Vet denied benefits, killed by cops in WA (Updated)
UPDATE: According to one of our readers, there’s reasonable doubt that Killmer actually filed a claim with the VA. He was getting medical treatment from them, however.
Eagle Keeper sent us this article last night about Jedadiah Zillmer, who according to the article, was shot in the foot in Afghanistan, lost a piece of his toe, got out of the Army, applied for VA benefits, was denied, and threatened to kill civilians, then finally was shot by police. I checked AKO and there was no Jedadiah Zillmer, but he got out in mid-2012. By itself that doesn’t mean anything. But there were claims on his Facebook page that Zillmer was a sniper. According to the article, Zillmer’s family says that he was denied VA benefits because “the nurse who helped treat him failed to check boxes on paperwork indicating whether he was personally familiar with the limitations that the injury had created”.
See, it gets fishy smelling. But facts that aren’t in dispute follow;
Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said Wednesday that the young man had threatened to shoot civilians. Zillmer claimed to be a U.S. Army sniper on his Facebook page.
He was stopped by pursuing law enforcement near the intersection of Sullivan Road and Indiana Avenue. “If he would have gotten to the mall, something tragic may have happened,” Knezovich said.
The man was wearing body armor and pointed a gun at himself while threatening to shoot civilians, Knezovich said.
Although authorities have yet to identify Zillmer, the young man’s friends and family have confirmed his identity.
When I see someone post on Facebook that they were a sniper, my first reaction is to disbelieve them. It indicates that they’re trying to draw attention to themselves. I don’t know any real snipers because real snipers are just like the other folks who just keep it to themselves. They know who they are. Just like the Rangers, SEALs, Special Forces folks who don’t put that shit on their Facebook profiles.
I have to think that there was more than a checked box at issue here. And I doubt the denial of the benefits was the cause of Zillmer’s theater. But it sure makes for good press, doesn’t it?
Category: Veterans Issues
I do know an honest to by G-d sniper that was actually in the 1/75. However, like you said, he doesn’t say much about either to anyone he doesn’t know and even then, he will most likely keep it to himself.
Whatever drove this guy to end his life this way is tragic, glad he did not take anyone else with him. The rest of the story smells awful.
Snipers likely don’t talk about themselves or what they do because they don’t WANT that kind of attention. It would be like being a gunslinger, wouldn’t it? Someone’s always trying to get you, or something.
So, fishy-smelling? Yes, and it always stinks from the head, doesn’t it?
The first thing that US Military Sniper Shools administer Candidates is a Psychological Test, and if they fail, they’re NOT allowed to attend, and this goblin sounds like someone who would fail. The liberals in the media however, WILL NOT let that or other facts get in the way of them sensationalizing that or any other story!
After over using the words special forces, maybe the media has learned to spell sniper?
I know several snipers. But, then again, I was assigned to C co 2nd Bn 29th Inf Regt for a while. For those of you that don’t know, that is the home to the U.S. Army Sniper School, the only unit that has a billlet for an officer to be sniper qualified (the company commander). I was lucky enough to be the training room NCO. That was fun *sarcasm*
Nurses have nothing to do with VA Claims unless something has really changed in the VA. You file a claim with the Regional Office, not the hospital or clinic. You put where you’re being treated and they ask for the treatment records from whatever facilities you claim. One nurse not x’ing some box would not cause a denial. Something stinks. Also, they don’t make the decision just from treatment records. You then have to go through a C&P physical which is completely separate.
I was a sniper once. And by sniper I mean I was in a sniper slot in a scout platoon as we were getting ready to go to MFO. After we got back I went down to the line and someone else took the slot and went to sniper school.
I feel like we should FOIA this guy to see if he really was a sniper.
However, any embellishment aside, it’s tragic that he fell this far, especially since he was an Afghanistan veteran of some kind.
It occurred to me given the number of phony Seals, Rangers, snipers, etc., one could easily field a company of these pukes. They can be Chump in Chief’s answer to the Afghan nightmare. Send in those heroes and bring the real heroes home. Two more yesterday. When is it going to f’in end?
