On the early morning of March 26, 2018, a tragic incident occurred within the John Cochran VA Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, involving the death of 62-year-old White male Phillip H. Crews. A veteran of the Marine Corps who served during the Vietnam War era, Crews had been a resident of the city's south side and worked as a self-employed handyman.
In the period leading up to his death, he had been suffering from severe, undiagnosed stomach pains that he felt were not being adequately treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Family members later recounted that he had expressed deep frustration with the medical care he received and had warned his nephew of his intentions to end his life at the facility as a form of protest against the system he believed had failed him.
Crews arrived at the hospital located on North Grand Avenue in the pre-dawn hours, driving his Buick Regal to the site. Security footage from the facility captured him entering the first-floor waiting area, known as the Ambassador's Suite, at approximately 4:19 a.m. The room was empty at the time. He seated himself on a couch near the entrance. Armed with a. 38-caliber revolver, he inflicted a single gunshot wound to himself. Despite the discharge of the weapon, reports indicated that no one in the vicinity heard the shot, and the event went unnoticed by hospital staff for over an hour.
The discovery was made around 5:30 a.m. when a visitor entered the waiting room to purchase a beverage from a vending machine and observed Crews unconscious on the couch. The witness immediately alerted emergency room staff, who rushed to the scene. Despite their proximity to emergency medical equipment, it was determined that Crews had already succumbed to his injury, and he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. A subsequent investigation by the St. Louis police and the medical examiner confirmed the nature of the death. Because the incident was ruled a suicide captured on surveillance video, there were no suspects sought, no arrests made, and no criminal charges filed in connection with his passing.
