![]() Routh served four years in the military and was stationed in Iraq from 2007 to 2008 and on a disaster relief mission in Haiti in 2010. "How do you get that person into a situation where they are being connected to treatment and where you're also protecting public safety?" "More than ever before, there's a recognition that these issues can have a profound effect on behavior and are profoundly affecting men and women who have no criminal history and no history of violence," Deutsch said of vets with PTSD. While there is a growing recognition that PTSD can profoundly change or exacerbate the mental state of veterans, Chris Deutsch of the organization Justice for Vets says it remains very difficult to balance the need for rehabilitation with a desire for justice in a case where a victim was seriously injured or killed. "Is it really true that someone with PTSD can commit a crime because of that problem? I can guarantee you that it's true." "Violent crimes are excluded, which to me is a real shame you should look at it case by case," said Duncan MacVicar, a Vietnam veteran who has worked to establish veteran treatment courts in California. ![]() While there are efforts to create alternative courts and sentencing guidelines for veterans accused of crimes who suffer from combat-related mental illnesses, those efforts have been slow to apply to those accused of serious violent crimes. A 2014 study found that veterans who had problems with PTSD or alcohol abuse were seven times more likely to engage in acts of "severe violence" than other veterans. Yet the troubling connection between war veterans, mental illness and acts of violence is persistent. But it doesn't change your core character." "I know people with PTSD, and it's very real and very hard. "To try and even find an excuse is disgusting," his widow, Taya Kyle, told the Los Angeles Times. The people who knew Kyle best are not interested in the dark irony. Routh's mother had called Kyle to help her son, but Eddie Routh turned on him, shooting him in the back. That Kyle would be killed by a veteran who was like so many others he tried to help - troubled by war and struggling to adjust to civilian life - was a tragedy layered upon a tragedy. He had threatened to kill his family and himself. Routh had been in and out of psychiatric wards for years. "He was recently diagnosed with PTSD," her husband, Gaines Blevins, added. "He's all crazy, he's (expletive) psychotic," Routh's panicked sister, Laura Blevins, told the 911 dispatcher. But at some point that day, Routh, a 27-year-old former Marine, opened fire on the two men. Kyle's trip to the gun range was part of an effort to help Routh deal with his post-traumatic stress disorder. Routh's many troubles were the very reason Kyle and Littlefield were in contact with him.
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