Navy Yard gunman, Aaron Alexis, duped VA docs
Dave sends us a link to MSN which reports that Associated Press FOIA’d Aaron Alexis’ medical records which show that the Navy Yard shooter had complained several times to Veterans’ Affairs doctors, and even though he had been screened each time for mental defects, the doctors had cleared him;
Alexis told a VA emergency room doctor in Providence that he couldn’t sleep, the doctor wrote that his speech and thoughts seemed “clear and focused” and noted that he “denies flashbacks, denies recent stress.”
The medical records said Alexis, 34, was found sleeping in the VA waiting room in Providence on Aug. 23 while waiting to see a doctor. During that visit he was prescribed 50 milligrams of trazodone, an antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication that in such low doses can be used to treat insomnia.
As Dave points out, it’s pretty strange that Alexis complained about insomnia, but they found him sleeping in the waiting room. Then gave him a bunch of drugs to help him sleep.
He directly denied having suicidal or homicidal thoughts when government doctors asked him about it just three weeks before the shootings.
I don’t blame the docs – I blame that prosecutor in Seattle in 2004 when he shot the tires of some construction workers in his neighborhood. That prosecution probably would have kept him out of the Navy and prevented the purchase of the shotgun a few days before the shooting. I understand that the VA docs are limited in what they can do, but prosecutors who don’t prosecute criminals because they don’t see a personal value in doing their job really piss me off. Where’s the sense in writing laws that you don’t intend to enforce?
The socialists in Seattle will deny any involvement whatsoever in this mess. But, they will continue to celebrate their statue of Karl Marx poised oh so beautifully in Fremont Square.
Well, you see, putting that dirtball Alexis in jail for several months would probably have resulted in several appeals, which are time-consuming. And it was, after all, just a set of tires, not a live person, so I’m sure that the kindly judge thought of it as nothing more than a bit of a prank.
Yeah, there was an off-the-road rage incident around here a few weeks ago where someone shot out the tires of his neighbor’s car, and now he’s out on bond, waiting for his court date. They’re not quite so lenient around here.
C’mon, Ex-PH2. The purpose of the justice system is to help those poor, less-fortunates who have made bad life choices because of a deprived upbringing turn their lives around. Protecting the public and/or deterring future crime are at best secondary concerns. And don’t even start talking about that nasty p-word (“punishment”). That’s so passe!
That must be the Gospel truth. Our liberal brethren keep telling us that again and again.
I’m glad that you understand the difference between misguided and misbegotten, Hondo.
You do know that it’s far too early to hit the ‘sarc’ button, don’t you?
Remember Jonn, you are talking about the leftist of the left coast city in Washington…Seattle. I live in the south east part of the state where we carry guns and vote conservative. The west side though, with its population of Seattle-Tacoma and all in between from the Oregon border to Canada are as crazy liberal as they come and they control the state in elections. They love special snowflakes there and hate to prosecute based on just shooting someone’s tires out. To them the guy might have great potential and they just wouldn’t want to maybe stifle that. Libtards, all of them.
That’s a funny observation from Dave.
“Wake up! Hey, bud, wake up!”
“Why are you here?”
“I need to see a doctor”
“What for? Hey! Wake up! What for?”
“Huh? Oh. I can’t sleep.”
Yeah, can’t really blame the docs for this one. With some medical conditions there are objective signs and symptoms; but with many conditions, the diagnosis is based in large part on what the patient tells the doctor. If this guy was having a good day and speaking coherently, said he was having trouble sleeping and denied anything else was wrong, an ER doctor probably would have no reason to think otherwise.
This is another case of there being plenty of blame to go around. The shooter seems to have reported multiple times that he was having problems, to people who should have helped him. He committed several criminal acts for which he should have been held accountable.
No, I will not let the VA docs off the hook on this. Their job is to help sick people become as well as they can become. With or without all the tools they would like to have, that is still their job. When a vet answers questions in ways that do not fit into their preconceived notions, it is still up to them to discover appropriate meds and/or treatment for the vet.
Of course I am not blaming the docs exclusively. They are only part of the chain which broke down. But they were the only ones in a position to actually determine if it was medically possible to cure this man.
But then, hindsight usually is better than foresight.