milwaukee va hospital shooting
Courtesy WISN TV

A man armed with a shotgun was killed by police as he tried to enter a Milwaukee veterans hospital, according to Department of Veterans Affairs officials.

The man was stopped by VA police outside an entrance to the Milwaukee VA Medical Center about 8:40 p.m. Monday. Police ordered him to drop his gun, but he refused and threatened police, who fired multiple shots, authorities said.

He was taken to the hospital’s emergency department, where he died, officials said. No one else was injured, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm joined investigators at the scene. The gunman was not identified and details about why he was at the hospital weren’t immediately released.

Police temporarily closed entrances to the federally run health care facility, which sits on 245 acres (99 hectares) on Milwaukee’s west side. Besides the hospital, the property also includes a nursing home and a domiciliary for inpatient substance abuse and psychiatric rehabilitation.

VA facilities have been the sites of shootings elsewhere. On Monday, an Army veteran who was convicted of shooting and wounding two people inside a Florida veterans clinic last year was committed to a mental health care facility for 25 years.

In January, VA police at a hospital in Dallas fatally shot a man who came to the facility and threatened them with a knife.

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62 COMMENTS

    • I recall thinking “why does the VA need its own police?” a few years ago when agencies across the board (IRS, Board of Education, Dept of Agriculture, et al) were all arming up. Now in 2020 I don’t really question anyone arming up anymore.

      My own EDC is next to me in the office as I type this. My employer has permanently downsized more than 50% of our workforce since March. That’s a few hundred possible cases of disgruntled anger coming back for vengeance.

      • Out of curiosity, what is your employers policy on guns?

        I work almost exclusively in “non permissive environments”.

        • On an official level, our written policy states that weapons (a vague term, but any reasonable person would interpret that to include guns of course) are prohibited in the interest of “employee safety”. On the other hand, the company president is (surprisingly) a gun owner and has discretely discussed with me his intent to be able to protect his family.

          The primary rule of self defense is to survive, so I always have something within reach, no matter where I am. It’s a real endeavor to navigate our CA laws (transport, possession, etc.) as I do so, but I’m always able to unlock, retrieve, and load a gun within ten seconds if an emergency arises. When I think of being prepared, I think of my lovely wife, and how I will not allow her to become a widow and endure the pain of loss simply because somebody else told me out of political spite that I couldn’t defend myself.

        • I forgot you had to deal with CA laws on top of your employers policies. It is good that the president has quietly confided in you that he is like minded.

          I typically work for companies that send me to work for other companies. Sometimes there is a 3rd company in the middle. All 2 or 3 companies usually have a no weapons policy.

          Fortunately in PA there are very few places prohibited by law and i have not worked in any of them so company policy is the only concern. Otherwise I am legally clear to carry loaded and on my person to and from work without issue. Just prohibited by policy from carrying in the facilities.

          If I carried at work I could lose my job, but not my professional license. In the past iIwas once attacked at work, seriously, by a co worker, and have several times been in facilities with credible threats of an active shooter which fortunately never materialized.
          In all case the perosn threatening to become an active shooter was apprehended by PSP before he was able to do so. So I definitely hear you on not letting your wife become a widow. Carry on brother.

        • My former workplace (work from home now, by choice) was very non-permissive. I wore a lab coat generally, so even OWB with a smaller pistol was fine. When wearing scrubs or jeans, I found a belly band type holster was very easily concealed.

        • Thank you, LS. We’re struggling to reopen the company and get us all back on our feet. The shutdown has put us into a position where we’re now fighting to survive and stay in business. The next several months will be an uphill battle just to keep the doors open. We’re not seeing any real return to full speed until at least 2021.

          Thanks, Gov Newsom & Mayor Garcetti. [/sarc]

        • How can a man of your unparalleled brilliance and greatness not be the president of the company?

        • Why would a man like Haz want to president? It’s a thankless job where you get blamed for everything by everyone; employees, clients, the board of directors. It’s a lot being the husband a hen pecking wife where everything is your fault and nothing you do is right. No one who would truly be a great president of anything ever wants the job.

        • Haz, you really need to thank the bungling and incompetence of the Chinese Communist Party for releasing a worldwide pandemic and single-handedly launching a global recession.

