SAN ANTONIO – A Bandera County man is facing federal charges that he threatened to blow up a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Kerrville and shoot the doctors who were treating him.
Walter Crosley, an Iraq war veteran who was retired with a 100 percent service-related disability, 50 percent of it for post-traumatic stress disorder, was apparently upset with his treatment when he made the threats on video.
Crosley posted the video to YouTube, and federal investigators used the threats he made in it to arrest him days later.
In the early morning hours of Sept. 7, an FBI SWAT team served an arrest warrant on Crosley's Lakehills home.
Crosely recorded another video as the FBI agents descended on his home.
"Hey everyone, this is Corporal Crosley. The FBI is at my house. They just arrested my son," Crosley said in the video. "So the FBI is here, I'm getting arrested. I'm going to go ahead and upload this."
It would be the last video Crosley uploaded to his YouTube page.
Over the past five years, the U.S. Army veteran had posted dozens of videos, many of them focused on soldier suicides and unexplained illnesses Crosley had dealt with since returning from duty in Iraq, where, according to court documents, he suffered a traumatic brain injury in an IED blast in 2005.
A video posted by Crosley on Aug. 28 would lead to his arrest.
"It's like bees buzzing in your brain," Crosley said in the recording. "You're so sick. You're so tired. I can see how these soldiers commit suicide or reach out and just kill others."
Apparently convinced VA doctors weren't properly treating him or believing his claims that soldiers in Iraq had been poisoned, leading to unexplained illnesses, Crosley launched into a series of threats.
"I threatened to blow up the VA if they didn't put me in a study group. I mean I went off, went f***ing off," an increasingly agitated Crosley said to the camera. "I said I wanted to be put into a war-related illness and injury study center or I'm going to start blowing up the VA and I'm going to start killing the doctors that are lying about the diseases we came back with."
According to a criminal complaint filed by a San Antonio-based FBI agent assigned to the Domestic Terrorism Squad, Crosley had made a similar threat to a nurse at the Kerrville VA Medical Center in June.
Crosley allegedly told the nurse on June 7, "I may be the next guy that takes y'all out." The complaint states: "The nurse took the comment as a threat and the matter was referred to the United States Department of Veteran Affairs, Office of Inspector General (VAOIG)."
When questioned about the incident on July 6, Crosley denied making the statement and told the VAOIG agents, "Overall, he was happy with the care he receives." He told the investigators, "He was merely detailing a scenario to the VA staff in which a veteran might become agitated and come to the VA looking to cause harm."
Crosley told the agents he did not want to hurt anybody. He also advised the agents he "has a shotgun at his house" and "his son, who lives separately from him, has his assault rifle and combat shotgun."
The report states the Kerr County Sheriff's Office had his pistol, "which was confiscated after he attempted a citizen's arrest of an individual."
Crosley told the agents, "The only stressor in his life is the cover-up by Halliburton regarding the water that it poisoned in Iraq and the many veterans who contracted 'Q-Fever' by drinking the infected water."
The complaint also details numerous run-ins Crosley had with local law enforcement in recent years.
He had been placed in emergency detention by the Bandera City Marshal's Office in December 2012 after firing his gun in the air at his home. Crosley "claimed that there had been two intruders in his backyard, but there was no evidence or witness statements to corroborate" his assertions.
In April 2016, Crosley was arrested by the Kerr County Sheriff's Office after allegedly pointing a gun at a man and forcing him out of his car.
The Bandera County Sheriff's Office told investigators they had 57 contacts with Crosley and warned he may react violently if approached.
In the Aug. 28 video, Crosley rattled off the names of several veterans who had been involved in recent high-profile mass shootings and other violent encounters with police.
"I'm not killing myself. I'm not going down alone. I'm going to f***ing kill others, I've got a list," Crosley said to the camera. "I'm gonna f***ing make me a list of people I'm gonna take out before I take myself out. How's that? This is serious. This is so serious. Fix me and my soldiers or I'm gonna fix you."
Crosley wrapped up his video tirade by promising to use his military training to execute his plans.
"All the things you trained us, linear charges, how to blow up infrastructure, destroy, destroy, destroy. I'm going to go on a destructive path and you can write about it and put it in the history books," Crosley angrily said. "This is why I'm going to do it because you won't f***ing save soldiers."
Because of the threats Crosley made, a federal judge granted a motion to hold him in jail until his trial, which is currently scheduled to begin in December.