Tragedy struck at a VA healthcare clinic this past Tuesday.? The shooting left one victim and the shooter has also been killed. The shooter has been identified as Jerry Serrato. The 48-year-old served in the Army for three years before being honorably discharged in 2009. He was deployed to Iraq at one point during his service?and he was?also a former employee of the clinic. It is unclear what terms his employment ended and at what capacity he served as an employee.? The single victim has also been identified as Dr. Timothy Fjordbak. He was a psychologist at the clinic. According to the VA website Dr. Fjordbak was licensed to practice psychology in Georgia, New Mexico, and Florida. According to the El Paso Times he began treating returning service members after 9/11. The clinic is located in a complex that houses the William Beaumont Army Medical Center near the Fort Bliss Army Garrison.? FBI officials have confirmed Serrato killed himself immediately following the shooting. The motive behind the shooting is unclear. It should also be noted that this clinic had one of the longest mental health back logs in the US. It is also unclear if that had anything to do with the shooter’s motive.
As a Veteran,? I feel I should weigh in on this. This isn’t the first time a deadly shooting has happened on a military instillation and what troubles me is that it is unlikely it will be the last. Though this appears to be a small trend it no less disturbing. In 2009,?Nidal Hassan killed 13 and wounded 32 people in a shooting on Fort Hood. In 2013, Aaron Alexis killed 13 people and wounded eight?at?The Washington Navy Yard in D.C. The?following year another shooting took place on Fort Hood claiming four lives including the shooter and wounding 16. While the motives of these shooters were different, they all seem to have one thing in common – they seemed to all show signs of mental health issues long before their acts of violence. Bottom line, if incidents like this are to be prevented the VA and the Armed Forces need to fix their failing mental health systems.
