Police were sent to the Thomas E. Creek Medical Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Amarillo, Texas to find that a veteran had shot himself in the hospital's parking lot on July 26. The veteran was 75 years old. Surprisingly, this is not the first veteran suicide to occur at a VA hospital in the past year. Task and Purpose reports that three other veteran suicides have occurred at VA facilities across the country, including: a 63-year-old at the Durham VA Medical Center this March; a 53-year-old at the VA Regional Office in Phoenix; and a 76-year-old at the Northport VA Medical Center on Long Island.
Statistics show that 20 veterans die from suicide each day. It is a tragedy to learn that another veteran has taken his own life at a VA facility, and it is unclear what his purpose was.