          With luck it will hurt the Chinese because no one will buy their stuff. Either they have no money to buy or consumers are actively boycotting products from China. That is why China is getting aggressive internationally while ramping up the domestic patriotic fervor. Not good to have an economy completely geared to exports on such a scale.

      • The VA needs it’s own police because they are dirtbags who won’t help anyone with legitimate needs but love to get the military welfare program going.
        You have 7 years of military documented hearing loss acquired from military jobs and get denied but claim you saw something from a chair in an office that got into your feels and boom your all broken and we can get you 80%.
        Yeah they need their own force cause there won’t be a quick enough response without it.

      • The VA still doesn’t need its own police. Neither do dozens of other federal agencies. The US Marshals service could and should provide law enforcement services for all federal agencies.

        • This I wholeheartedly agree with. There should be all of five law enforcement agencies at the Federal level: FBI (all investigations), Marshals (premises/executive security + court functions + forest service), OIG (all OIGs combined into one), Defense Investigations (CID + NCIS + OSI + CGIS), and Customs, Borders, and Immigration (CBP + ICE). You’ve got investigations and general enforcement, protection services, internal enforcement, DoD, and the borders. That’s it, nothing else is needed.

        • Clark what agency keeps them once you’ve caught them?
          And don’t say state cause they, any state, can’t handle what they’ve got now.

        • I guess I shoulda been clear that I was being sarcastic about them needing their own force. They wouldn’t need it as much if they took care of their business and did what was promised. Yeah there are some nutcases but oh well we deal with them daily too.

        • Clark Kent, only five federal agencies?

          So no secret service, sounds good, Donald Trump is on his own!

          And no diplomatic security service, all the ambassadors are on their own. Of course, they might do the same with our ambassadors in their countries so that might be problematic but whatever, freedom!

      • in my last 10 yrs working for the feds…the only shooting we had was in the VA…it’s always one of the most hazardous duties because you’re often dealing with unstable individuals…

        • And that is exactly why the VA needs their own police force one with special training in dealing with unstable individuals who have suffered psychological trauma as a result of their service to America.

          Don’t we owe our veterans the very best of care, including law-enforcement and behavior management personnel that have received the training they need to deal appropriately with unstable individuals?

  2. I’d be interested in the Shogun’s reaction, as well as those of the Emperor and any Daimyo in the Imperial Foreign Ministry.

    • Makes me think “shot” was a typo and meant to type sliced or stabbed. I wont go to the VA for myself. I honestly think they’d try to take my guns away. In Dec I drove my dad to the one in LA. The VA secuity folks seems to be spread out on the property.

      • No, they will kill you with bad doctoring and over medication. They helped kill my Dad that way this past December.

  3. “245 acres (99 hectares)” This is America. What’s with the metric conversions in articles? I guarantee the few Americans that actually use the metric system understand what an acre is.

    • A hectare is 10,000 square meters or a square, 100 meters by 100 meters. An acre is 43,560 square feet or a square 208.7103256 on a side, as calculated to ten only significant digits. I’m a farmer as well as a physicists and even I had to look this up and do the math on my calculator. Fuck the Imperial measurements system. I want to go Metric! All we need to do is not allow the National Education Association to be in charge of teaching the System International to our vulnerable children. Those sadistic imbeciles will torture our kids by compelling them to convert endlessly between Metric and Imperial measurements.

      • It isn’t against the law to use the metric system. If that’s what you want to do, then knock yourself out. It isn’t my fault that our current system is too complicated for you to figure out.

      • The metric system is a rational, fact based measurement system that has a rock stable standard that permits repeatability across a variety of environments and disciplines.

        Of course your typical conservatives hate the very idea.

        They would much rather utilize a system based on the length of three Barleycorns placed end-to- end.

        The same goes for those freedom stealing face masks, who cares that verifiable, repeatable medical research shows the importance and efficacy of face masks.

        • “fact based measurement system”
          You’re getting your talking points mixed up again. Is the alternative to metric based on mythology?

          Let’s delve into this fact based measurement system:

          The metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in a vacuum in 1/299 792 458 of a second.

          The metre was originally defined in 1793 as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole along a great circle, so the Earth’s circumference is approximately 40000 km.

