That Gunman at El Paso VA
Yesterday, according to the Los Angeles Times, Jerry Serrato shot 63-year-old Doctor Timothy Fjordbak at the El Paso Veterans Affairs Health Care System near Fort Bliss, Texas. It turns out that 48-year-old Serrato was a clerk in the Army who was medically discharged in 2007 as a specialist (E-4).
Officials did not provide a motive for the shooting but said Fjordbak had reported Serrato for making a verbal threat in October 2013. The nature of the threat was not given.
I think that we can guess what the threat was actually. From the Huffington Post;
Lindquist said Serrato had some sort of perceived or real grievance against Fjordbak and had said something to the effect of, “I know what you did and I will take care of it.”
“It was something in public at a grocery store where Mr. Serrato approached Dr. Fjordbak, who did not recognize him, and he made a verbal threat, and that was the extent of the report.
The Huffington Post conflicts with the LA Times article in that it says that Serrato had served in Iraq in 2007 and that his discharge was in 2009, so I’m guessing that neither of the reporters know what they were talking about, although it’s not surprising that HuffPo would want to throw in an Iraq deployment.
The gunman, Serrato, ended up taking his own life – they should always start their rampages like that instead of ending them that way.
Thanks to Parachutecutie for the link.
Category: Crime
Standing offer: if someone can come up with the shooter’s full name (First/Middle/Last), DOB, and POB, I’ll file a FOIA and we’ll see just what the shooter (Serrato) really did in the Army. SSN works just as well as DOB and POB, but it’s usually more difficult to find.
A 40 year old SP4. Hmmmm.
Discharged at age 41 as an E-4?
I smell decomposing fish….
41 year old E-4? Sounds like Guard or Reserve possibly. Either that or a very shitty career.
Quite possibly both.
Doesn’t the Army have some kind of “up or out” rule for that kind of thing?
Yep – at least on the active duty side of the house. Can’t remember for sure, but I believe somewhere around 8 or 9 yrs is the max years of service allowed for E4. For E5, if memory serves it’s currently 13 yrs or thereabouts.
Reserve side, different story if I recall correctly. There, unit billets only come open when the incumbent moves out – so promotions can be harder to come by. Not positive, but I don’t believe there are any “up-or-out” rules on the enlisted side in the USAR and ARNG for those in troop units.
With the “up or out” deal, it’s kinda hypocritical at times. If they boot you and give you separation pay, you have to contract with the Guard or Reserve.
So yeah, you can have 100 year old SP4s.
When I was over in Europe we had four career E-4s that had been that way for over 8 years the op tempo was turn and burn so they were allowed to stay in no issue this was back in 2007-2008 I don’t think that is a go now like it was back then, but at one time if you could breathe you were good to go
He could have also been one of those guys who enlisted late in life.
Be interested to know exactly what the relationship was between the two, if any at all. One vague mention of a threat from 2013 outside the VA…. guy was obviously nuts, but why this Doctor? I guess it could be completely random, like most of these things are.
It never ceases to amaze me that people think they can settle some kind of perceived or real dispute, marital or work-related, by shooting up a place. You really think they’re gonna get their job/wife/whatever back like that?
Yes… but you’re thinking like a normal person. But the oxygen thieves who do stuff like this are broken machines. They are effed up in ways that you and I can’t possibly comprehend.
It appears to me that the low IQ types, angry little man types, and those without a conscience, will engage in senseless violence because they can.
I’m with John. Would that these melt-downs would just suck a bullet to start with, and save everyone else a lot of grief.
I have a school colleague who is a VA psych doc. He says that he has lost track of all the threats he has received from patients…
That seems wierd to me. I had a few sessions with one of the shrinks from my department’s EAP program about 8 or 9 years ago. I was going through a rough patch that had been made worse by the death of my best friend, my girlfriend suddenly deciding to make that status past-tense so that she could go sleep with some other douchebag, and serious difficulties at work. This was giving me sleeplessness, severe depression, self-loathing, and a lot of suicidal thoughts.
Everybody is different, and I found my answers in church rather than the shrink’s office (my priest has an open invitation to any and all of my family’s functions). My life these days is a lot better. Ex-girlfriend? My wife is better in every way possible, plus she’s MUCH hotter (which is really just a bonus, I’d love her just the same if she gained 400 lbs and lost all her teeth). Best friend’s death? I’ll never be over it, but my son (when I have one) will carry his name–plus, I married his dream girl! Job? Got out of the place that sucked, been better ever since.
Even if the shrink visits didn’t work, it was still worth a shot, and I found the Doc to be a very nice lady who genuinely tried to help me. It didn’t really work, but not for lack of effort on her part. And I really appreciated her taking the time to listen to all of my crap. If I had been made aware of any threat against her, then or now, I would have made it known without a second thought that the asshole would have to get through me (and a storm of lead) first.
I don’t get the reason for the threats. If the shrink hadn’t been nice, I might have told her to fuck off, but I would neither threaten nor wish her ill. Then again, I was sad, not crazy.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/latestnews/ci_27264693/police-surround-el-paso-va-health-care-system
http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/Neighbor-believes-El-Paso-VA-shooter-suffered-from-PTSD-67629.shtml#.VK-yxl1VK1E
This TIME article has some information that has also been reported through other sources:
http://time.com/3661300/veterans-mental-health-ptsd-suicide/
The information being reported (unverified) is that the shooter had a claim for service connection for PTSD denied. Dr. Fjordbak was Chief of Psychology at the El Paso VA. With the way things are currently structured this means that the C&P examiners who were psychologists reported to him administratively. No clue if he conducted C&P exams there, but many VAs have providers spend at least part of their time on C&P exams and part of it treating patients. Threats against C&P examiners are, unfortunately, common and there is a great deal of variability in safety measures in place.