Kristen Ambury

Police SWAT Kills Suicidal Veteran While Trying To Save Her

Kristen Ambury

A police SWAT team shot and killed a suicidal veteran while trying to save her after she threatened suicide hours earlier.

Army veteran Kristen Ambury barricaded herself into her Sunrise, Florida home after threatening suicide while apparently drunk. Those familiar with the situation also indicate she was suffering from some sort of mental illness.

Ambury was trained as an Army explosive ordnance specialist and emergency medical technician. This training was apparently not enough to ward off the area SWAT who shot her to death while breaking into her home.

According to reports:

Officers from the Sunrise Police Department attempted to negotiate with Ambury before they entered her home. When negotiations failed, a Sunrise PD SWAT team was called in, a Broward Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman told Local 10. Neighbors said they heard five to six shots fired. She was home alone.

Ambury was pronounced dead at the scene. The shooting is supposedly under investigation.

One has to wonder what may have happened if police left her alone. Clearly, she could be no worse off. Unfortunately, Sunshine SWAT had different ideas.

Source: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article169712522.html

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54 Comments

  1. “apparently drunk” pretty strong words to use for a veteran who may have been on medication and in crisis.

  2. So how many veterans committed suicide in August? Oh ya, this is the 31st of August, the month isn’t over yet. Got to wait another day. I wonder how the Murdering SWAT Team sleep at night? Couldn’t use a taser hu? Very sick SWAT Team. Afraid of a little girl who likely had PTSD. After coming back from Vietnam I got married and after having children, I was having major PTSD dreams, recurrent 2 or 3 times a week. My wife would ask me why are you crying and I made up, “I had a dream that we got divorced.” She told me not to worry about our marriage, she was a Jehovah Witness and couldn’t divorce because of the cult rules of the JW’s. It was so bad, I went into a “stay in bed and not talking to anyone situation.” She took me to the VA for an evaluation and volunteered staying overnight for observation in the mental ward. I was paralyzed from the waist down. The one night I stayed there, a man nurse beat me up good. Many slaps and punches into my face. The next morning in the group meeting with doctors, nurses and patients. I reported the beating to everyone in the room. Notes were being taken by some person working for the VA. But nothing ever came out of the beating. I checked myself out and told the doctors again, how I was beaten while in the care of the VA hospital. Years later, after my wife divorced me (she didn’t want to live with a vegetable.) I told a counselor at the VA again how I was beaten up by VA staff and I would take a lie detector test to prove of the abuse. I told them I would even pay for the lie detector test, to prove to them that what I told them was the truth. The counselor told me it was impossible and nothing was looked into.
    I really feel like I need treatment, but I told the VA, “the next time I came to the VA hospital in Tucson, Az, I would be unconscious or dead. I wouldn’t come there for any treatment. The SWAT Team in Tucson would of shot and killed me as they did this young lady (a real patriot.) Chicken sh*t SWAT TEAM. I hope the paperwork isn’t lost in her case. That is what happen to me. They cannot find my records for that time frame of me being in the hospital overnight and reporting the beating I took from VA staff. Still afraid of the VA hospital system and wouldn’t go there for any reason.
    I am going to pursue this case again, since President Trump took the employees “Tenor” away. Doctors and other employees may be fired now, not like in the past. The VA hates Trump for this reason.
    I have so many more things that happen to me by doctors and other employees at this hospital, it is crazy.
    This poor girl, serving her country, killed by a bunch of Alpha males playing cop. Hope justice is done for her and her family. The VA wants veterans to kill themselves. One less person to take care of. Allowing us veterans to die for any reason.
    geo

  3. This article is a disgrace. It totally denigrates the story and the importance of this Veteran. I am completely outraged.

  4. Too many cops have huge ego problems and live for the adrenaline. 5-6 shots? Doesn’t sound like an accident. My buddy tried to kill himself, gun in mouth but lucky, shot and came out the side. Jailed him! No mental health help, nothing. Shooting a gun off within city limits and endangering a child. His 17yo daughter was home trying to stop him, wtf? Cost him a lot of money to get off his back.