          In 1799, the metre was redefined in terms of a prototype metre bar (the actual bar used was changed in 1889).

          In 1960, the metre was redefined in terms of a certain number of wavelengths of a certain emission line of krypton-86.

          The current definition was adopted in 1983 and slightly updated in 2019.

          Weird how the facts keep changing, huh? Oh, and Miner, everyone here knows your life revolves around politics, but measurements aren’t political. I never once said there was anything wrong with the metric system.

          Since we’re in America, the adult readers here are likely to understand what an acre is. They AREN’T likely to understand a hectare better than an acre. Any grown man that has ventured beyond his parents’ basement and purchased his own property understands what an acre is. Any REAL farmer, as opposed to a troll like James W. Crawford, understands what an acre is. There isn’t a REAL farmer in this country that has to first convert an acre to square feet in order to understand what an acre is.

        • “The metric system is a rational, fact based measurement system that has a rock stable standard…”

          No, it doesn’t. There is great angst in measurement land since it was discovered the “rock stable” kilogram standard has been loosing mass.

          That’s right, the “rock stable” kilogram reference mass is getting *lighter* :

          “Official Kilogram Losing Mass: Scientists Propose Redefining It As A Precise Number Of Carbon Atoms”

          https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070921110735.htm

          You really are a fuckwit, ‘miner’… 🙂

        • You know, I blame the American school system for the breakdown of scientific thought in our society.

          You’re wrong, the length of a meter has not changed for hundreds of years.
          The physical construct or property we use to provide a stable reference has changed over the years, we have found more and more stable references. In fact, we now use time to measure the length of a meter because it is more accurate, somewhere around one part in 10 to the 13th.

          And regardless of the stability the references, the metrics decimal system provides an immense benefit over the silliness of imperial measurements used in America.

          After all, what patriotic American would want to use the imperial system, as commanded by the king of England, didn’t we fight a war to get shed of those pompous bastards?

          But whatever, you can stick with the three Barleycorns equal 1 inch, as commanded by the king of England…

          But whatever, please forgive actual scientists for using the more accurate and useful metric system for serious research and development.

          Really, I should not be surprised at the conservatives’ failure to grasp the nature of accurate scientific measurement, most on this list still follow the ancient taboos of a Bronze Age God in their daily lives.

        • YEah, inches, feet, yards, miles, all lies! Racist lies, I tell you!

        • “Is the alternative to metric based on mythology?”

          Not so much mythology, as royal edict:

          “During the reign of King Edward II, in the early 14th century, the inch was defined as “three grains of barley, dry and round, placed end to end lengthwise.” At various times the inch has also been defined as the combined lengths of 12 poppyseeds. Since 1959 the inch has been defined officially as 2.54 cm.”

          Yep, that’s verifiable and repeatable with King Edward and his Barleycorns, or maybe you prefer poppyseeds for a more accurate standard?

          No wonder COVID-19 cases are surging now and seemingly sane Americans refuse to wear any sort of a face mask.

        • “But whatever, please forgive actual scientists for using the more accurate and useful metric system for serious research and development.

          Really, I should not be surprised at the conservatives’ failure to grasp the nature of accurate scientific measurement…”

          This is hilarious. You’re trying to sound smart, but you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. The unit of measurement has nothing to do with the accuracy of the measurement.

          Once again, I never said anything was wrong with the metric system. Please show me where you think I did. Why are your panties in such a wad over this? You’re trying to pick a political fight when there isn’t one anywhere in sight. Measurements aren’t political.

        • Hey Miner. Pull out the deed to your property. Look at the end of the property description. Does it say hectares or acres? That was my point. See how easy that was? You do own property, right?

        • “The unit of measurement has nothing to do with the accuracy of the measurement.”

          I must respectfully disagree with your assertion.

          The imperial inch is based upon the length of Barleycorns and poppy seeds, which means the standard is not stable or repeatable and will vary with temperature and humidity. How could any measurement based on a unit with a such a poor standard be considered an accurate measurement?

          Tell me, did you by chance work on the Hubble Telescope project several years ago?

          In fact, the scientific community has recognized the faults with the imperial system and it’s lack of repeatable and accurate as well as stable standards by just tying the inch to the metric standard.

