Author Topic: Shooting victim donates to veterans organization  (Read 553 times)

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Online Elderberry

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Shooting victim donates to veterans organization
« on: February 24, 2019, 01:40:53 pm »
Houston Chronicle by  Samantha Ketterer Feb. 23, 2019

Denise Slaughter believes that the man who nearly killed her three years ago slipped through the cracks.

He was a veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder; a loving person who snapped, his parents said. He ultimately opened fire for 55 terrifying minutes on a west Houston neighborhood, firing at unsuspecting passers-by with a pistol and an AR-15. At the end of the rampage, he and one other person were dead. Six more were injured.

Slaughter could have been angry. Instead, her family foundation donated thousands of dollars to a Houston veterans organization, hoping to prevent other service members from ending up in a situation like the man who almost took her life.

“I think he could have been saved,” she said.

After focusing on her recovery and later on efforts to implement a better shelter-in-place system for mass shootings in Houston, Slaughter turned her attention to veterans. The May Jeanne and Garland Slaughter Foundation has donated $35,000 to Combined Arms, a nonprofit that houses more than 40 veterans organizations under one roof and aims to give former service members an accessible place to find help.

“When that (veteran) comes back, it’s very challenging,” Combined Arms Chairman Bryan Foster said. “We owe a debt to that veteran to give them the tools needed to be able to transition as quickly as they can.”

On Memorial Day 2016, Slaughter and her wife unknowingly drove through the middle of a mass shooting scene at West Gaywood and Memorial Drive. They first saw smoke from a nearby gas station, and her window shattered from what they thought was an explosion.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Shooting-victim-donates-to-veterans-organization-13640006.php