Mom Grieves For Veteran Son Killed During Standoff

Mother of veteran killed in standoff wants medical marijuana legal to 'give our vets another choice'
The Indy Channel
Katie Cox
Nov 9, 2017

OWEN COUNTY, Ind. -- The mother of a man who was killed after a standoff with police that lasted over 30 hours says her son was suffering from PTSD and medical marijuana could have helped him.

Mason Johnson, 31, was holding hostages in an Owen County home when he was shot and killed by police earlier this month.

“My heart is broken, no child should have to die like that,” said Jade Griffin. “His life was ended by his own demise from his mental breakdown from PTSD.”

Griffin said Mason had served in Iraq when he was 19 years old and had several traumatic experiences during his time there. Those experiences led to him having significant mental health issues in the years that followed.

“His friend died, his sergeant was gravely injured,” said Griffin. “The ugliness of war every day – he wondered if it was going to be his last.”
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Suspect in 31-hour Owen Co. standoff killed after firing several shots at officers, hostages rescued

November 4, 2017

Veteran Threatened to "Euthanize" Himself

'Disturbed' Upstate NY man had grenade launcher, loaded AR-15, explosives cache

New York Upstate
Ben Axelson
November 7, 2017

According to family members, Reis had post-traumatic stress disorder, and had served in the Special Forces. The Times Union found publications from the 109 Airlift Wing mentioning a man named Edward Reis, and noting that he had awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal.

Edward Reis' weapons cache.(screenshot from WRGB-TV video) 

Police in the Capital Region have arrested a man described as emotionally disturbed who had an illegal arsenal of weapons and explosives, and had threatened to "euthanize" himself.

Edward J. Reis, 43, is facing numerous charges, including weapons and forgery charges, after police uncovered a grenade launcher, grenades, dozens of high-powered weapons and an AR-15 style rifle at his home, The Albany Times Union reported.

Albany County Sheriff's officers received a call saying that an emotionally disturbed man "wanted to go to Arizona and euthanize himself." Police were unable to find him at his home, but discovered the weapons cache and materials commonly used to make explosives in a locked room. 
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VA Counselor Helped Police End Standoff With Veteran Peacefully

Standoff with Springfield veteran, suffering from PTSD, ends peacefully

The Register Guard

Chelsea Defenbacher

October 8, 2017

SPRINGFIELD — A Department of Veterans Affairs counselor was rushed to a Springfield home Saturday by police to help a 23-year-old Army veteran in crisis, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

With the help of the counselor and a police negotiator, the man did not hurt himself and was voluntarily taken in for a police-directed mental health detention and evaluation.

The incident happened around 3 p.m. Friday, when a neighbor on 20th Street called police to report a man with a knife at a nearby home.

Springfield police arrived to find the veteran in his open garage, holding a large knife to his own throat and threatening suicide, police said.

Springfield police officers, one of whom is a trained negotiator, stood in the driveway and spoke to the man.

During that conversation, the man told police that he was a veteran with PTSD, police said.
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Two New Haven Police Officers Shot During Standoff

2 police officers shot: Suspect still barricaded in Connecticut home

FOX 5 News
Erin Vogel
September 23, 2017

WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group)- Two police officers were shot Saturday and the suspect is still barricaded within the home in New Haven, Connecticut.

The New Haven Police told Sinclair, the incident occurred around 10:30 a.m. Saturday. The New Haven Police were alerted to the gunshots by a report from their "Shot Spotter" system.

The incident occurred on the 600 block of Elm Street. When officers arrived on the scene they learned a 51-year-old woman was shot and ran from the home to a neighbor’s house. She was then transported to a nearby hospital and is in critical condition. Police are not releasing her name at this time.

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Veteran Killed At Bank Standoff Lost VA Benefits

Police Identify Georgia Bank Standoff Suspect
KTVN News
Posted: Jul 07, 2017

Earlier on Friday, WSB-TV reports Easley called the station saying he had a bomb and two people with him inside the bank. He also told the station that he was nearing homelessness after the Department of Veterans Affairs stopped his monthly disability payment.

