iraq War vet waves gun at church goers, police use brains

NOVANEWS

Saint Bernadette Catholic Church near Indian School Rd. and Juan Tabo Blvd. in northeast Albuquerque

This happened last Sunday. An Iraq veteran lives across the street from a church and decided to wave a gun as people arrived for worship. Why? According to the report he didn’t want them parking in front of his house. The police put the church on lockdown. No one knew what was going on. In the end, the police used their brains and the veteran was brought to the VA hospital.

Iraq War vet waves gun at church goers

Posted at: 01/23/2011 4:26 PM | Updated at: 01/23/2011 6:11 PM
By: Jeff Maher, KOB Eyewitness News 4; Taryn Bianchin, KOB.com

Dozens of worshippers in northeast Albuquerque experienced a frightening ordeal Sunday morning after a man waved a gun at them to prevent them from parking on his street.

It happened just before 8 a.m. near Saint Bernadette Catholic Church near Indian School Rd. and Juan Tabo Blvd.

Investigators say the man who waved the gun at people is a 25-year-old Iraq war veteran who is likely suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. “Apparently this man was unhappy about churchgoers in front of his home so he was sort of waving them off as they were trying to park there,” explained APD Deputy Chief Beth Paiz.

The veteran was not charged because police say he didn’t hurt or directly threaten anyone. Officers did find a lot of weapons inside his home.

The man, whose name was not released, was taken to the Veteran’s Hospital in Albuquerque for a mental health assessment. click link to watch the video report

Is he one more of the veterans we read about everyday not getting the help they need? We need to understand that according to the reports coming out less than half seek help for PTSD. Is this veteran one of them? We don’t know but what we do know is clearly this veteran needed help but, for whatever reason, he didn’t get it before he decided to take a gun out in front of his house as people arrived to go to church.

What if this had ended up differently? What if he shot someone? What if the police didn’t stop and think about what was going on with this veteran? How does a man go from being willing to die for this country to being able to pull out a gun on people just trying to go to church? One more warning sign we are not taking care of the troops when they come home.