In Two Shootings by Iraq Vets, War Stress Blamed

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBU8QR2MCE.html

One was a skinny 20-year-old discharged from the Army who couldn't shake the piercing rat-a-tat-tat reminders of combat. The other, a decorated Marine family man whose job preparing bodies of U.S. soldiers for burial had caused clammy, restless nights.

Both home from duty in Iraq, they were on opposite ends of the country, but their stories have much in common.

In Las Vegas, Matthew Sepi was on his way to get a beer, but he tucked an assault rifle inside his black trenchcoat just in case. In Lawrence, Mass., Daniel Cotnoir brought out his 12-gauge shotgun. Both pulled the trigger. Now Sepi faces murder and attempted murder charges while Cotnoir is charged with attempted murder.

In the otherwise unrelated cases, family, friends and even law officers are looking to the influence of wartime horrors on the two veterans.

Don't you feel safer now?

[NYC]

1. Excerpts:

Sepi:
..."He {Sepi} was nervous," his sister Juli Sepi said... "If there were loud noises he would definitely look around and make sure every area was secure. When I was with him, I slammed a door and he kind of was freaking out."

...Sepi talked to his sister about the rundown neighborhood he lived in, how people would eye him in the alley by his apartment complex.

"He just didn't feel safe," she said.


Cotnoir:
...Cotnoir...suffered from nightmares, shakes and cold sweats.

Sometimes in traffic, he looked at other drivers suspiciously.

"I just get a little jittery, a little nervous," Cotnoir told The Boston Globe in November. "I try to take deep breaths and let it go and remember this is Lawrence. Car bombs don't go off here."