The man who was fatally shot by an officer after claiming to have a bomb inside a suburban Atlanta bank has been identified.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation identified the suspect as 33-year-old Brian Easley releasing the name after notifying the man's family. Officials did not indicate a hometown and GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles described Easley as a "transient."
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Man Taken to Hospital After Standoff With Police

Maryville Police: Man detained after lockdown at Maryville Commons' Target parking lot
WBIR News
July 2, 2017

MARYVILLE - 9:00 P.M. UPDATE: Around 4:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon, Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp told 10News a family member called 9-1-1, worried about a man who wandered off and appeared to be suicidal.

Officers found the man inside a truck in the Maryville Commons shopping center off Watkins Road.

When they approached the truck, they did not see him right away. They attempted knocking on the window's truck. The 67-year-old man did not respond.

An officer noticed a holster for a .45 pistol in the truck.

Police say the man was in the truck for at least two hours before authorities used an armed, protective vehicle to break the truck's window and pull him out.

He was taken to the hospital shortly after for further treatment.

Family members told Maryville police that the individual is an out-of-state relative who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Police have yet to release the man's identity.

The lockdown at the shopping center was lifted around 7 p.m. Sunday evening.
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PTSD on Trial: "And please leave poppy flowers at my grave at Arlington"

Affidavit details armed standoff with police, allegations of gunshots, threats, animal abuse
Lawrence Journal
By Conrad Swanson
May 21, 2017

Lawrence police officers were familiar with Kewley, according to a recently released arrest affidavit. They were aware that he is a veteran who reportedly served time in special forces and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, night terrors and blackouts.

When Michael Kewley surrendered himself to officers, police say they found several loose rounds of .45-caliber ammunition in his pocket.

Across the street, Kewley's neighbor found another bullet on his kitchen floor and several bullet holes in his home.

Photo by Nick Krug.

Armored members of the Lawrence Police Department respond to a standoff in the 2500 block of Scottsdale Street, Tuesday, April 4, 2017.

Lawrence police officers were familiar with Kewley, according to a recently released arrest affidavit. They were aware that he is a veteran who reportedly served time in special forces and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, night terrors and blackouts.

The affidavit — a document that explains the reasons for an arrest — offers new details in the case of an armed standoff between police and Kewley that lasted several hours on Lawrence's southwest side and resulted in a number of felony charges. Allegations in an affidavit still must be proved in a court of law.

Currently Kewley is being held in the Douglas County Jail on a $50,000 bond and is awaiting a hearing later this month.

Kewley served multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, said one person who asked not to be named but said she lived with him. The woman also said Kewley is under care of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and recently experienced the deaths of two close friends, which caused him to become suicidal, the Journal-World previously reported.

And if officers weren't aware before, they were told on April 4 of Kewley's distrust of law enforcement, the affidavit says.

That morning, around 7:15 a.m. officers were dispatched to Kewley's home at 2525 Scottsdale St. to check on Kewley, who was reportedly threatening to commit suicide.

One woman who met Kewley on a dating website called police, the affidavit says. She told them she woke up that morning to a text message from Kewley that said "I'm sorry dear I'm gonna have to do something very dumb and regretful. And please leave poppy flowers at my grave at Arlington."
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SWAT Standoff in Texas With Veteran

SWAT called after man barricades himself inside home near Baytown 
KHOU
Staff 
April 08, 2017 

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - SWAT officers were called after a man barricaded himself inside a home near Baytown Saturday evening.

Harris County Sheriff's deputies on the scene Saturday evening. 

(Photo: Tim Wetzel, KHOU 11 News)

Officers responded to the home on Crossvine Avenue. Harris County Sheriff's deputies have blocked off nearby streets in the neighborhood. 

The man's girlfriend told authorities he locked himself in a bathroom and threatened to harm himself. The girlfriend said he was armed with a gun. 

The woman said he formerly served in the Army and suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. 

