Secretary of VA visits El Paso after shooting
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert McDonald, was in El Paso Thursday, just two days after the tragedy at the main VA facility.
McDonald’s appearance was tightly managed. He offered condolences to the family of the murdered VA doctor and met with employees. He spoke with the media for only a few minutes.
“I’m here in El Paso to demonstrate how the entire VA family is here to show their empathy for the employees here, for the veterans here in El Paso that we care so much about,” McDonald said in his opening remarks, before talking about progress the agency is making. “We’ve made great progress in VA nationally, we’ve made progress here in El Paso and we want to keep that going because we’re all focused on our primary mission, which is to care for the veterans of this country.”
Acting El Paso VA Director Peter Dancy also addressed the media for the first time since Tuesday’s shooting, which left VA doctor Timothy Fjordbak dead and the man who shot him, veteran Jerry Serrato, committing suicide.
“We’re getting back to business as usual, comforting the staff, particularly with regard to what has occurred, welcoming the veterans back and really focusing on things we need to do,” Dancy said.
Patient care will resume at the VA on Friday afternoon with new security measures.
“Specifically here at the El Paso clinic we are increasing security measures that will be implemented,” Dancy said.
Increased security measures were evident at the gates entering William Beaumont and the VA all day Thursday. ABC-7 spotted uniformed personnel searching several vehicles as they entered the area.
“We’re reviewing security measures in all Veterans Affairs Department facilities,” McDonald said. “We do that frequently anyway, but anytime we have any kind of an incident, we obviously do that.”
As McDonald left the facility to speak with employees, ABC-7 was only station there to speak with him, asking him whether he is confident he can prevent further tragedies from happening again at VA facilities.
“We’re working on it,” McDonald said.
ABC-7 spoke with several veterans who were turned away because the facility was still closed on Thursday. A couple of them said in the six months since McDonald has taken over the VA, they have seen improvements at the VA in El Paso.