        • Miner, I’m not trying to be mean, but you have no idea what you’re talking about. In order to obtain an accurate measurement, you must use the proper tools and procedures. Let me paint a picture for you. We decide we’re going to measure the length of a field which is approximately 300′ long. I have a stick which I have cut to the length of one meter. We carefully measure the length of the field by placing the stick end over end. As a check, professionals come in behind us and use electronic distance measuring equipment. We measured in meters, and they measured in feet. Which is more accurate? Hint: the unit of measurement is irrelevant.

    • I noticed that too…a Times of London masterpiece?!? I CAN think in metric a bit thanks to weightlifting metric equivalents. But not hectare’s😃…since VA story is kind of “nothing”.

      • Actually, our entire numbering system is Arabic, a secret Muslim plot to corrupt Americas children. We really should be using the Roman numeral system, as God intended. In fact the whole concept of zero, a number that’s not a number and has no value by definition, is clearly the work of Satan.

        I’m willing to bet almost everyone on this forum was forced to take mandatory classes in Al-Gebra, a devilish Muslim plan to twist the minds of good American children against the reality of the God-given flat earth.

  6. It does not matter what your skin color is or how big your bank out gets…

    You can’t just walk into a VA hospital with a gun threatening people. You are likely to get shot by a cop or security guard. This is not that complicated and does not require a riot or a statue to be removed. Even if the the person doing it has mental issues. But then it really doesn’t matter anyway because someone that does this has obvious mental issues. This gets to the heart of what defines ‘criminal’.

    • An issue that would have cost the taxpayers Tens of Thousands of dollars. Was solved for approximately 31 cents per round. You just can’t fix stupid crazy. Sometimes you shouldn’t even try.

      • There are truly evil people in this world for whom I have no sympathy when a just end catches up with them.

        On the other hand the value of a human life should never be decided upon the impact to the taxpayers or the burden upon the State. That is the path of the Union of the former Soviet Union, the current Communist China and certain other hell holes.

        We do not yet know anything about the dead man. Fair guess that in some manner our mental health care system failed and it got down to police officer’s needing to make split second choices.

        That is a lousy way to run a country.

      • Right, whatever physical and psychological trauma this subject in during his service to our country is immaterial.

        Just because this individual suffers from some Trumatic event that may have damaged his capacity for rational thought or good judgment while he was in harms way for America doesn’t somehow obligate our government to take better care of his illnesses.

        Yep, once they’re damaged goods, we might as well just discard them or kill them out of hand.

        “It’s Tommy this, and Tommy that, and throw the bugger out!”

        • The Shogun wasn’t identified, according to the article. Nothing says he was a veteran. It may have been some meth head from the nearby streets, who intended to stock up on “medications”.

          Nod of respect to Rudyard Kipling, but we don’t know if this was a brother in arms who flipped out, or some common criminal.

  7. Does sound like Suicide By Cop. At least no bystanders or officers were hurt.

    Have to wonder what will be learned in the investigation? Will the dead guy turn out to be a random crazy person who never got the help he needed? Or a combat veteran who never got the help he needed?

  8. From the post:
    “On Monday, an Army veteran who was convicted of shooting and wounding two people inside a Florida veterans clinic last year was committed to a mental health care facility for 25 years.”

    How did they know it would take the mental health care facility 25 years to cure him? How did they know he’d be cured after 25 years of treatment? Very poorly written, though there is a sensible explanation at the link.

  9. The guy trying to get into a VA hospital clearly was nuts. Most sane people would want to to get out of a VA hospital.

  10. If he was white then I’ve had enough of the systemic racism against whites in this country.. . Yes I said it…. WHITES ARE BEING DISCRIMINATED AGAINST!….FK YOU IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH MY POINT OF VIEW….
    IM WHITE AND IM TIRED IF WORKING AND BEING A SLAVE IN THIS COUNTRY LOL….
    FK BLM…

    • “IM TIRED IF WORKING AND BEING A SLAVE IN THIS COUNTRY“

      You have no idea what a life of slavery really means.

      Your use of president George Washington’s name is a sad travesty, you should be ashamed.

  12. Now wait just a minute the VA is a gun free zone that should have been enough to stop this guy. It works so well in school’s.

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