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VA doctor shot to death filed complaint against shooter

By Danielle Haynes
The doctor killed at a Veterans Affairs clinic in El Paso had filed a complaint against his alleged shooter. Photo by the U.S. Army.
The doctor killed at a Veterans Affairs clinic in El Paso had filed a complaint against his alleged shooter. Photo by the U.S. Army.

EL PASO, Texas, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A doctor killed at a Veterans Affairs clinic in El Paso on Tuesday had previously filed a threat complaint against the former soldier who allegedly shot him.

VA psychologist Timothy Fjordbak, 63, was shot to death at the clinic, which is adjacent to the William Beaumont Army Medical Center.

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His alleged shooter, Jerry Serrato, 48, then "actually went to the third floor, and that's where he took his own life," FBI special agent Doug Lindquist told the Washington Post.

Officials said Fjordbak filed a complaint against Serrato in 2013 after the alleged shooter verbally threatened the doctor at a grocery story.

"'I know what you did and I will take care of that,' something to that effect," Lindquist said Serrato told Fjordbak.

Serrato served in the U.S. Army from 2006 to 2009, when he discharged honorably. He had been angry because he was denied treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, a former VA employee said. Serrato also worked at the VA clinic in 2013.

Fjordbak treated patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, but Lindquist said the alleged threat at the grocery store was the only connection officials could find between the two men.

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