We have a crew at the scene and will update this story as more information becomes available. go here for updates

Texas Veteran Committed Suicide After Police Standoff

Domestic-disturbance-turned-suicide prompts evacuations at Sherman apartments 
KXII FOX 12 News 
March 17, 2017

Around 4 p.m. police confirmed the man had taken his own life.

SHERMAN, Tex. (KXII) - Police say a domestic disturbance that prompted the evacuation of dozens of tenants of a popular Sherman apartment complex ended with the man involved taking his own life Friday afternoon. 

Police began responding just before 2 p.m. Friday to the Villas of Parkhaven on West FM-1417. Apartment management tells us a woman claiming to be the live-in girlfriend of a man who is ex-military suffering from post traumatic stress disorder told them she was assaulted by her boyfriend and came to them for help. read more here

Iraq Veteran Killed in Police Standoff

Police kill Eagle River veteran after standoff near Denver
Chugiak Eagle River Star
Tuesday, March 7, 2017

A former Eagle River resident and Marine reservist was shot and killed by police after a standoff near Denver on Friday.

According to the Denver Post, police in Englewood, Colorado were called Friday afternoon for a report that an armed man was barricaded inside a home holding several hostages. During the incident, police fatally shot Michael Kocher, 32, in the torso.

Kocher was profiled in a 2009 story in the Alaska Star in which he talked about a recent seven-month tour of duty in Iraq. In the story, Lance Cpl. Kocher is described as having worked in intelligence and communications while deployed with Delta Company, 4th Anti-Terrorism Battalion. He shared fond memories of sharing candy with Iraqi children while deployed with the Marines.

“All the convoys would take candy to toss to the kids,” he said, according to the profile written by Jill Fankhauser. “I’d always read that there were groups that would send over shipments of soccer balls and things like that to handout.”

Kocher told the Star he enlisted the help of his mother in Eagle River, who got donations of soccer balls, candy and stuffed animals for her son to give away to kids in Iraq. He also mused about missing home while deployed near the Syrian border and said he wasn’t a supporter of the war but wanted to serve despite his misgivings.

“Even when the war started, I didn’t particularly agree with the war,” he told the Star. “I knew other people my age there, so I figured I ought to be with them.”

According to the article, the 6-foot-8 Kocher studied political science at the University of Alaska Anchorage, where he was the first person to win a designated on-campus parking spot, the university reported in 2009.
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Soldier standoffs: Police Responding to Crisis After Combat

Soldier standoffs: Police, community respond to scars of war
Killeen Daily Herald
By Josh Sullivan and David Bryant | Herald staff writers
February 25, 2017

“It’s a case where the individual has bad PTSD, so confrontations bring back previous confrontations with the enemy, and there are proponents of a flashback that drives back their current behavior. Those are the sad ones.” Dr. Thomas Newton

Eric J. Shelton | Herald Soldier standoffs: Police, community respond to scars of war
FILE — Police officers draw their weapons during a crisis response after residents reported a man threatened others with a gun. Police have to deal with a medley of factors, from post-traumatic stress disorder to how long a veteran served, is taken into account in an effort to preserve life.

About 6:15 p.m. on a Friday, police responded to a call that a 30-year-old man had barricaded himself in his southwest Killeen home. The Killeen Police Department and the special weapons and tactics team engaged the man for nearly 10 hours before the standoff ended around 4:30 a.m.

While Army officials confirmed the man in the Feb. 10 standoff with Killeen police was a former Fort Hood soldier, information regarding the mental health status of individuals involved in similar incidents cannot be released, as it is protected health information, Fort Hood spokesman Christopher Haug said.

The man was taken into custody for evaluation after the standoff ended, according to Killeen Police Department spokeswoman Ofelia Miramontez. That’s not an unusual outcome for people who threaten self-harm, as long as there is no one else involved in the incident, she said.

Standoffs with police that involve either active-duty soldiers or veterans are nothing new. On Aug. 3, police shot a man in Copperas Cove after he aimed a rifle at them. On May 2, 2016, KPD was involved in a standoff from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. with an armed and suicidal active-duty soldier about 4 miles north of the Feb. 10 standoff. On March 23, 2015, KPD responded to a standoff in northwest Killeen with a man who neighbors said was a veteran. KPD handled these situations without incident.

