The murder suicide involving a recently discharged Bronze Star recipient and his estranged wife is raising more questions about whether but military and civilian medicine is doing enough to deal with the unique pressures facing members of the U.S. miltiary, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Police say Richard Concepcion took a gun to his estranged wife's home on the city's northwest side Sunday morning, shot her to death, kidnapped one of the couple's three children, and then shot himself to death, leaving the child unharmed.
Dr. Harry Croft, a San Antonio psychiatrist who is an expert on military stress syndrome, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, and other pressures facing military members and their families, says, while he doesn't want to diagnose Concepcion, who he never met, there are some universal PTSD symptoms that he may have displayed.
"They're always on guard, they're easily startled, they can't concentrate, they can't focus," he said. "But worst of all, they have anger and irritibality usually aimed at the people who are closest to them."
Croft says the fact that Concepcion had just been discharged from the Army may provide another clue to his mindstate. Just Saturday, he posted a photo of himself, proudly displaying his Honorable Discharge papers and military decorations on his Facebook page.
"They understand the military life, who they are, what they are supposed to do, and their lives are valuable, especially to their brothers and sisters in the military," he said. "But in the civilian world, they don't know who they are."
Police say they had made several calls for domestic violence complaints involving the couple, and Concepcion had been the subject of a protective order.Croft says cases like this definately require more study.
"The research is occurring right here in San Antonio, through Operation Strong Star," he said. "That is a program that directs some fifty different clinical studies."
But the answers in this case will probably never be known.
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