Vet kills wife, daughter, himself in Wisconsin

[sabra]

Source: AP

SUPERIOR, Wis. (AP) -- Police in Superior say a veteran apparently killed his pregnant wife and their daughter before committing suicide.

Investigators believe 23-year-old Matthew Magdzas shot 26-year-old April Oles and 13-month old Lila Magdzas on Tuesday afternoon. Police say family members told them Oles was eight-and-a-half months pregnant. Autopsy results are still pending.

Wisconsin National Guard Lt. Col. Jackie Guthrie says Magdzas enlisted in the Guard in 2005 and was assigned to the Superior-based 950th Engineer Company.

He volunteered to deploy overseas with a Guard artillery unit in 2006. The unit was tasked with protecting convoys moving from Kuwait into northern Iraq. His deployment ended in 2007.

Read more: http://www.wkbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=13012484

[defendandprotect]

1. Time for all men to separate themselves from war and renew their bonds with

women and children --

Yet another gun --


Sad --

War drives men mad --

[democrank]

2. So very sad

[lunatica]

3. But war is so natural to humanity.

People who go to war and are in wars should be the most well adjusted on the planet since humans are naturally warlike. Isn't that what so many people think?

[boppers]

4. That depends on the people and time, oddly enough.

Nations involved in wars tend to think war is natural, but those very same nations, when not involved in wars, tend to think war is unnatural.

We are a complex, self-rationalizing, species.

[tabasco]

20. That's what people like Dick Cheney think.

But chickenhawks see themselves as the really valuable people that need to be in charge back home.

[superconnected]

5. Not uncommon. Wait until they start walking into fast food joints and killing anyone they can

which is what happened for near two decades after the Vietnam war.

[cowman]

7. As a Vietnam war combat veteran

I find your statement highly offensive and full of shit, yes these incidents did happen, but not as numerous as you make it out to be.
You owe an apology to all Vietnam war veterans.
Shame on you.

[proteus_lives]

24. Same old bullshit Hollywood stereotypes.

He should apologize to you, my father and all Vietnam veterans.

[northofdenali]

27. You're right, cowman. Yet I see the devastating consequences

of PTSD daily. Jeff Abbott wrote a fictional book called "Fear" a few years back based on the psychological toll taken by PTSD - not just in combat-returned troops, but in horrible accident survivors, rape survivors, trauma survivors of all types. There is excellent researc going on into super betablockers combined with cognitive therapy, but do you think our DoD will fork a dime over for it? Last I head, it was UC-Irvine and Harvard Med doing the best work.

Criticism of folks with servere PTSD is as bad as blaming a terminal-stage cancer patient for thier own pain.

Blessings on all who must cope with this brain-rewiring syndrome. It isn't a "get over it" illness, folks, and is life-threatening for good.

[NickB79]

33. If they did happen, why is the poster full of shit?

Where did he lie?

[Pavulon]

38. Is the claim backed by stats and correlation with vets vs civilians

or just op ed. Would be interesting for that claim to be backed with fact.

[maxsolomon]

6. just pull the trigger 3X. easy as pie.

after the 3rd squeeze, no consequences, no guilt, no shame. this (likely legal) gun was in the hands of someone extensively trained in firearm safety, too.

the next murder-suicide by gun is undoubtedly only days away. workplace shooting? domestic violence? both? oh, well, just the price we pay for the security our well-regulated militia brings us.

[cowman]

8. What a crock of shit

Yeah, blame an inanimate object, not the person holding it.

[maxsolomon]

9. didn't blame the gun

blamed the man who pulled the trigger twice and didn't stop there to own up to it.

said a gun makes killing easy. it does.

ain't no solution to this columbine shit - because even well-regulated militia members go postal, and we aren't about to screen the populace for mental illness. we're too cheap.

if you got a solution, combat vet - i'm all ears.

[cowman]

16. How about we start

really enforcing the more than 20,000 gun laws already on the books?

[Xenotime]

32. I can think of how 1 law could fix the whole problem....

no guns...period.

Person with no gun=legal
Person with gun = illegal

Simple and easy to enforce.

[X_Digger]

34. Which one is you?

[Pavulon]

39. Right after you finish up the war on drugs, knock yourself out.

that assumes you could not be told to your face by every political party that you are insane and the idea is unconstitutional and politically impossible.

[proteus_lives]

43. You would love to be rid of that right.

What other rights would you gleefully destroy?

[superconnected]

44. +1000

[maxsolomon]

36. how would any of the 20K have prevented this?

if his gun was legal, none of them would have. i feel like we've had this exchange before.

[Pavulon]

40. How about you address root cause. Mental Health care

through the VA system and non insured system is spotty at best. If you are uninsured you are screwed. I do not use the VA because I get better service by paying. This is not a gun problem it is a mental health issue.

And unlike some stupid fucking gun law that fools the ignorant into thinking a fix has been applied the real issue is complex.

[maxsolomon]

42. We're too cheap to pay for mental health care in America

The comment i was responding to was : "How about we start really enforcing the more than 20,000 gun laws already on the books?"

[Lightning Count]

10. Because only vets commit these horrible acts.

Was the woman in SC a vet?

No indication that his vet status had anything to do with this.

[maxsolomon]

11. the OP just linked the story

there's not an american alive who thinks it's only vets.

[Lightning Count]

12. It was a response to some of the posters who think that vets are just seconds away...

from doing this at any time.

[maxsolomon]

13. most aren't. some are. this guy was.

we need hella more PTSD treatment for Iraq & Afghanistan vets. more than we can afford.

