A Georgia Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employee who assaulted a Vietnam veteran at one of the VA’s outpatient facilities in Atlanta was fired, Breitbart News has learned. The firing came a month after Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) pressed the agency for accountability.
The VA employee in question, Lawrence F. Gaillard, was captured on surveillance camera beating the 73-year-old Vietnam veteran on April 28, 2022. Months later, after WSB-TV released video of the assault on June 20, the VA announced they suspended him without pay on June 23.
I've obtained by FOIA surveillance video of the brutal beating of elderly Vietnam vet by a VA employee at an Atlanta VA clinic. @2Investigates was 1st to report on the attack last month. The attacker, Lawrence Gaillard is still employed by VA. @wsbtv at 6https://t.co/oLCyCNa8ea pic.twitter.com/A87YTvSK2q
— Justin Gray (@JustinGrayWSB) June 20, 2022
Roy sent VA Secretary Denis McDonough a letter on June 27, first reported by Breitbart News, demanding to know what further actions the VA took against Gaillard.
Roy wrote:
[R]eports indicate that Mr. Gaillard is still employed by the VA. This, after his victim, veteran Phillip Webb, suffered several injuries and was hospitalized for three days with a ‘brain bleed’ as a result of the assault… . The VA must take immediate action to hold this employee accountable – the least of which is removing him as an employee of the VA. An incident such as this should never again happen, and the VA must take all necessary steps to ensure that it never does. Every veteran who walks through the doors of a VA facility should be treated with the utmost respect worthy of their service to our country.
The VA responded to Roy just this week, on Tuesday, August 23, telling him that they fired him a month after the congressman sent his letter.
In their response to Roy, the VA revealed that they learned of the assault on the same day it occurred — April 28. The Atlanta VA Police arrested Gaillard the same day and transported him to the Atlanta City Detention Center.
After his release, Gaillard returned to work and was detailed out of the Fort McPherson clinic on May 9, but put on administrative duties at the Atlanta VA Medical Center while the charges were pending, the VA said.
The VA revealed it did not issue an “administrative action” against Gaillard until June 22 — two days after the video of the assault aired on WSB-TV. The VA also revealed it proposed another administrative action on June 27 — the same day Roy sent the letter to the VA.
The VA revealed Gaillard was not removed from Federal service until July 28 — one month after Roy sent his letter.
Roy said in a statement to Breitbart News:
I’m glad this individual is no longer employed by the VA. However, the question why it took the VA months to officially fire this employee still remains. If this happened in the private sector the employee would have been fired on the spot. Why should the VA be any different? Our veterans deserve better.
That’s why I introduced H.R. 8550, the Public Service Reform Act, to make all federal bureaucrats at-will employees more accountable to the American people
Roy serves on the House Committee for Veterans Affairs.
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