That’s not as simple as it may seem, because police have to deal with a medley of factors. Everything from post-traumatic stress disorder to how long a veteran served is taken into account in an effort to carry out the preservation of life.
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Standoff With PTSD Veteran Ends With A Question

The veteran is facing charges, "Hernandez has been charged by the Office of the Hudson County Prosecutor with two counts of Attempted Murder of Police Officers; Unlawful Possession of a Firearm; Possession of a Firearm for an Unlawful Purpose; Eluding Police Officers; Resisting Arrest; and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer." 

But why isn't anyone else being held accountable considering how many times veterans reach this point after risking their lives for others?

An Army veteran, a mayor, and a police standoff
Nearby incident with police raises questions about warriors who come home
Hudson Reporter
by Al Sullivan
Reporter staff writer
Feb 12, 2017

“We teach these men how to fight and kill, but we don’t teach them how to come home and be civilized again. “I don’t know what set this man off. He may have seen the police cars and heard the sirens, and thought maybe he was back in Iraq. But I didn’t want to see this man die or anyone else get hurt because of this.”
Roque, a doctor, has worked with veterans in the past, mostly assisting in pain management. And he said he’s seen the troubles these veterans come home with, and the need for counseling that many never get.

WAITING AND WATCHING – Police waited with guns drawn outside the home on 57th Street for some resolution to the standoff in West New York. (Photos by Al Sullivan)

After standing behind an armored vehicle on 57th Street for nearly 12 hours last Saturday, Feb. 5, West New York Mayor Felix Roque had a lot of time to think about the harrowing event that took place in Hudson County that day, and what it means for how veterans are treated when they come home from war.

Earlier that day, a call came in to the police in North Bergen, a town that shares a border with West New York. Emmanuel Hernandez, 27, of West New York, had reportedly been seen inside a red Infiniti with a firearm on Kennedy Boulevard at about 2 a.m.

North Bergen police caught up with Hernandez – an Army veteran who served honorably in Iraq – at about 2:20 a.m. at the QuickChek on Kennedy Boulevard. When they approached him, he reportedly became defensive and, as he fled in his car, he allegedly ran over a cop’s foot and struck the police vehicle.

The officers chased Hernandez for several blocks into West New York, where he exited his vehicle in front of his residence at 608 57th St.

Mayor Roque said Hernandez, inside the house, saw these reports and became even more frightened.

“He kept saying he didn’t commit a crime,” said Mayor Roque, who was among several mediators talking to Hernandez via cellular phone during the standoff. Hernandez was also apparently in contact with his mother in Florida via another phone.
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Pasco Deputies Tried To Change End of Air Force Veteran's Life

Do not blame police for trying to change the way an Air Force veteran's life ended. Blame all of us because they tried to taser him and they also used pepper spray.

Tampa Air Force veteran, 34, dies after rampage, struggle with Pasco deputies
Tampa Bay Times
Dan Sullivan, Times Staff Writer
Friday, December 30, 2016

A deputy sprayed Sellinger with pepper spray, but that also had no effect, officials said. As the struggle continued, a deputy used a Taser a second time, knocking Sellinger to the ground.

LAND O'LAKES — An Air Force veteran who had been reported missing from Tampa died Thursday after a rampage a day earlier in Pasco County, where authorities say he assaulted a 70-year-old motorcyclist before a violent struggle with sheriff's deputies.

John Sellinger, 34, endured pepper spray and shocks from a Taser as he fought with deputies. After he was detained, he went into "distress," according to Pasco County sheriff's officials. Despite lifesaving efforts, he later died at a local hospital.

His exact cause of death was not immediately clear. It capped a bizarre chain of events that began Wednesday, when authorities received reports of several hit-and-run accidents in Hillsborough County.

Sellinger's wife, Laura, had reported him missing that day. He lived in a Seminole Heights house recently donated to his wife by the Gramatica Family Foundation. Both Sellingers had served in the Air Force. An improvised explosive device had detonated near Laura Sellinger in Iraq in 2006, causing a severe brain injury.

