MISSOULA – We have an update on a gun incident that happened in September of 2022 at the David J. Thatcher VA Clinic in Missoula.
We spoke with Montana VA Health System executive director Dr. Judy Hayman, who assured us the incident was not as dangerous as we may have first thought.
A man had a gun in a diaper bag, but she says staff members handled the incident extremely well. Hayman added there was no danger to staff or veterans at the clinic, and the person did not make any threats.
The clinic now has full time VA police on staff. The clinic says they always planned to employ more security but were experiencing hiring issues in the fall. They now have all police positions filled.
Most of the police on staff are veterans themselves and all are federal police according to Hayman.
"So, we have VA police on site now. And our staff handled that amazingly well. And that turned out to be, there was no threat to staff or veterans, it was just an unfortunate event. But we now have VA police here on-site, full-time."
The Missoula VA Clinic recently marked the one-year anniversary of the new facility.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with clarifications provided by the Montana VA Health System.