I took the Psych test at Sniper school. They said I was a twisted individual…just what they were lookin’ for. So the story began, Panama, Beirut, Kosovo, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, I can’t remember all the places, all the…faces. Man it’s just too much!. I wound up as a sniper on a Navy Arleigh Burke class destroyer. That’s when the alien thing happened off the Hawaiian Islands. It was me and this Japanese Captain. Laying up on the bow with .50 cal sniper rifles. Because, well all Navy destroyers have an arsenal of arms to include several sniper rifles. We took out the windshield of this “alien thingie ship” They couldn’t take the direct sunlight and that’s when we let em have it. “Everything we got” the LT acting Captain yelled and they did, torpedoes, those missile thingies that go straight up outa them tubie thingies, plus our pot shots into the goat locker of that ship.(They have Master Chiefs too, they were standing on the bridge holding cups of coffee, that’s how we IDed ’em.) Anyway, they showed us the Silver Star we would have gotten had it not been a secret operation, then promptly put em back in this safie thing way underground in the Pentagon. Alls I remember was “man I gotta piss like a race horse. Where’s the head!”
So I have finally told my story…well it’s either my story or this movie “Battleship” they made about us that I watched the other day when I was on my pain pills. But there some things you just never forget…never. Like…when to take your meds.
Ex-PH2…tell the truth now Ex could I be a writer or what???!!! 😀
A Company? Hell, there’s at least a couple of full blown Brigades out there. But I do have an idea and this would save the military lots of money. How many of you Army guys from the “old” days remember having to do target maintenance either before or after a range? With these new Brigades of Supersoldiers, we would have a steady stream of “pop-up” targets at our disposal and would never need to do target maintenance again. Think of the savings to the government….
@12 nbcguy54 Great idea!!! Popup targets and moving (make that running their asses off like a raped ape) moving targets.
@12 Great idea, the crows need to eat too.
@11 Sparks, do you seriously expect anyone to believe that bovine scatology? Especially a highly trained Space Shuttle door gunner, like me?
Get some!
First. Certainly a tragic situation.
Second. I know service members who visited hell, returned minus body parts and buddies, are recovering and are not shot dead because of asshattery.
Any questions?
FOIA and carry on!
Sparks, that is the biggest bunch of bovine fecal matter I have seen in some time. A genuine pizza-sized cow patty. You are definitely in the slot for cooking up fiction.
I have to say that, while I have never actually been a sniper, I have hunted snipe, so I guess that makes me a snipe-hunter? I wasn’t crocked, either, but it was damned cold doing it in my flannel PJs and flipflops.
I am a Snipe. Always have been and always will be.
FOIA my ass and you will find … More than just a Snipe.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!
@11 (not 1400), Sparks, are you sure they didn’t have a cup of coffee in one hand and a clipboard in the other while they ran around cussing each other out? You make it sound like Master Chiefs are as big of a pain in the arse as First Sergeants!!
The few “real” snipers I’ve known were very calm and cool….and would only talk to a few people about what they felt when they pulled the trigger….
Recoil
Sounds like the guy had issues for sure. Whether or not they were related to service or not is to be seen. Being screwed over by the VA on your pension is frustrating, even infuriating if you are trying to support a family.
Being frustrated or depressed is not a legal excuse to brandish a weapon and threaten someone. You never ever put an LEO in that situation.
He wanted that kind of an “out”, not matter he was wearing body armor. I’m just damn happy he didn’t get to send anything *downrange* OR national MSM would be having another field day at our expense. The only individuals I have sympathy for are the law enforcement officers.
Thanks all for judging my nephew based on sketchy media reports.
Jed did NOT claim to be a sniper on Facebook. He didn’t talk much about his military experience at all. Even after he received his honorable discharge following his injury that earned him his purple heart.
Jed lost part of his foot at the same time he watched one buddy paralyzed from the neck down and another killed. He suffered the guilt that survivors can deal with. Why was I spared? I’m given a purple heart when my friends were paralyzed and killed?
He was a sweet kid who tried to get help for the flashbacks of watching buddies shot and killed. Instead he was turned away for benefits because his records after his evac to Germany were incomplete.
He worked as a volunteer for other vets who were trying to navigate the misery of bureaucracy, but in the end, the bureaucracy failed him and he gave in to his demons
He chose suicide by cop. I’ve heard the recordings where he said he didn’t intend to hurt civilians. We’ll never know for sure why he made the choice he did that night but my guess is he wanted to die like his buddy – shot down by another.
Next time you want to judge a person’s life by the way the media presents his story I hope you think about my nephew and keep your shit to yourselves.
“Next time you want to judge a person’s life by the way the media presents his story I hope you think about my nephew and keep your shit to yourselves.” Bbycrts.
Did you even bother to read the post or the comments? I did, and I cannot find a single comment that disparages Jed or judges him. I do see that a few commenters called this incident and outcome tragic. And I do see a number of comments that have nothing to do with Jed personally and everything to do with snipers. What’s more, no one here puts full stock in media reports. We know too well that they are often faulty. So, why you want to pick a bone here is beyond me but if you want to kick up some dust, you will be accomodated in kind.