USA TODAY International Edition
Baton Rouge shooter tells mother: VA didn’t help me
She fears he suffered PTSD while serving with Marines in Iraq War
The mother of the Iraq War veteran who killed three officers in Baton Rouge on Sunday said she urged him to seek help from the Department of Veterans Affairs after he left the Marine Corps, but he returned unhappy with the care, according to an interview with PBS host Tavis Smiley.
“They didn’t want to help me,” Corine Woodley said her son, Gavin Long, told her after visiting a VA facility, according to Smiley’s notes. “They only help people at the top, the 1%.”
Long, who served in Iraq in 2008- 09, was shot to death after opening fire on police on a busy commercial street.
Woodley said she feared he was suffering post- traumatic stress disorder, although he did not see combat in Iraq.
The VA said this week that Long had “a number of contacts” with its health care system from 2008 to August 2013. The agency declined to provide details, citing privacy laws.
The VA has come under fire for years over its treatment of veterans returning from war. Problems include lack of staffing and poor facilities, an overburdened suicide hotline and long waits for appointments.
Last year, the watchdog Government Accountability Office issued a scathing report about the VA, saying it is beset by problems that include poor health care, delayed doctor appointments and weak leadership.
Woodley emailed Smiley on Monday, “I would like to shed some light on the situation.” He talked to her on Tuesday and Wednesday and will interview her on his show Thursday.
According to his notes, Woodley described a troubled son who seemed at times paranoid, believing he was “targeted by undercover cops.” Long ambushed the Baton Rouge police on his 29th birthday.
Woodley said her son anguished over officer slayings of black civilians, saying “cops always get off free at the end.”
She said he had grown angry over the July 6 killing of Philando Castile by a police officer in Minnesota, where Castile’s last moments were captured on a video by his girlfriend. Long complained that Castile had followed the officer’s orders but was still shot.
“If you stand there while someone is treated badly and you do nothing, you are as guilty as the person who inflicted the pain,” he told her. “I am a man. I’m just as guilty as anyone else if I don’t do anything.”
Woodley said her son grew angrier with each story about black civilians killed by police officers. “Every cop killing pushed him over the edge,” Woodley told Smiley, a member of the Board of Contributors to USA TODAY’s Opinion section.
“I am a man. I’m just as guilty as anyone else if I don’t do anything.” Gavin Long to his mother, Corine Woodley