A Texas deputy performed the last traffic stop of his life on Thanksgiving after pulling over a three combat tour Iraq war veteran who pulled out a rifle and shot the trooper several times. Dabrett Black shot trooper Damon Allen and fled the shooting but was quickly apprehended after a massive manhunt.
Now, more information has come to light about the troubled veteran who killed Allen. Black has suffered from memory loss, sleeps with his guns and even thought someone implanted a chip in his brain. The fatal traffic stop occurred about two hours south of Dallas near Fairfield, Texas.
The father of Black says it is the outcome he has feared since his son was discharged in 2012. Dabrett Black's father, John Black of Lindale, said war changed his son, "He left here a perfect young man, but he came back all messed up." Other veterans who were close to Black say the military failed him.
One veteran named Matthew Chappell, who medically retired from the Army, weighed in on the matter saying, "There’s thousands of us roaming the states who have not been treated because the Army felt its quicker to kick you out than to get you help."
Black's father describes how one day his son enlisted on his own, "He didn’t say anything to me or his mother. He came back and said, ‘I done joined.'"
His family says it was the second tour that really messed him up when a bomb blew up one of the trucks he was in causing his best friend to lose a leg and Black to suffer a traumatic brain injury and lose consciousness for three days.
His estranged wife also agrees that he returned from the second tour changed saying, "He hasn’t been right ever since." Black had prior run-ins with the law including an assault on a public servant charge in 2015.
Earlier this year Black fled police after they attempted a routine traffic stop that ended with him crashing into a police vehicle. "He always thought somebody was coming after him," his mother said.
His family doesn't excuse what he did but they do believe the military bears some blame in the matter for not getting Black the treatment he needed. "This is not a racial thing," says Randy Newman, Black's former sergeant who stayed in contact with him. "This is PTSD and not getting the proper help that he needed."
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Lets see, we have 2 angles here.
1. he gets caught murdering a Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) which gets a Death Sentence and he suddenly uses the Clip defense.
2. His daddy knew he was a risk yet did not report his son to keep this from happening.