CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Charleston attorney Tony O’Dell is now representing five families of veterans who died under suspicious circumstances at the Clarksburg Veterans Affairs facility.
Eleven deaths are being questioned.
One of the deceased is 87-year-old John Hallman, who died in June 2018 following insulin injections. O’Dell stressed Hallman’s death has not been ruled a homicide, but it happened on the same floor and under similar circumstances as other veterans.
The April 2018 deaths of retired Army Sgt. Felix McDermott and George Nelson Shaw, a retired member of the Air Force, at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center have been ruled homicides.
“We don’t know whether this is just an unbelievably incompetent person, which is hard to believe, or if someone is doing this willfully to people who have served our country,” O’Dell said on MetroNews “Talkline.”
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has promised a full investigation into the matter. Sen. Shelly Moore Capito, R-W.Va., spoke directly to Department of Veteran’s Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie.
“I told him the VA has had issue after issue of incompetence and questionable reaction to dire situations,” Capito told MetroNews late last month. “The secretary is trying to move this as quickly as he can but it hasn’t been satisfactory. I’m sure we’ll have a hearing on this as soon as we go back.”
Lawmakers returned from their congressional recess earlier this week.