At 3:30 p.m. on a summer day in June 2012, Army Specialist Ricky Glen Elder pulled a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol from his uniform and shot his battalion commander multiple times, one bullet piercing his heart. He then reloaded and continued shooting the lifeless man and threatened to shoot others approaching him. He injured another soldier before kneeling and putting a bullet into his own head. Lt. Col. Roy Tisdale died instantly. Elder was brain dead and died the next day. At just 27, Elder had already lived a long, violent and troubled life, well documented in court records and news stories. His problems started as a juvenile in Hutchinson, Kansas, where he was charged with battery and marijuana possession, and continued even after he enlisted in 2004, later graduated from the elite Ranger school and was assigned to the 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in June 2010. While other soldiers were building careers, Elder was building a rap sheet that included multiple charges for assault, drunk driving and one for leaving the scene of an accident. In 2010, he was charged with aggravated battery and reckless aggravated battery 30
for knocking a woman unconscious in a Kansas bar. His court date was set for the day after the shooting, according to press reports. For some unexplained reason, the civilian prosecutor in the case and the Army allowed Elder to deploy to combat with the serious charges hanging over his head. But it wasn’t just the woman in a bar who had reason to fear Elder’s unpredictable and violent temper. His wife, Erica Cone, told
was allowed to remain in the military despite his extensive record of criminal offenses, and why psychopharmaceuticals prescribed to Elder were not rigorously monitored and apparently not looked into as a contributing factor in the murder-suicide. According to Army’s own criminal probe, investigators knew Elder was on a host of drugs that even a cursory Internet check would’ve shown were capable of causing mood swings, suicide ideation and anger individually let alone in combination.
Freedom request for information about testing for drugs. The documents released by the Army contained no indication as to whether investigators examined the drugs as a possible contributing cause of the shootings or whether they investigated to find out if monitoring protocols for the drugs Elder was given had been followed. But portions of the report were not released. The Army and the media recount in detail the personal, legal and financial problems Elder faced the day of the
“She tried to convince him to get help, which he promised to do,” the Army report says. “She was told by unit personnel he missed several appointments.” The day of the shooting, Elder sent a text message to his wife saying he would “see her on the other side.” Minutes before the shootings, which occurred at a safety briefing on the military base, a soldier told investigators she noticed Elder and that “He was wearing sunglasses and had an extremely pissedoff look on his face.” As the assembly
investigators that when she was four months pregnant, a drunken Elder attacked her, prompting her to call police. She said she had convinced Elder to plead guilty in the Kansas bar fight case to put the incident behind them. When he killed himself, Elder was also facing court martial for stealing military property, which could have led to dishonorable discharge, loss of benefits and time in the brig. Just a month earlier he had wrecked his car and was cited for reckless driving. It was about this time the Army stopped his pay. Without question, Elder’s personal and professional lives were in deep turmoil. “He had his problems,” a fellow soldier told investigators. But none of this really fully explains what happened June 28, 2012, at Fort Bragg. When the Army Criminal Investigation Command released to Freedom 430 pages of documents related to Elder's death, a possible answer emerged—prescription drugs and their role in Elder’s life—and his death. The documents were obtained through requests made under the Freedom of Information Act for records pertaining to an ongoing examination and investigation by Freedom into military suicides. The newly released records raise numerous questions as to how Elder
In the investigation following the murder and suicide, Army investigators found bottles of high-dose Ibuprofen and the addictive painkiller Oxycontin in Elder’s car. They also discovered a brown paper bag with bottles of the painkiller and muscle relaxant cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril), and the painkiller Hydrocodone. Some of the drugs apparently were obtained 11-18 days before the shooting, according to the documents. Most damning of all was a bottle of the antidepressant amitriptyline (Elavil). Effects can include suicidal thoughts, worsening depression, hallucinations, extreme worry, agitation, panic attacks, aggressive behavior, irritability, mood swings, hostility and impulsive behavior. Flexeril can impair judgment. Oxycontin is an opioid pain medication than can cause confusion, cold sweats and fever, and Hydrocodone is a powerful narcotic that may become habit-forming and can cause depression and anxiety. Ibuprofen is an over-the-counter pain medication that can cause anger, mental impairment, mood changes and anxiety. A toxicology report from the North Carolina medical examiner indicated Elder had not been drinking. But in a glaring omission, the report made no mention of whether testing for other substances had been conducted, and the medical examiner did not respond to the
shooting, but there is no evidence in the FOIA documents that anyone considered the role of these powerful drugs in the tragedy that played out. Elder’s actions the day of the shootings are an incomprehensible mix, part doting father and part calculated killer. Just before 2 p.m. on June 28, Elder paid $85.60 cash for three unstuffed teddy bears. “The entire time he was at the mall he was by himself and did not display any odd behavior,” an investigator wrote after reviewing a mall security camera video. “He only went to the one store.” A fellow soldier told investigators that on the day of the shooting, Elder posted on his Facebook page that he had sought a medical discharge for combat-caused dementia, but the Army refused, saying the condition was hereditary. Elder maintained the dementia was caused by an incident in Iraq, where he deployed in October 2006. Nine months into his tour, he was thrown from the turret of a Humvee on which he was a gunner, knocking him unconscious and causing a concussion. The Army reported no visible brain damage. A fellow soldier died in the incident, deeply affecting Elder, according to reports. Elder’s wife told Army investigators that when she met him in 2010, he suffered from nightmares and talked about suicide and the loss of his Army buddy.
dispersed, she turned away from where she had seen Elder. At that moment, Elder walked up behind Tisdale and shot him several times. "Suddenly everyone started screaming and running," a soldier told investigators. One round fired at Tisdale struck another soldier, who thought the gunshots were fireworks until he felt a sharp pain in his right calf and realized he had been shot. “I heard a noise, and when I looked back, someone had a hand gun pointed at the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Tisdale, so I yelled ‘Gun,’” a witness told investigators. “Then I took a couple steps back when he began to fire and shoot Lt. Col. Tisdale.” Tisdale then fell behind the podium, hit three times in the torso, including once in the heart. Elder then reloaded the pistol with a spare ammunition clip he pulled from his belt and stood over Tisdale as he shot him several more times, including in the face. The witness said he and a sergeant chased Elder. “Then he [Elder] realized that I was going toward him and then he pointed the gun at me and said, ‘if you come toward me, I will kill you.’ So I stopped and yelled, ‘Calm down. It's not that bad.’ “As I was doing that, [the] sergeant tried to walk around him and he [Elder] started to wave the hand gun around.”
Typography by Peter Green Design
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