  5. Ambury, 28, had attended U.S. Army boot camp, but never graduated, according to WPLG Local 10. She told relatives, friends and neighbors that she did graduate and seems to have embellished her involvement with the Army, a reporter for Local10 told McClatchy by email.

  6. @91Vet, you say she may not be a Veteran? Still, another tragedy associated with the VA. Now, not to be disrespectful, tell me about the other 20 Veterans who, in one way or another, took their own life today. Everything I read on this could easily have been fabricated. Who knows?

    1. I don’t disagree with you Jo3n. Every one of the articles I have read are shoddy reporting to the point of being disrespectful to her, or to anyone who has served.

      But is so typical of the reporting on any of the 20 or more you mention.

  7. And they wonder why we don’t trust them. I’m feeling the pain in my heart. My prayers to those in her life. Haven’t read posts, but I am guessing we wonder what part the VA had. If any. Necessary force; Reasoning not required.

  8. Off Topic:
    Adult military veterans who experienced trauma while in military service are needed for a research study. Study volunteers will complete 17 outpatient study visits over 12 weeks & a 6-month follow-up visit. The study will evaluate the effects of an investigational drug(Smoked Marijuana). Eligibility is determined by medical evaluation & a modest compensation for participation is provided. All study visits occur at Scottsdale Research Institute, 1225 W Deer Valley Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85027 (623)587-5660 For more information,
    email “[email protected] (SRI)”.
    “https://www.maps.org/news/update/6802-newsletter-august-2017”

  9. According to this local news article, she confronted the police with a gun, and that it was relatives who reported she had a history of mental illness and likely intoxicated.

    “https://www.local10.com/news/florida/broward/police-officers-kill-armed-28-year-old-woman-in-sunrise”

    1. I forgot to add, at the news link above, the news station had a correction at the bottom which states: “Correction: A different version of this story erroneously identified Ambury as a U.S. Army veteran. “

    2. Gee, oh gosh, we all of us vets know how hard it is for experienced snipers to shoot someone in the kneecap at 50 feet away. Gosharoonie, folks, very difficult, riiight?!
      I remember a freind of mine whose son in law came to dinner and was telling how he was a SWAT team leader and member of the Marine Corps Reserve. My friend who is soft spoken asked this domestic warrior if he had served in combat.
      The SWAT guy said no: My friend said: quietly OH, I thought from listening to you that you had served in Combat and then we could have a good conversation.
      My Friend then said that he, himself had served two combat tours in Viet Nam as a Marine Lt. Then he asked his son in law to please pass the mashed potatoes.

  10. If you read through her LinkedIn profile, it appears she had been involved in some kind of emergency medical care field since about 2008, gets an A.S. degree in 2012 and was working on a Bachelors in Computer Science. Her experience also lists the US Army, EOD from May 2016 to the present.

    Other news reports state she had a history of mental illness, but provide no other details. If she had a history of mental illness, did it manifest after she joined? How else would she be able to join the military?

    If she did wash out of Basic, what was the reason? Was she sexually assaulted contributing to her state of mind?

  11. I don’t agree with SWAT’s action in this case. It seems ridiculous that they would intentionally break in only to kill her.

    On the other hand, the reporting on this has been pretty lousy with few concrete details. I read the early reporting on this, and it said she was holding a gun. I also read her portrayed as a veteran…as if she had served in a combat zone somewhere.

    According to comments I read on the early news reports, a person who knew her said she had washed out of Basic, and that she had mental health issues, including a suicide attempt before joining. In the back and forth with another commenter, the person who knew her said there were several details about her on her Facebook page that were never reported elsewhere. It doesn’t make SWATs actions right based on the details reported, but it does show how bad journalism is today.

  12. Off-Topic: How are our Texas Veterans doing out there? Be careful out there, even the alligators are dislocated, dazed, and confused and probably hungry. It really does taste like white meat chicken. Eat gator before gator eats you.

  13. Oh My God, Oh my God. What is going on in this Country. All of us Veterans come home from a War. Do people think we come home the same way we left. Of course not. We are all suffering with some sort of mental issues. Remember civilians, we went to war to defend the rights of all Americans. President, Trump, what can you do to help ???

