HD Blog

Dear Friends and Family of Joseph Marcus Barron,

As you may or may not have heard, on Thursday, July 7, 2005, at approximately 1:30 a.m., Joseph became a shooting victim and was transported to Brooke Army Medical Center in a near death state. When I arrived at BAMC, a hospital chaplain, who was paged along with the trauma team to receive Joseph in the ER, greeted me. He explained to me that Joseph had suffered major bone and tissue damage to both legs, at the knees, and that in the right leg, one of the bullets had severed a major artery. Joseph had lost a substantial amount of blood and his right leg was essentially dead. He told me I should be prepared to lose my son that morning.

But those of you who know my Joseph, know his spirit and his strength and his love of life. This afternoon (7/9), as his Aunt Yolanda, sister Stephanie, and I walked up to his bedside, he greeted us with a perky, “Guess what? They super-glued my muscles back to my legs!” Oh yeah, he’s still with us, in good spirits, laughing and joking and very much alive. Why? Because of all of your prayers! Prayers offered to our loving and merciful God in heaven. A perfect God who heard you and reached down and touched not only Joseph that faithful morning, but the surgeons whose hands and spirits He guided as they skillfully repaired Joseph’s torn and shattered legs during some 12 hours of surgery that day. These wonderful, wonderful men and women were brilliant! They never gave up, they never said we can’t, and when they needed an additional vascular surgeon they went out and found one and flew him in just for Joseph’s benefit. When they came out to talk to us, they looked tired, but always offered nothing but hope.

You see, we offered a prayer, wondering, did it serve its purpose, was it heard above? Well, be assured, your little prayer, your whisper to God, your gaze up to the Heavens were shouts and screams which yielded a miracle on Thursday. But understand this, Joseph is not out of danger. Don’t stop praying!!!

Joseph has only cleared the first hurdle. He is alive. Now, he must strengthen his body and his spirit in order to endure what is to come. His right leg was without blood flow for so long, he is lucky to still have it. His surgeons robbed veins from other parts of his body in order to construct new arteries to feed his right foot. The graft clotted once and was cleared, but is barely holding. If it fails again, Joseph will lose his right leg at the knee.

His left leg is nothing but shattered bone, but it has good circulation. Only after the right leg is managed, will he undergo total reconstruction of the left leg. Is there good news? Yes! His prognosis is that he will survive, but he will be severely crippled and probably never walk unassisted again. You know why I say probably, don’t you? (Keep praying!)

Now, you’re probably wondering how did this all come to be, right? Well, again, as you may or may not know, Joseph is a victim of Juvenile Huntington’s Disease. He was clinically diagnosed at age 13 and genetically confirmed at 18. One of his greatest problems has always been psychotic episodes of rage, disorientation, delusions, and extreme panic attacks, and he has had many in the past five years.

He was in the mist of one of these episodes when deputies were called to our home that Thursday morning for a “loud music” complaint. Joseph’s music.

On arrival of the first deputy, Joseph and I walked outside together. On seeing the deputy, Joseph jumped into the family car and locked himself in. As Joseph was not in the commission of any crime, the responding Bexar County Sheriff’s deputy asked me what I wanted him to do. I explained that Joseph was a psychiatric patient, and if anything, I needed him (the deputy) to help me restrain and transport Joseph to his mental facility. The deputy responded that the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department had a policy in place that did not allow him restrain or transport psychiatric patients. This should have been the end of the story.

But, at this point two other deputies arrived, and having just quoted me their policy, and in apparent blatant violation of that policy, they decided to attempt to restrain Joseph, who was now in an obvious psychotic panic/distressed emotional state. Joseph was still locked in our car, in our driveway, not in violation of any laws. But then the deputies noticed he had a pistol in his hand. When they asked me about the pistol, I clearly explained that it was a BB pistol. They learned this for themselves when Joseph began discharging BBs, inside the car. The deputies watched as the BBs did nothing but bounce off the window glass back onto himself. They knew well they were not in danger of the BB pistol, especially if they kept Joseph contained in the car. Had they left him to us at this point, this would have been the end of the story.

Well, that did not happen. For some unknown reason, one of the deputies allowed Joseph to exit the vehicle. Joseph did not attack the deputies, he did not point his pistol at any of them, or lunge at them with a knife as reported in the news, he only attempted to run away, attempting to distance himself from them. He was in a extreme panic state, but still, not in violation of any law. Without any provocation or just cause, or prompts from us, the deputies felt it necessary to draw their weapons. Aiming at Joseph, they pursued him down the street. At this point, Joseph's stepmother is screaming for the deputies to leave Joseph alone. The deputies did not acknowledge her. They knew they were going to shoot this boy.

Easily trapping Joseph about a block down the street, the deputies targeted both his legs and fired their weapons striking him twice in the right leg, and one in the left leg. Joseph told us later that he came onto a fence, and when he turned around he saw the deputies coming at him with their nightsticks, so he did raise his pistol and fired one BB at them, wanting to keep them away. They responded with their service revolvers.

Shooting any person for any reason, especially one who you know to be experiencing a psychiatric episode is not an option. The deputies were wrong on many counts. They disregarded their directive not to attempt restraining a psychiatric patient, they targeted both legs, and they left the scene without asking for our statements.

In that we were not allow to give a statement of what had occurred, the deputies were able to get Joseph arraigned that morning for three counts of attempted capitol murder of a peace officer. His bond was set at $300,000.00.

I cannot stress enough, had the deputies followed published procedures and guidelines, had I been given the opportunity the deal with my son alone, this senseless shooting would not have occurred. How this event will affect his mental status, no one can speculate, but Joseph himself has asked for counseling to help him deal with what has happened. To add insult to injury, because of the charges against him, the family has limited access to him while he undergoes all his treatments.

The news of course [ed: referenced article] painted Joseph as a night crawling thug, wielding a gun and a knife, lunging and slashing and attacking the deputies, who of course, shot him only in fear of their own lives. Of this I can only say, the conduct and actions of field deputies only reflect the leadership downtown. These were poorly trained men who had no business carrying guns and responding to calls from the public. One of them was quoted as saying, “He (Joseph) was screaming for us to shoot him, to kill him.” So that request they were apparently willing to oblige; our request for them to leave him alone they were not. Now let me add this, we are talking about three street deputies. Not the entire Bexar County Sheriff’s Department. We know for a fact that there are some excellent, professional deputies on the streets and in the detention centers. Our concern lies with the three who, maybe watch a little too much Cops before putting on the uniform.

If you feel compelled to write to someone, don’t bother writing to [the DA] [ed: Text deleted to protect the innocent, apparently the District Attorney hasn't made herself available to assist help this family.]. Sheriff Lopez is in receipt of my statement, as is the Criminal Investigative Division of his department, and the State Attorney General, Greg Abbot, is in receipt of a request for an independent investigation.

Other than that, just please keep praying for this boy. He is really going to need it. May God bless all of you for your support, and one final note, Joseph is at BAMC, 2 West, but please do not send any flowers or bears or anything. He is under arrest and guarded 24 hours a day because he is a flight risk (the mentally at work here). If you send something, the deputies will confiscate it. Cards and letters are okay. The address is:

Joseph M. Barron

BAMC, Bldg. 3600, 2 West
3851 Roger Brooke Dr.
Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234-6200

Please feel free to pass this email on to as many supporters as you can possible think of. Bye for now.