Standing outside the home Friday night, Laura Sellinger declined to comment publicly. But on Thursday, she posted a message to the social networking website LinkedIn.

"My husband died today, I wish I could make that up," she wrote. "I wish I could sit here today and tell you a different story, a tale that ends in a happier ending but this one is tragic."
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SWAT Standoff Ended After 11 Hours

Scottsbluff man arrested after 11-hour standoff
Star Herald
MAUNETTE LOEKS and DEAN TORSKE
Star-Herald Staff
August 20, 2016

UPDATE, 11:15 A.M.: Sheriff Mark Overman has confirmed reports that the man involved in the stand-off is a Vietnam veteran who has been suffering some recent emotional issues. Family members called in the report, but the man has mostly made threats to himself. 

Standoff nearing its sixth hour SHANA EMERICK/Courtesy Photo

Neighbor Shana Emrick provided photos of SWAT team and bomb robot teams readying at the site of a standoff Saturday.

After more than 11 hours, a standoff at a rural residence ended with officers taking the man into custody.

Scotts Bluff County Sheriff’s deputies and the Scottsbluff SWAT Team took Daniel Converse, 65, of Scottsbluff, into custody at about 6:45 p.m. Sheriff Mark Overman reported authorities had obtained a warrant for the man, charging him with two felony counts of terroristic threats.

“I am just proud of all of the efforts of all of the officers that we were able to get this resolved. It took quite a while, but we got it resolved peacefully,” Overman said.

The standoff began at about 7:30 a.m. when Scotts Bluff County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a residence at County Road H and County Road 19, about six miles west of Scottsbluff. A woman reported to deputies that a man at the residence was armed with a hand grenade. He was outside of the residence when deputies initially arrived, but went back into the residence.

“They (deputies) challenged him and tried to get him to stop, but he retreated into his house,” Overman said. “He was holding something in his hands that deputies said was the size and shape of a grenade.”
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We Will Never Know The Total Suicide Price Paid

Leading Cause of Death for Veterans is Us
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 13, 2016

Experts spent enough years knowing no one will ever really know how many veterans commit suicide.  As bad as the reported numbers of "22 a day" or the most recent "20 a day" according to the VA, there are far more no one ever puts into their spreadsheets.

CDC 10 Leading Causes of Death covers suicide by age group as well as other causes. The total in 2014 was 42,773 suicides in America.  While most Americans face crisis situations, they were not "trained" to survive them. Young veterans were trained. Older veterans were not.

They have been trained in "prevention" for a decade yet these young male veterans are triple their peer rate on suicides. Young female veterans are twelve times their civilian peer rate. Every state has been reporting their suicide rate for veterans is double the civilian population and the vast majority of them are over the age of 50. 

So look at the CDC numbers, use the math and you arrive at over 26,000 a year, but you are still not near the true number.

The word "veteran" is debatable and some do not consider themselves "veteran" if they were in the National Guard or Reserves or the Coast Guard. 

Some were given less than honorable discharges and they are not counted. 

Some "cause of deaths" are not so obvious like overdoes, single vehicle crashes and the ones who simply vanish.

Then there are the times when a veteran faces off with law enforcement.  They are not counted as a price of providing retention of our freedoms.



Ron Smith turned to the crisis line.  He ended up dead after a confrontation with police officers. They had to be called because he was suicidal. One of those nasty rules that have to be followed when someone is a danger to themselves or someone else.  It is one of those things that we know we have to do because we cannot just say the words "we are raising awareness" and then go watch TV. 

Folks working at the Crisis Line face far more every time they pick up the phone. They know the call could be something as simple as listening to a veteran in the middle of the night trying to make sense of a nightmare. Or a veteran needing to talk just because he needs someone to let him know he still matters.

It the right thing to do when there is a life on the line. It is also one of the hardest things to decide needs to be done or not.  Guess wrong and either a veteran is pissed off because they were not "serious" or do not call and they pull the trigger.