  14. Somehow one gets the impression that although the DOJ network throughout the nation are very cohesive amongst themselves that they consider the DOD military and their veterans as mere scuzzy civilians.

    1. @Tony– Correct, except we “mere scuzzy civilians” come in really handy as stage prop veterans whenever the congress critters molt and it’s reelection season again for the old goats. Looking at you, Sen. McCain and Graham and Isaacson Turds! Looking at you.
      Once reelected, all stage veterans go back to scraping for that once highly held promise of a square deal…stage veteran closet door slams shut until another reelection erection is required…

  15. SWAT should have used tear gas canisters. Inside a room would have caused her to exit when she began to have Tears. Tear Gas also makes your skin feel like you are on fire, if your skin is wet even with sweat.
    The armpits in particular would feel a burning sensation.
    Meanwhile the Tear Gas would have blinded her as her eyes began to show tears. It would made it much easier to take her alive.
    I was mos 5711 trained in Chemical, Biological & Radiological Warfare
    CBR in Army and NBC in the Marines.

    1. Was thinking tear gas first also. (Recon she didn’t rate a ‘Negotiator’, huh?)
      ~ RIP ~

  16. Check this out;
    From: “rightwingvideos.com”
    Dated: Not sure, yet recently and noteworthy!
    Titled;
    “Checkmate: Trump Just Threw Every Crooked Republican Under The Bus With What He Did”

    By Administration on in News.
    Paris Swade reports, “…GOP leaders in Congress tied legislation to raise the debt ceiling to a Veterans Affairs Bill…” then removed it!

  17. R.I.P. YOUNG LADY….And the rest of those mother f$$kers need to go to jail,. Even her so called doctor….

    Laws
    Anarchast Ep.275 Kenneth Scott: Hidden in Plain Sight, Seeing the Real Matrix – YouTube
    “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIGKll2TbPs&t=149s”

    1. OldMarine, mccain is mentioned in this video by an agent whistleblower along with other interesting information “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHbrOg092GA”

      1. NiteWish,..thanks for the link, here’s one you might like
        What if Everything You Thought Was True Is a Lie –
        “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1ej2HhgnO0”

  18. Law Enforcement(s) has new tools & just like any kid with a new toy they want to play with them. The military hardware that’s already been supplied to law enforcement & now that Pres Trump has re- authorized the controversy this has blurred the thin line between “soldiers” & police officers/SWAT Teams etc. These No-knock search & seizures SWAT is allowed without a warrant needs to be brought before the Supreme Court for clarification of The Right of the People under Amendment 4 of the Constitution.

    No Warrant is needed during Exigent Circumstances “circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to believe that entry (or other relevant prompt action) was necessary to prevent physical harm to the officers or other persons, the destruction of relevant evidence, the escape of the suspect, or some other consequence improperly frustrating legitimate law enforcement efforts.”
    What they have done here to this Sister Veterans does not fall within the 6 exceptions to the warrant requirement which can be read here: “https://lawshelf.com/courseware/entry/exceptions-to-the-warrant-requirement”

    This is murder by frustrated law enforcement empowered by specialized military equipment, uniforms, tactics, personality & only God knows how they are trained or how often. Broward Sheriff’s Office & Sunrise police dept have a FB page for reviews. May a brave soul who writes well without cussing or threatening post our displeasure over this!! “https://www.facebook.com/pg/browardsheriffsoffice/reviews/?ref=page_internal” &&
    “https://www.facebook.com/pg/sunrisepolicefl/reviews/?ref=page_internal”
    Be at peace Kristen Ambury, may your loved ones as best they can bear this grief & if she was on VA psychotropics research & educate everyone you know of the dangers.

    Take heed NEVER CALL THE POLICE ON A SUICIDE VETERAN WHEN THEY HAVE A WEAPON IN THE HOUSE UNLESS YOU WANT THEM DEAD BY SWAT.

