Police, Medics Counseled Over Tragedy

Perhaps it was the smell of blood or the sight of the three young brothers’ bodies. Or perhaps it was the way that Ahmad Salman shot and killed his wife Nabela and the couple’s sons as they ran in terror.

But Tuesday’s shooting spree not only wiped out a whole family, it also took its toll on the men and women who had to clean up the carnage.

The officers who carried the mother and her sons from the scene, who desperately tried to pump life back into their bodies, may soon face emotional trauma from what they saw.

“Perhaps it won’t be for 24 to 48 hours,” therapist Anthony Bonaccorsco said. “But by then, there could be a whole host of symptoms that people might experience--flashbacks. Maybe someone will be driving along and get a faint smell of blood. There can also be physical symptoms--disturbed sleep patterns . . . nausea, vomiting, a whole host of symptoms.”

Bonaccorsco, a Simi Valley psychotherapist who has a contract with the city to counsel city employees after critical incidents, spent most of Tuesday counseling the police officers, paramedics and firefighters who first responded to the shooting.

During a group session at the police station, Bonaccorsco sat down with about 45 emergency workers and the dispatchers who handled the calls. They talked about the shooting for about an hour in what the department calls “crisis debriefing.”

“For most of them, it was the age of the children and the fact that they were shot while they were trying to flee,” Bonaccorsco said.

“We did cover the ‘why’ issue, but most of the time, there really is little reason for this kind of thing, or not enough of a reason at least.”

Within minutes of the shooting Tuesday morning, officers arrived at the Salman home and saw 38-year-old Nabela Salman and her son Yezen, 3, crumpled and mortally wounded near a fence in the backyard.

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Five-year-old twins Zain and Zaid--also bloody and mortally wounded--lay nearby.

Officers and SWAT team members, unsure if a gunman was still on the property, rushed the home and then carried the dead or dying victims to a waiting ambulance and helicopter.

Stained with blood, the officers watched as frustrated paramedics tried to pump life back into the young children and their mother.

“Some of these guys may end up replaying that scene in their head,” Bonaccorsco said. “We try to let them know what to expect and what they should do to deal with some of those emotions they may experience.”

The carnage also brought back other disturbing memories, he said.

Several of the SWAT team members were also first on the scene after a distraught Larry Sasse killed his two children--4-year-old Breanna and 3-year-old Michael--and then himself on Father’s Day in 1995.

And a few of the officers had also been there when fellow Simi Valley Police Officer Michael Clark was fatally shot by Daniel Tuffree during a shootout in August that same year.

“Some of these guys have seen a lot, and that can be really tough on you,” said Lt. Rex Jones, an interim leader of the Simi Valley Police Department’s SWAT team.

The adrenaline of responding to the scene, and the blood and carnage all bring back memories for these officers, officials said.

But Bonaccorsco said better-trained officers with access to counseling and services are now more able to cope with such tragedies.

“It’s never easy, but I think officers today are more able to talk about their emotions,” he said. “The science of police psychology has really gotten more sophisticated and so has the rank-and-file officers. Simi has this in-house program, as do other departments. They know that it’s OK to have these feelings and that we’re here to help.”