Calling police means the veteran is facing a life or death moment but you also know you are subjecting police officers to it as well.  Sometimes it ends up good, the veteran puts down the weapon, no shots are fired and he/she gets the emergency care they need to stay alive and be pissed off at you. Other times it does not end so great.

Ron Smith ended up dead and Kevin Higgins ended up dead too in Wisconsin. 

In the last eight days before Kevin died, he tried calling six different crisis hotlines to simply vent his thoughts. Nicole’s phone shows multiple calls to the lines, though Kevin's phone is still in possession of the police and the crisis lines are anonymous.
“There was one, a combat crisis hotline that we found,” Nicole said. “And a veteran on there did speak with him from a little before midnight until like four in the morning… All he wanted to do was talk. He just needed an outlet.”

On July 17, Kevin robbed the Union Avenue Tap and raised an assault rifle at officers who responded, prompting them to fire six bullets into him.
She doesn't blame the officers who shot her husband to death that night. She said the officers were just defending themselves from a crime, but that the incident could have been stopped long before July 17. 

But it isn't just about calls to the Crisis Line. It happened in South Carolina when James Jennings Jr. ended up dead.

Kirk Shahan, Marine Iraq veteran faced off with police officers in Detroit. He ended up living and was taken to the hospital. 

In California it was another suicidal veteran facing off with police

"deputies confronted another 26-year-old man — who they later identified as a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder — after he was spotted waving a machete at passers-by in Shingletown, they said.

Dispatchers just before 1 a.m. received reports of the man waving the machete near Reed's Market on Highway 44.

Deputies found the man walking along the highway and spotted him holding a machete.

He put down the machete and knelt to the ground on deputies' orders, before putting a knife to his neck and telling deputies he wrote a letter, which they took to mean a suicide note, Ruiz said.

Deputies talked to the man in an attempt to get him to drop the knife, which he did after several minutes, according to the Sheriff's Office.

They detained the man, eventually learning he was a veteran from another California county who had been unable to find work since his release from the military, Ruiz said."

Month after month reports from all over the country come in and it all adds up to there are more dead after war than during them. What was learned after Vietnam has turned into a shorter life as "veteran" survivor because what experts spent years understanding so they could actually change the outcome has been tossed aside, much like our veterans have been.

If you want to know who is to blame for this suicide, this sums it up.

Davenport vet's suicide at center of VA talks

Woody's counterpart in Cedar County, Iowa, Patty Hamann, talked about the frustration of referring veterans to VA programs that no longer exist. Word didn't reach the trenches. She also talked about a VA doctor who died suddenly. Some vets had built an enormous bond with this psychiatrist and had been seeing him for years.

"We eventually were notified by mail," she said.

In Brandon's case, Hamann said, someone should have reached out to him when he went home.

The 33-year-old was a Marine and Army sergeant and served three deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. We know for sure that he asked for an emergency appointment. We know he was suicidal. He died alone.

Even though Brandon had been diagnosed with PTSD, was taking anti-depressants and had been battling alcohol and drug addiction, the Army sent him to Afghanistan for his third deployment.

Ask the Vietnam vets. They'll tell you that was crazy. They'll tell you it's no wonder so many of our young veterans are coming apart at the seams. The country has asked too much of them, and when they ask back, the country isn't there.

Barb Ickes wrote that on Quad City Times today. She has been doing a good job of telling a story that did not have to happen. Brandon Ketchum became dead because too little attention has been paid to what has been happening all along.

They are also to blame for many, more more. These veterans, along with current military, were trained in "prevention" yet it turns out they have been prevented from healing. But, hey, just keep talking about them as if they are just numbers.  Anything that lets you sleep at night because facing the truth has been a nightmare for our veterans.

PTSD Veteran Dead After Confronting Police

Family remembers veteran killed in confrontation with Pickaway County deputies
WCMH News
By Olivia Fecteau
Published: August 10, 2016

That crisis line communication was what brought Pickaway County Sheriff’s deputies to Ron Smith’s house in Mount Sterling. Deputies said when they arrived, they found Smith with a long rifle. Smith died after a confrontation with the deputies, both of whom were military veterans themselves. Sheriff Robert Radcliff said it was not clear who fired the fatal shot.

