Later, after a federal indictment for the same incident was filed against Tillman, local prosecutors dismissed their case.
Tillman’s brother, former NFL player Pat Tillman Jr., was killed in Afghanistan in 2004 when members of his U.S. platoon fired on him and an Afghan militia member, mistaking them for enemy fighters.
The U.S. government subsequently attempted to cover up the truth about the killing, including by instructing an officer to lie to the soldier’s family about the circumstances of his death.
At the time, Richard Tillman told ESPN he didn’t believe the story that the military told of his older brother’s death.
In recent years, Richard Tillman often livestreamed on his YouTube account from behind the wheel of a parked car. He referred to himself as a god by the name of “Yeshua,” railed against the government and addressed posts to Taylor Swift as “Sweet Divine Soulmate Baby.”
After he was implicated in the arson of the post office last year, his brother Kevin Tillman shared a statement from his family that said Richard has been dealing with “severe mental health issues” for years.
“He has been livestreaming, what I’ll call, his altered self on social media for anyone to witness,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, securing the proper care and support for him has proven incredibly difficult — or rather, impossible. As a result, none of this is as shocking as it should be.”