: incredibly crowded, a focus on not inconveniencing our patients, and very few security measures compared to other federal facilities out there.

Yes, a VA Health Center is a hospital and hospitals are not exactly known as secure facilities. But we also need to think about the fact that a VA Hospital can be a big target for attacks. I'm not really as worried about the "PTSD Veteran is pissed at the VA and goes crazy" scenarios, but I do think about a "this place is full of vulnerable veterans who killed Muslims, let's get revenge" scenario from a nut-job sometimes. I don't want security theater either, but I think that there is lots of room for improvements.

**Grey Templar**

Hopefully the Doc survives and the gunmen accomplishes nothing beyond offing himself.

**Jihadin**

Doctor dead I believe and the shooter opted out

**Asherian Command**

Who kills a doctor?

What a dick move.

**Grey Templar**

I still don't see anything confirming the doctor is dead. Everything I see is saying its unknown.

**Jihadin**

Reporter in El Paso with Greta on Fox. Shooter killed the Doctor and then opted himself out.

This happen on post.

**SagesStone**

Asherian Command wrote:
Who kills a doctor?

What a dick move.

Killing or inconveniencing others while committing suicide is a pretty big dick move too.

**d-usa**

Jihadin wrote:
Reporter in El Paso with Greta on Fox. Shooter killed the Doctor and then opted himself out.

This happen on post.

Everything I have seen so far was still reporting the doc as wounded, but it looks like they are getting ready for a press conference so that should tell us more.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Victim confirmed dead.

**MrDwhitey**

Well that fething sucks.

**Nostromodamus**

Sad to hear about the Doctor. Lots of vulnerable people there, glad the nutter offed himself before taking any more lives.

**CptJake**

Jihadin wrote:
Reporter in El Paso with Greta on Fox. Shooter killed the Doctor and then opted himself out.

This happen on post.

Not really 'on post'. The hospital is off post from Ft Bliss.

**Jihadin**

CptJake wrote:
Jihadin wrote:
Reporter in El Paso with Greta on Fox. Shooter killed the Doctor and then opted himself out.

This happen on post.

Not really 'on post'. The hospital is off post from Ft Bliss.

Being I never been to that post the geo map they threw up looked like it was in/out of Bliss. Also the local LEO was mention to be directing traffic so that threw me off.

**CptJake**

Jihadin wrote:
CptJake wrote:
Jihadin wrote:
Reporter in El Paso with Greta on Fox. Shooter killed the Doctor and then opted himself out.

This happen on post.

Not really 'on post'. The hospital is off post from Ft Bliss.

Being I never been to that post the geo map they threw up looked like it was in/out of Bliss. Also the local LEO was mention to be directing traffic so that threw me off.

Yeah, it is across the highway from post, and up in the foothills of the big ridge line that divides El Paso. When I was stationed at Bliss I spent a bit of time there when the wife shattered her pelvis, and with some of my troops for various reasons.

The hospital is up where the letter 't' in N Pieadras St. is. Bliss is on the other side of HWY 54.

**Breotan**

Has there been any further information on possible motive?

**Chongara**

With only a single victim and suicide following immediately it's hard for it not to read like personal grievance of some kind at first glance.

**-Shrike-**

Chongara wrote:
With only a single victim and suicide following immediately it's hard for it not to read like personal grievance of some kind at first glance.

I'd agree, it certainly looks like someone had a score to settle.

**Breotan**

People doing stuff like this sometimes leave notes or rant in front of friends. That guy who shot those NY cops posted on Facebook so I was wondering if something like that might have been found.

**djones520**

Breotan wrote:
Has there been any further information on possible motive?

It may be possible to find with some deep digging, but given what happened in France, the big media isn't going to be focussing on this now.

Edit: According to El Paso news though, FBI is still digging for a cause.

**d-usa**

djones520 wrote:
Breotan wrote:
Has there been any further information on possible motive?

It may be possible to find with some deep digging, but given what happened in France, the big media isn't going to be focussing on this now.

Edit: According to El Paso news though, FBI is still digging for a cause.

Even before the France news it was already getting buried. FoxNews had it below a large number of "Obama/Democrats are bad" stories and I didn't find a mention on MSNBC.

**KalashnikovMarine**

Jeez... this week's just coming up roses. Glad more people weren't hurt.

**d-usa**

From what I heard on the news this morning:

1) shooter was a veteran and (former?) clerk at the facility.
2) he made a threat against the psychiatrist in 2013 in a grocery store saying "I know what you did and I'll take care of it".

**djones520**

d-usa wrote:
From what I heard on the news this morning:

1) shooter was a veteran and (former?) clerk at the facility.
2) he made a threat against the psychiatrist in 2013 in a grocery store saying "I know what you did and I'll take care of it".

So... a nutbag, or did he know something sinister that the Dr. was doing? *tin foil*

**perrsyu**

Who kills a doctor? why

**CptJake**

I can think of all kinds of reasons.

Could have felt the Doc was mistreating patients.

Could have had personal issue with the doc (doc would not prescribe meds he wanted, doc gave him an unfavorable performance rating, and so on).

Could be a scorned lover.

Could have had a buddy/family member misdiagnosed or mis-treated by the doc.

Could have had a voice in his head telling him to do so.

Lots of possibilities really.

Could

**Dreadclaw69**

d-usa wrote:
From what I heard on the news this morning:

1) shooter was a veteran and (former?) clerk at the facility.
2) he made a threat against the psychiatrist in 2013 in a grocery store saying "I know what you did and I'll take care of it".

This sounds like a personal issue that came to a very tragic conclusion

**hotsauceman1**

Is the shooter a vet. Could be some formore of ptsd

**djones520**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
Is the shooter a vet. Could be some formore of ptsd

*sighs*

**Dreadclaw69**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
Is the shooter a vet. Could be some formore of ptsd

While that may be an issue I think we should wait until there are more facts. Attempting a mental health diagnosis online is rarely a constructive effort.

**hotsauceman1**

djones520 wrote:
hotsauceman1 wrote:
Is the shooter a vet. Could be some formore of ptsd

*sighs*

I mean possibly. I'm not saying for sure.

**CptJake**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
djones520 wrote:
hotsauceman1 wrote:
Is the shooter a vet. Could be some formore of ptsd

*sighs*

I mean possibly. I'm not saying for sure.

Because of this, findings regarding the relationship between PTSD and violence should be interpreted cautiously if they are based on analyses that do not take risk factors other than PTSD into account. For example, in one study of Veterans who served post-9/11, PTSD when examined on its own was associated with an increased risk of violence. However, when alcohol misuse was statistically controlled, PTSD was no longer associated with an increased risk of violence (3). The prevalence of violence in PTSD is comparable to the prevalence in anxiety and depressive disorders, which ranges from 5.0% to 11.7% (2,5). The prevalence of violence is higher among individuals with alcohol or substance misuse (range = 9.1% to 34.7%) (2,6,7). Furthermore, the more diagnoses someone has, the greater the likelihood of violence.

http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/co-occurring/research_on_ptsd_and_violence.asp

PTSD can be a factor, but rarely is THE factor.