My local paper LIED about a soldiers death!?

[hexola]

This is pretty wild. Here's my local paper. Sounds like its possible that parents may have misled the reporter - but still this looks pretty bad.

http://www.publicopiniononline.com/ci_13726271

Sudden illness claims Shippensburg soldier

The cause of death was due to respiratory failure brought on by pneumonia, according to Briggs' father, H. Thomas Briggs Jr. He and Casey's mother, Jennifer L. Germond Briggs, are still processing the news.

"We are devastated," his father said. "He was home here last week. When we get together, it's one of those things where silliness breaks out. We had a good time."

The father said the soldier's last words were: "I hope you guys had as much fun as I did this weekend."

Now - here's the real story from another paper.

http://www.exploreharford.com/news/2488/death-jail-hanging-man-was-held-shooting/

Death in jail hanging

A man charged with six counts of first-degree assault tried to kill himself while in custody at the Harford County Detention Center last Friday night. He was taken off life support Wednesday and subsequently died.

Casey T. Briggs, 23, was arrested and charged Oct. 28 after allegedly shooting a gun into the air in front of MaGerks Pub in Bel Air.

Someone called police around 11:30 p.m. Oct. 27 reporting a man standing in the road in front of MaGerks, in the 100 block of Bond Street, shooting a small handgun into the air.

Police said the man, later identified as Briggs, fired a handgun into the air and then pointed the firearm at a car holding four people.

Briggs was arrested in the area of Plumtree Park.

[Kalyke]

1. Sounds like they misled the reporter.

If Briggs tried to hang himself and lived, it is likely he did develop pneumonia-induced respiratory failure (he could have severely damaged his lungs by depriving them of oxygen in the hanging). That may be the actual "cause" of death on the death certificate, but does leave out exactly how Briggs contracted the lung disease that killed him.

That part about having fun was probably purely made up.

[hexola]

3. possible - but check the timeline...

seems like this all happened pretty fast...

Could you have pneumonia in 3-4 days?

[Kalyke]

8. You could if you severly damaged your lungs.

There are several papers online suggesting that aspiration pnuemonia after an unsuccessful hanging, while rare, does happen.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=28W&ei=pJn0St_LGNmy8QaDovmlAQ&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CAYQBSgA&q=unsuccessful+hanging+can+result+in+pneumonia&spell=1

[TwilightGardener]

2. Interesting--looks like the illness story is a fraud.

Edit to add: Seems like the family was trying to protect the son's past "hero" image.

[hexola]

4. The reporter is a total Bush apologist...

This is the same fellow who wrote a story during the election called "Muslims approve of Obama" (or something to that effect) and used phrases referring to Obama's "Muslim background" - jargon from one of the chain emails.

[TwilightGardener]

5. Ick. Well, let us know when the paper is forced to retract and explain.

[Warpy]

7. Then he's a gullible twit

and probably bought the fiction without question.

[Warpy]

6. My sympathy to the family

but yes, they lied to the reporter.