Charly Haley

chaley@dmreg.com

A 72-year-old Vietnam War veteran died Sunday night after shooting himself in the head outside the Veterans Affairs hospital in Des Moines.

The man was found on the grass just east of the emergency room entrance at VA Central Iowa Health Care System, 3600 30th St. He was holding a revolver in his right hand and he had a gunshot wound on the right side of his head, according to a Des Moines police report.

He was declared dead at the scene by a medical examiner. Police are saying the death was a suicide.

The man's name has not been released.

Bart Quick, the VA's acting public affairs officer, said he didn't know whether the man was a patient at the Veterans Affairs hospital, but he did confirm the man was a 72-year-old Vietnam War veteran.

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A passer-by found the body about 10:30 p.m. and called the VA's police. The VA called Des Moines police shortly after.

"We take any death of a veteran very seriously," Quick said. "It does affect us and makes us really consider the work that we do."

Quick said the VA does not allow any weapons on its campus. It relies on VA police, which patrol the campus and its buildings, as well as other staff members to enforce this policy, Quick said. Patients and visitors are not checked for weapons as they enter the facility, he said.

An average of 20 veterans committed suicide each day in the U.S. in 2014, according to a 2016 report from the national Veterans Affairs website. Six of those 20 veterans were users of VA services, according to the report.

About 66 percent of those suicides were the result of firearm injuries, and about 65 percent of the victims were at least 50 years old.

In 2014, veterans accounted for 18 percent of all deaths from suicide among U.S. adults, while veterans constituted 8.5 percent of the country's population, according to the report.

Any veteran in need of assistance can call the national Veterans' Crisis Hotline at 1-800-273-8255, press 1.

Register reporter Joey Aguirre contributed to this report.