Dave sends us a link to MSN which reports that Associated Press FOIA’d Aaron Alexis’ medical records which show that the Navy Yard shooter had complained several times to Veterans’ Affairs doctors, and even though he had been screened each time for mental defects, the doctors had cleared him;<\/p>\n
Alexis told a VA emergency room doctor in Providence that he couldn’t sleep, the doctor wrote that his speech and thoughts seemed “clear and focused” and noted that he “denies flashbacks, denies recent stress.”<\/p>\n
The medical records said Alexis, 34, was found sleeping in the VA waiting room in Providence on Aug. 23 while waiting to see a doctor. During that visit he was prescribed 50 milligrams of trazodone, an antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication that in such low doses can be used to treat insomnia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As Dave points out, it’s pretty strange that Alexis complained about insomnia, but they found him sleeping in the waiting room. Then gave him a bunch of drugs to help him sleep.<\/p>\n
He directly denied having suicidal or homicidal thoughts when government doctors asked him about it just three weeks before the shootings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I don’t blame the docs – I blame that prosecutor in Seattle in 2004 when he shot the tires of some construction workers in his neighborhood. That prosecution probably would have kept him out of the Navy and prevented the purchase of the shotgun a few days before the shooting. I understand that the VA docs are limited in what they can do, but prosecutors who don’t prosecute criminals because they don’t see a personal value in doing their job really piss me off. Where’s the sense in writing laws that you don’t intend to enforce?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"