No arrests in murder of veteran in DC

I’m not really surprised since few murders in DC get solved, but the Albany Times Union reports the story of Clifton Park, NY resident, Patrick Casey, who left college to join the Army, went to Afghanistan, returned to finish college at George Washington University and ended his life in a pool of blood outside of a MacDonald’s in Georgetown;

U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen Jr., responded to the Caseys’ concerns in a May letter. He told them the office concluded there was insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges because the government could not prove the person who punched Pat did not act in self-defense, or in defense of a third party. The matter could be re-opened if additional evidence materializes, Machen said.

Casey’s parents had to file a FOIA to get a copy of the surveillance camera footage of events leading up to their son’s death, got a heavily redacted copy from police and eventually got a clean copy. After determining that the video didn’t support the police’s contention that Casey may have attacked the people who eventually killed him, they discovered that there were several other tapes, one that might actually have images of his death.

[D.C. Police Capt. Michael Farish] also stated Sept. 30 that detectives had interviewed people on both sides of the confrontation, which the Caseys later found out from police wasn’t true. While investigators identified the three men in Casey’s opposing party within days, they did not interview two subjects until Oct. 1 [more than a week after the death], and the man who struck Pat Casey until a later date, Kucik told the Caseys in an email.

See, here’s the thing that angers me almost as much as the incompetence of the DC Metro police investigators; If roles had been reversed that night, and the Afghanistan veteran had pummeled a local to death, we’d be reading about terrible it is that we allow veterans to continue to roam among us without leashes and muzzles. We’d be hearing about how the military had trained him to kill and never shut off that switch. We’d be seeing the bereaved family of the victim screaming for justice every night on DC local news. But in this case we have to read about the events in the District from a distant newspaper with local connections to Casey.

Category: Veterans Issues