San Antonio’s Audie L. Murphy VA Hospital on a sunny afternoon. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Billy Hathorn

Yet another man has taken his own life in the parking lot of the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Hospital, San Antonio police confirm.

The apparent suicide, which took place Thursday afternoon, is the second such incident in less than a year. 

Police responded to a 911 call at the VA hospital shortly before 1 p.m. after the 33-year-old man called dispatch to tell them where he was located. Authorities haven’t yet identified him, KSAT reports. 

It’s unclear at press time whether the individual was an armed services veteran. Regardless, the incident bears a striking resemblance to the death of U.S. Navy veteran Mark Miller, 54, who ended his life in April in the same parking lot. 

At the time, Miller’s father said his son’s suicide was in protest of the VA’s overprescribing of SSRIs and antidepressants to treat his PTSD. 

Nearly 6,500 veterans took their own lives in 2022, averaging 17.6 veteran suicides a day, according to the VA’s 2024 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report. 

Earlier this year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 2308, also known as the Texas Ibogaine Initiative. As the name suggests, the new law will allocate $100 million for research on the medical benefits of ibogaine, a traditional African psychedelic plant that, in low doses, can treat addiction and depression in mice, according to researchers. Studies also suggest ibogaie may help mitigate the effects of PTSD. 

U.S. Air Force Veteran Gabe Gonzales, founder of Operation Solace, a non-profit supporting military veterans’ mental health, previously told the Current that alternative psychedelic therapy saved his life. 

“We fight battles over there and we fight a war in our head when we come back,” said Gonzales, who tried to take his own life three years. ago.

“I went through a plant-based psychedelic therapy and came out the other side great,” he said. “Now, it’s more of a movement to get people to understand that psychedelic therapy is there and we don’t have to struggle anymore.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health or thoughts of suicide, call 988 or text TALK to 741-741. 

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