Bureaucracy Played Role in Veteran's Death

Man, called up despite stress diagnosis, killed in standoff with police
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 5, 2007 7:08 PM CDT
Bureaucracy Played Role in Veteran's Death
U.S. Soldiers Search Caves In Afghanistan   (Getty Images)

Deployment to Afghanistan markedly changed Sgt. Jamie Dean, and the news that the Army was calling him out of reserve and sending him to Iraq—despite a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder—helped send him into a fatal standoff with Maryland police in December 2006. As his family prepares lawsuits, Salon examines how Dean fell through the bureaucratic cracks.

An application to have Dean declared disabled was pending when Dean was recalled to duty in November 2006—and the Veterans Administration never shared Dean's diagnosis with the Army. Also at issue is the police response to a drunk, depressed and armed Dean. "If they'd just left him alone and let him pass out," his wife says, "he'd be alive today." (More Afghanistan stories.)

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