  19. last friday my husband called my va doc to inquire about my meds and they got in an argument, a few hours later 3 cops showed up to come get me. apparently my doc called them and told them I was suicidal. I hadnt seen or spoke to her since the day before. cops yelled at me not to go in my home and followed me in while my husband was arguing about them needing a warrant. that could have been me. I could have gotten shot in the back when I entered my home against their “orders” and then they would have said, its ok, she was suicidal anyway. now I have an appointment with the same va doc that called the cops on me tomorrow. ptsd treatment doc, what a joke. I plan on bitching her out for sending domestic terrorists to my house just cuz she got into an argument with my husband. maybe she’ll send cops after me again for arguing. beware, this is what they do now.

    1. You need to tell that VA Hack to go back to her mud and grass shack in whatever third world country and medicine she legally could practice on. She obviously does not have the first *clue* about PTSD. Freaking scary.

    2. You may want to have your husband in the appointment with you, and ask her why she would report you to the cops as being suicidal after a discussion with your husband about your meds.

      You need a witness to see what she says, particularly whether she denies calling the cops or saying you were suicidal. If she does not deny it, then you should ask her how she was able to diagnose you as suicidal by talking to your husband on the phone. If she does deny it, why did the cops show up?

      Once you determine whether she denies or does not deny what happened, I would suggest going to the Patient Advocates office as a start, and have them document what happened, and document your request to see a different doctor, even if its an outside doctor.

      If she is willing to call the cops on you and claim you were suicidal over being butthurt from a phone call, she is will to do other things to make your life hard.

      After you determine what the doctor says, I would go to the same police station and file a complaint of your doctor making a false report to them.

      1. Good advice, but don’t shit on the cops for attempting to help you, They were caught in the middle.

      2. What I’ve determined from my experience with cops, they have horrible training in how to deal with people in distress..

      3. My experience with the western N.Y. va has been a nightmare – Change of doctor request has been ignored, complaint request has been ignored, my medical symptoms (I have several for the past year especially) have been ignored.. they don’t help at all. But yes i think ill bring my husband in with me today as i dont trust her at all now.. As far as being suicidal, I’ve been suicidal for years, that’s why I’m in “treatment”, to not be suicidal anymore. Like I told the cops, I can’t have them showing up everyday because I struggle with ptsd, when I’ve struggled with it for years – and I’ve been in treatment for years. I know what they will do, take me to the hospital, request my clothes and belongings, if I refuse they will hold me down and forcefully remove them, then they will place me in the mental ward, awaiting psychological analysis and I will be forced to be a guinea pig trying different medicines for them that may make my symptoms worse until I tell them what they want to hear – they did a great job “saving” me -_-

      4. Regardless of your diagnosis, she should not be calling the police because she cannot handle a phone call from your husband about your meds.

        If every daffodil VA employee called the cops every time a veteran called to deal with their bullshit, hiring of cops would have to double at a minimum.

        The VA is more and more often using calling the police as a lazy way of handling a situation rather than putting in the effort to handle it appropriately.

        If you have time, I would put in a letter documenting exactly what happened with the phone call and the cops, then going to the Patient Advocate with it. Tell the Patient Advocate you want the letter attached to your request for a new shrink, you want the request expedited because of the care you need, and you want an answer within 3 days. Let them know you will be contacting your congressman if you do not hear from them in 3 days.

  20. To say you are going to commit suicide and doing it is two different things. You have to size up the situation, the Dispatcher of Law Enforcement should have inquire as to what manner the suicide would take place, as to whether it would be a overdose of pills, or whether she had a knife to cut her wrist are a shotgun in her mouth. To call for Swat before calling trained negotiators could create a bigger problem. If there were no firearms trained in Swats directions as they broke into the house, this possible could become and unjustifiable shooting.

    1. Then last thing anyone suicidal needs, Veteran or not, but especially a Veteran, is not to be felt as if pushed into a corner with no apparent way out. We are trained to assess and fight/flight response on steroids…then perhaps add some PTSD or what have you…the VA fails miserably at Suicide Prevention each and every time.

      I’m betting she was attempting to get help from the VA and run-up against several bloated purple team obstructions…and who knows? Disruptive Behavior Committee stormtroopers?

      I’m thinking that some idiot from both VA and SWAT were only informed of her extensive training in explosive ordinances and they ASSumed she had bomb-making equipment or what have you.

