Veterans Affairs security officer shoots patient armed with knife
SALEM, Ore. Jan 26 2018 A man said to be a military veteran who was seeking mental health care was shot by a security officer at a Veterans Affairs clinic in southern Oregon on Thursday after he allegedly brandished a knife.
The man was taken to a hospital after the shooting in the southwestern community of White City, near Medford, local media reports said.
Officials with the VA clinic and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office did not return telephone messages seeking comment.
Shawn Quall, an Army veteran of the first Gulf War who is from Bend, said he heard the man shouting before the situation escalated.
“I was walking down the main hallway when I overheard a veteran yelling at intake people that he was here for the fifth time trying to get health care, and was upset at what he thought was a runaround,” Quall told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
“Often you hear guys yelling. It’s dealing with the federal government, and it is frustrating at times.”
Quall kept walking down the hall, but when the yelling get louder, he started running back and said heard someone yell: “He’s got a knife!”
“Then boom, a loud shot. I saw the guy holding his stomach and then fall to the ground,” Quall said. The police officer told onlookers to leave, saying there was nothing to see.
Veterans at the clinic who are receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues expressed shock about the shooting.
Outpatient Joel Setzer, a U.S. Army veteran who also served in Operation Desert Storm in the Gulf, said “this is the type of incident that should have never happened out there.”
The VA Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center & Clinics says on its web site that it “offers a variety of health services to meet the needs of our nation’s Veterans.”
The center’s police said they would not comment on the shooting and referred a reporter to a spokeswoman, who did not return several calls.
Quall contacted NewsChannel 21 shortly after the incident and wrote, “150 to 200 residents live here and things are getting very tense.”
