What would Jesus say about Purple Heart recipient Jed Zillmer and the other 22 per day?

Blog »    What would Jesus say about  Purple Heart recipient Jed Zillmer and the other 22 per day?

    Friday, May 23, 2014 

As you prepare for Memorial Day, think about it as Jesus would think about it.  Feel what he feels.  Think about his words as he commented on the fate of Jerusalem, which was destroyed in the most horrendous of ways in 70 AD.  

 But as they came closer to Jerusalem and Jesus saw the city ahead, he began to weep.  “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes.  Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side.  They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not accept your opportunity for salvation.”                                                     Luke 19:41-44 (NLT)  

Now think of Jed Zillmer.  Here’s how a friend of his put it.  

Jed Zillmer was a kid.
Jed Zillmer fought for his country.
Jed Zillmer returned to a nation ill-equipped to deal with the injuries he suffered as a result of his service. And I’m not talking about his foot.
Twenty-two veterans a day commit suicide in the land of the free and the brave.
Imagine a gunman walking into an elementary school and killing dead an entire First Grade classroom every single day.
That’s what 22 veterans a day looks like. It looks like the slaughter of young boys and young girls.
As young Zillmer tragically learned, the real battlefield isn’t in Afghanistan, or even Iraq.
The highest incident of soldier bloodshed is right here on U.S. soil.  

What is Jesus’ word to us about Jed Zillmer, the 22 per day, war and peace?  How would he have us pray, think and act?  What would he have us do?  

Here’s the newspaper article . .  . . .  

Sheriff’s office releases recordings of response to Zillmer call, fatal shooting by deputies

By Kip Hill The Spokesman-Review

Emergency dispatchers warned law enforcement responding to a high-speed chase with a suicidal Army veteran earlier this month that the man was seeking a confrontation.

“He says he doesn’t plan to harm citizens,” a dispatcher said of Jed Zillmer, 23, who was armed when he was shot and killed by deputies near Spokane Valley Mall on Feb. 11. “Unless we take too long to shoot him.”

More than 40 minutes of recorded radio traffic between responding sheriff’s deputies and dispatchers was released by the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday.

The recordings detail the response to Zillmer’s initial calls that he was seeking “suicide by cop,” according to dispatchers, through a high-speed chase that ended at the intersection of East Indiana Avenue and North Sullivan Road. Six deputies opened fire on Zillmer, who was found with three guns, after he refused to comply with law enforcement commands, according to court documents and the Spokane Investigative Regional Response Team.

Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said that deputies worked to limit citizens’ exposure to the situation, stopping Zillmer before he reached the Spokane Valley Mall. According to the recordings, spike strips were deployed just east of the Indiana exit to slow Zillmer, who had been traveling at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. Officers attempted a maneuver to disable his 1997 Honda sedan but backed off when it was apparent he was slowing to a stop, according to the recordings.

One dispatcher said Zillmer told a city 911 dispatch supervisor “he wants to be shot in the head” and “he will shoot in the air until we shoot him.”

Paramedics did not immediately approach Zillmer after the shooting because of a fear that there were explosives in the Honda. Zillmer had told dispatchers he was “heavily armed.”

The regional response team is handling the investigation into the shooting and will forward information to the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office for any potential charges in the case.

Zillmer, a former infantry sniper, earned a Purple Heart during battle in Afghanistan in February 2011, according to a lawsuit he filed along with other veterans claiming he’d been denied benefits. Zillmer was pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering and computer science at Spokane Falls Community College, according to his family. The family suspected he might have been suffering from post-traumatic stress.  

“Lord, there is something gone wrong when we can live comfortably while our young men and women simply leave home and then die tragically fighting other young men who die tragically, or come home and die then tragically because they can’t figure out how to live.  Why are we okay with the the thoughtless, “well that’s the price of freedom”?   And what does it all gain?  Freedom, we say.  And a memorial day barbeque.  Is there no better way? You tell us there is.   Lord, Lord, Lord, help us.  Amen”

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