      Maybe storming each and every VA for a Disabled Veteran Quo is finally in tall order? Ask no questions, just take-over all VAMC and VHA structures until the AFGE is banished??

      1. Hey, Ben:
        Appreciate your getting the records from the VA re: her status as to the Question Namnibor posed; Can you also get the un-doctored video by someone who has no interest, but was wise and courageous enough to
        video the event. Use subpoenas if necesssary, and call in the feds to investigate. (We have to know which bad boy(s) to make into a Gelding.)

  21. Wonder training by law enforcement in handling suicidal people. ! Humm a veteran, oh oh. !

    Drunk too. ! As Donald Trump says she look’s like a mean ombre ! What maybe 120 lbs weat !

    Don’t know the whole story! Why did they shoot her !

    Drunk. ! Poor kid should have bought some smoke and we would not be reading this. !

    Wonder if the police contacted the VA.? If so. !
    It would be nice to hear what the VA told the police.?

    Wonder if this veteran applies for care and was denied care, because the VA denies her disability claim. !

    This has to be a really big RED flag to any veteran! If you suffer from ptsd and the VA denied you care, because they denied your claim and you self medicate with Alcohol. !

    You have a good chance of being killed by your local police department. !

    I just posted about people using marijuana for treatment and those that don’t like it, believe it should be outlawed. !

    Well I have never heard of anyone killing themselves after taking their medication. !

    Want to outlaw something, outlaw booze. !

    President Trump, just authorized all police department authority to obtain military grade hardware. !

    This is a prime example why the police need military grade weapons. ! Tellin suicidal people, were going to count to three and if you don’t comply, you are going to force us to blow up your house. !

    1 2 boom. !

    1. It is O.K. for cops to have military hardware, but it should be restricted to use by persons with I.Q.s above 50.

  22. Ben,
    Which agency called the police to her home? The phrase “while baricaded inside her home” is chilling my bones.Tell me what baricading your self inside your home means in a Constitutional sense? In one sense it could mean you are fleeing Justice and this too is handled in our Constitution under laws involving due process. So then, what EXACTLY is the act of baricading yourself in your own home then?

    It means that you are in the one place in the United States that we call “off limits” to government intrusion. Justice determines who loses this right. Last night I baricaded myself inside my own home and made it secure from entry. Then I slept.

    Ben, precisely which agency called the police to the home of a veteran who had made herself secure in her own home and precisely which crime were the police investigating? Wait a minute…I got that question wrong here….

    What crime were they sent to punish and who sent them?

    1. Dennis, out of the articles I have read on this, it is only reported that police received a call from someone that she was suicidal. In another article I read that she was intoxicated.

      None of that excuses her being shot. It’s just pathetic that most reports on this focus on the effect of residents of the area not being able to get home because of the police presence.

    2. Dennis,
      None of the exceptions to the requirement for a warrant for arrest or for a search applied here, they were just outlaws posing as cops. Has anyone ever heard of a “Flashbang” grenade………………………DUH, ShitWAT Kiss my Marine Behind

  23. I’ve read both Ben’s article AND the Herald article. NO WHERE does it state this veteran was armed and/or a danger to herself or to others!
    That’s begs the question as to; WHY did the Swat Team feel the urge to use “Deadly Force”!
    The only answer, in my opinion, was Swat was possibly under orders to “KILL” first, ask questions later!
    Just because this young lady was possibly “suicidal”, does not negate the fact the Swat Team went too freaking far!
    Why wasn’t a professional called into the situation? Surely Florida, Broward County, has trained professionals to handle such situations!
    Yet, no mention of that being done! Just barge in and kill the veteran!

    “Rest in Peace”, young lady! God is with you NOW!

    1. Crazy Elf, I am not defending any of the actions by police, but the Sun Sentinel article says that when the regular cops came to her apartment, they learned she was armed, so they called SWAT.

      Better reporting on this would be follow-up articles on this to determine who fired the reported 5-6 shots. Did the SWAT fire all shots? Did she fire any shots? Hell, was a weapon even recovered from her?

  24. That’s what happens when you call in a Kill Team. A little like Nam, went in and killed the little bastards to save them from themselves. It’s Murder One, death by cop. They solved her suicide issue for her.
    Stay the F**k away from 911 and mind your own business…..