CHILLICOTHE, OH (WCMH) — Military service ran in the family for Ron Smith. He survived a war, serving in the United States Army during Desert Storm. His father and other relatives were also in the service.

Now, his family is grieving after the 45-year-old was killed Tuesday in a confrontation with Pickaway County Sheriff’s deputies.

Diane Smith, Ron Smith’s mother, said her son was receiving care at the Columbus Veterans Affairs medical center as recently as last week, as well as the VA center in Chillicothe and Grant Medical Center in Columbus. She said the family was not happy with his care through the VA.

“It seemed like they could just never figure out what was going on,” Diane Smith said.

Her husband, Ron’s father Larry Smith, said they received a call from their daughter-in-law early Tuesday morning telling them Ron had been in a confrontation with deputies and did not survive.
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South Carolina PTSD Veteran Died in Standoff with Deputies

Sheriff: Man Who Died in Standoff with Deputies Had PTSD 
WLTX News 
August 09, 2016

Richland County deputies respond to a standoff

with a man in Little Mountain on August 9, 2016.

(Photo: WLTX)

Richland County, SC (WLTX) - Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott says the man who died in a confrontation with his deputies Monday night was a military veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
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SWAT Standoff Man Killed In Coltart Was Former Marine

Cove police ID man shot in SWAT standoff; Coltart was former Marine
Killeen Daily Herald
Clay Thorp
August 4, 2016

COPPERAS COVE — Cove police identified the 41-year-old man who pointed a rifle at police in Copperas Cove Wednesday, and was subsequently shot by police officers.

The man was identified by police as Alexander Scott Coltart, a former Marine.

Donald Byers, who lives in the North 17th Street neighborhood where Coltart was shot following a standoff with Cove police, said the neighborhood is usually “nice and quiet.” It’s a middle-class neighborhood of brick homes and hilly streets.

But the peace and quiet Byers has come to enjoy over some 30 years was broken Wednesday when a man was shot on the sidewalk across the street from Byers’ home after Copperas Cove police said they tried to arrest the man on a felony warrant.
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Police Standoff With PTSD Veteran Ends with Beanbags

Police use beanbags guns to end armed standoff in Holyoke
Associated Press
July 15, 2016

The chief says he thinks the 26-year-old man served in the Army and may have been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He says there may be other weapons in the home.

HOLYOKE, Mass. (AP) - A six-hour standoff between police and an armed and distraught veteran barricaded inside his Holyoke home has ended with no major injuries.

Police Chief James Neiswanger (NICE’-wong-er) says the standoff ended at about 1 a.m. Friday when police used beanbag rounds to disable the man when he stepped outside with a rifle on his chest.
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Veteran Marine Confrontation With Police Sign of Need For PTSD Training

Video shows Marine with PTSD in dangerous confrontation with police officers Could proper PTSD training for officers help avoid such violent arrests?
Click on Detroit
By Kevin Dietz - Reporter
Posted:June 27, 2016

A terrifying traffic stop caught on video shows a highly-trained and decorated war veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder squaring off with police officers.

The officers were armed with guns and Tasers. The confrontation ended with a trip to the hospital and jail.

The war veteran, Kirk Shahan, is a Marine who was shot at plenty of times on the battlefield while serving his country overseas. Now, back home, he was Tased during a violent traffic stop in the suburbs of Detroit.

Shahan knows all about war. He credits one American flag for his survival during tours in Okinawa, Iraq and Kuwait.

"I carried it in my flack jacket in case something ever happened, that way I would be buried with the U.S. flag," he said.

He saw plenty of death on the battlefield.

"Saw things people shouldn't see. I've done things people shouldn't have done. If I had done those things stateside, I would probably be in prison. Now, they throw a medal on your chest," he said.

Shahan carried his friends' bodies back to safe zones so they could have proper burials.
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