Disabled vet taken into custody after threatening to shoot deputies
By David Gambino
For the Enquirer
A disabled veteran with PTSD who threatened to shoot Morgan County Sheriff’s Office deputies responding to a domestic violence 911 call early Jan. 9 was successfully taken into custody unharmed, according to an investigator’s affidavit filed in Morgan County District Court.
“While enroute, dispatch advised the male subject was yelling, ‘send everyone, I’m going to shoot every one of them,’” the affidavit reads. “They also advised the male subject had access to a shotgun and rifle and was a disabled veteran with PTSD. The male advised dispatch that he could make a pipe bomb in the time it was taking for a response.”
Sgt. Tony Bowden, Deputy Blake Curtis and Deputy Tyler Pepper responded to the 300 block of Perkins Wood Road in Hartselle shortly after 1 a.m. and were greeted by the veteran in the home’s driveway. The veteran was behaving aggressively and wanted to fight the deputies, according to the affidavit, but was held back by his son.
Due to the threat, deputies held the veteran at gunpoint and instructed him to get on the ground. He did not comply, according to the affidavit.
“His son advised he did not have any weapons on him, and we could visibly see his hands and waistline to confirm he did not have any weapons,” the affidavit reads.
Deputies then approached the veteran and went “hands on,” according to the affidavit, forcefully detaining him after he resisted.
Afterward, a female witness told deputies that the veteran recently stayed at a Veteran’s Affairs hospital for 30 days and “changed his medicine around,” according to the affidavit.
“She advised that in the last 2 to 3 weeks, (the veteran) has started drinking heavily and having nightmares and started acting like a completely different person,” the affidavit reads.
On the morning of the 911 call, the woman got into a verbal argument with the veteran, according to the affidavit. When she picked up the phone to call for help, he “smacked her hand out of the way … and started threatening to harm her and everyone else in the house.”
Deputies charged the veteran with third-degree domestic violence, a class A misdemeanor, and booked him into the Morgan County Jail. He was released the next day on a $300 bond, according to jail records.
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Veterans
There are roughly 9,000 veterans living in Morgan County, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Over 90% of them are men.
“Law enforcement is not that good at dealing with veterans,” said Heather Collins, co-founder and project manager of Vets Like Us. “It’s not their fault; they’re just not trained properly.”
Vets Like Us, located at 1605 Beltline Road in Decatur, is what the VA calls a “neighborhood program.” Heather Collins’ husband, Don, and son, Patrick, who served with the Army in Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan, respectively, are cofounders. The nonprofit works with the VA to help ensure area veterans are receiving the benefits and support they deserve.
Sheriff Ron Puckett said all deputies go through crisis intervention training and several have completed crisis negotiation training.
“Mental health resources continue to be a great need across our communities,” he said. “Our deputies regularly interact with individuals that exhibit mental health needs, as in this case of a veteran dealing with PTSD.”
The sergeant on the scene, Bowden, served with the Army in Afghanistan, according to MCSO spokesman Mike Swafford.
Generally, however, Collins said law enforcement officers are “too quick” to react when dealing with veterans.
“Of course, if I thought somebody was going to shoot me, I’d be reacting, too,” she said. “But there’s a difference between seeing and listening to someone that’s wanting to take their own life, and someone who’s out to take somebody else’s life.
“Most of the time with our veterans, that’s what’s happening to them — they want somebody to shoot them. They’re hoping. They don’t really want to shoot themselves, but they just want to give somebody a reason to do it and take them out of their misery.”
Better training and understanding the “human aspect” of what veterans might be dealing with can go a long way in helping law enforcement appropriately respond to veterans in crisis, according to Collins.
“When you’re over there and you’re playing cards with a group of your friends one night, and the next morning they go out and their tank gets blown up, and you have to go out and get a couple of fellas to help you pick up body parts, all of the sudden your whole life has changed,” she said. “Your mental capacity has changed. And so, we need to understand these types of things.”
Collins said the best way to support area veterans is to just listen. She frequently receives referral phone calls from struggling veterans.
“They start talking and I just listen,” she said. “I just listen. And all of the sudden, they’ll pop up and say, ‘Mrs. Collins, you’ve been such a great help.’ I didn’t do anything, I just listened. Nobody listens anymore.”