[Lightning Count]

14. Was he?

I see no evidence that this had anything to do with his service.

Not that I don't agree with your other points.

[maxsolomon]

15. he was a vet. he committed a murder-suicide.

PTSD is a risk factor for suicide. hard to tease it apart for this case.

i'm not old enough to remember if this was an actual phenomenon post-vietnam. maybe there was 1, or 2, and it got exaggerated. i was 10 when vietnam ended, thank buddha.

[superconnected]

17. I am old enough to remember and yes it was a phenonoma of post Vietnam - for nearly

two decades after Vietnam. The Vets also had tons of news casts where one would go into a restaurant or fastfood joint and just shoot everyone they could, then often take their own lives.

[cowman]

19. And I fought the fucking war and I'm telling you thats bullshit

Yes it did happen but not with the frequency that you claim.

[dflprincess]

22. I would bet it's happened after every war

we've only heard about since Vietnam because communications are better so stories that might have once made only the local news go national. And, more importantly, we've got a little better grasp on what war (or any awful trauma) can do to a person's mental health.

It wasn't "shell shock" that WWI vets had no "battle fatigue" after WWII, it was post traumatic stress. I remember reading that when counseling centers were finally being opened for Vietnam Vets the people running the show were surprised by the number of WWII and Korea vets that came in to see if they could get help to.

Before Vietnam no one admitted a veteran might need help dealing with the horrors of war.

[Javaman]

31. I had a great uncle from WWI and two from WWII that had

night terrors until the day they died.

The great uncle lived until he was in his 80s (died of wounds received in WWI - he was gassed) and both uncles died of heart problems developed from stress of combat (both died in their 50's).

[proteus_lives]

25. Provide links then.

[Pavulon]

41. Source it please..Claimed twice with no backing data

this is not church your personal faith is not sufficient.

[cowman]

18. It got

wildly exaggerated and it used to just piss me off, I saw a lot of horrific things happen during my tour but I came back in 70 and became a productive citizen, married, have 2 wonderful daughters, am still married to the same woman, so when I see these comments like one poster here made, it gets me angry. I thought all that crap about the so called crazy ready to snap and kill everyone bullshit about Vietnam vets was over with, so please excuse my angry outburst.

[superconnected]

45. You really really need to take your meds.

I mean violent and delusional is not a good state to be in.

If you can't afford one, social services may be able to to help fund you to see a good psychiatrist and the meds.

[Pavulon]

46. You really need to post some stats to back your shit up.

rather than busting balls why not show some numbers that prove your observation that vietnam vets were as a group more violent than others at the time... Still waiting.

[cowman]

47. Well lets see

I just retired 3 seeks ago from 35 years with the Las Vegas Fire and Rescue, I don't think I would have lasted that long if I had to take meds, what set me off was your bullshit post. Take your condescending attitude elsewhere

[Tempest]

21. n/t

[PacerLJ35]

23. Just because he was a vet doesn't mean he had PTSD

There have been other murders committed by ex-military personnel in the past...things committed by those who never served in war. The large majority of people who served in Iraq or Afghanistan did not experience "real combat"...most spent their tours on large heavily secured bases and the worst thing they had to endure was the occasional badly aimed mortar round.

This guy could have been someone who had significant issues in his life regardless of his military service. The notion that vets are ticking time bombs is a huge exaggeration and honestly is an insult to 99.99% of all vets out there who get tagged with that "wow, he's probably fucked up" assumption. This is coming from someone who's been deployed to Iraq four times...and who's the son of an Army officer and grandson to an Army officer...dad served in Vietnam and Grenada and grandfather served in WWII (D-Day, France), Korea and Vietnam (two tours). Neither of them were messed up either.

[maxsolomon]

35. that's why i said it was hard to tease apart in this case

he could have been a vet with PTSD AND a controlling, narcissistic asshole, because that's who does this shit. controlling, narcissistic assholes.

with guns.

[northofdenali]

29. Did you forget something in your post?

like :sarcasm: ? I surely hope so, beause it's not just our returning vets who suffer this horrible disease.

i.e. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jts.2490030311/abstract from the Journal of Traumatic Stress; or Severity of combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder versus noncombat-related posttraumatic stress disorder: a community-based study in American Indian and Hispanic veterans. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17700297

There are many, amany studies out there. Join one.

[kimi]

26. Honestly, when I read the word "vet" in the OP

I thought "veterinarian". And I've had my own issues with the military, I'm a military wife, maybe soon to be military ex-wife.

It isn't all as clear-cut as it seems. Yes, there's PTSD. But there are other things as well. You just can't assume.

[Mad_Dem_X]

28. ...

:cry:

[Liberation Angel]

30. Thanks Obama (not).

Obama should be more proactive in preventing these deaths and ending these wars.

That is my greatest disappointment with him (that and the offshore drilling ok and the nuke power subsidies all of which equal more death and misery)

[Rod85]

37. I've seen this happen often

My wife's friend worked for the local police department and her husband was in the military in Iraq.

The day before he was to come home she put her duty pistol in her mouth and blew her brains out.
She cheated on her husband while he was gone and he had been told what she was doing.


This is a tragedy happening all across America folks. The cause is not the guns.

The cause is we are keeping families apart to fight wars of no purpose. This is the great tragedy
happening to our nation. We have divided families, which have resulted in lots of suicides, murders, and
senseless domestic trauma to our families.

It is the kids that are also paying the price. STOP THE WARS! Bring our military home for good!

[Owl]

48. Does it really mean anything that this was a vet? Horrible I know but I think this is a sad thing