  25. Okay, I have to say this:
    Many years ago, I was taking a quick smoke break while I was working my off-base DJ’ing and bouncing duties at an off-base club, when I noticed this woman whom I had helped break-up from a nasty all-female fight go over to the railroad tracks and look at the approaching train not even 1/4 mile away, look back at me, and then lay down on those tracks wanting to die.
    I went over to her and quickly shared with her why life’s so precious and my own near death situation in life that I knew from 20/20 hindsight, suicide or attempting suicide is not the answer.
    I rescued her from her own untimely death then and she thanked me profusely.

    Now, had this been the VA and their Suicide By Cop Hotline, it would be akin to be taking rope out to those tracks and shoring her up to those tracks to ensure she got smashed by train….right?

    WTF is wrong with the VA and Suicide Prevention? They have it back-asswards in that the VA sees a Veteran Suicide as more nonperformance bonuses with less payouts to Veterans. Done. Rat Bastards!

    1. At Puget Sound VA they encourage suicide by how they emotionally abuse certain vets. I know because I’m one of them. The more deadly the attempt, the more criminalize I was, and those were the times they DIDN’t set my suicide flag; only the lesser ones.

    2. Namibor:

      The “swat” member and his CO should be taken out into the forest and beat to death, SLOWLY
      Who the fuck do they think they are? Are you kidding me??!! ‘SWAT spells SHIT WITH ALL TURDS. We all of us vets know that this was not necessary,…Did they find out she was a registered Republican and thus not worth saving, so they put the tear gas and shock grenades back into their pockets. Man, would I like to get my hands on that POS ShitWAT guy who fired the killing shot and most importantly my hands on the head of that shitty bunch of “cops” O boy…..One time I had a couple cops without a warrant at my door and without any of the exceptions to the warrant requirements, (I am a lawyer), and I told them they were not coming in. They insisted that they WERE COMING IN. So I called the FBI and told them the problem and that I was a former U.S. Marine Officer with registered automatic weapons and that I didn’t necessarily want to kill two stupid cops. Lo and behold the cops’ boss, (DA) got a call from the FBI telling them to get their asses off of my property PRONTO.
      I told the stupid cops, (whom I called “harsky & stutch”): Hey guys, come back with a warrant and then you can come on in.
      I support good cops; I hate bad cops. As we all know, most of us did our jobs without putting our ego out there, but there were always those who were wanna be bullies, or mentally unstable. WTF!!!
      Vets lives are not that worthwhile, according to some cops and VA officials.
      As Doc Halliday said in Tombstone: “I beg to differ”
      Namibor, thanks for saving that woman using good common sense. Semper Fi!

      1. To add to the above, woa begone those swat guys if that kid was mine; They would have gotten a surprise attack that would have put the TET offensive to shame, Trust me on that.

  26. Too pissed again to say anything but…fuck off VA and your suicide by cop hotlines. That’s what it is. VA Suicide By Cop Hotline. Rat fucking bastards!

    1. jmo,,,its called torture and genocide of the chronic medically ill,,American style,,,,,,sickening aint it,,In 2017,,,this women who served our country,,,can’t get the effective medical care,,or even have access to effective medical care,,.Every other country but ours,,defines torture as,,”denial of access to effective medical care,thats causes severe pain,”’,,,,The United States in thee only country in the world,,thats will not accept that definition of torture,,,,,,,maryw

  27. Rest in peace soldier Kristen Ambury. May your soul haunt those bastards till they break into their own homes and shoot each other.

    This is the kind of shit someone need to go to jail for, and water boarded just for fun. She fought for the freedom of jackasses like this, so they could end her life.

    To serve and protect? Get your training at the AFGE did ya? or out of a gumball machine?

    1. AFGE aka ” All fat guy entity”
      Apparently they need more CQB training.
      Even I knew where the kill zone was as a corpsman when you do a forced entry.
      Tap , tap …headshot
      That was murder ….period

      1. Now, now, the politically correct way of labeling the AFGE: “All Full Girth Entity”. 🙂

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