War Veteran With PTSD Holds Hostages and Demands Treatment

Iraq war veteran holds hostage, wants treatment 

HERINGTON, Kan. – A veteran of the Iraq war who held his family hostage and wore military armor during a standoff with police surrendered only after being assured he would receive help for post-traumatic stress disorder, police said.

The 33-year-old Fort Riley soldier, whose name was not released because he had not been charged, locked himself and his family inside his Herington home Sunday night. He released his family shortly after the incident began but surrendered only after talking to a Herington police officer who had befriended him, police Chief John Pritchard said.

Pritchard said Tuesday that the man would undergo psychiatric evaluation at Fort Riley before the Dickinson County attorney will decide what, if any, charges will be filed.

"Our first concern was to get help for the family and him," Pritchard said. "At the same time, we're finishing our investigation so the county attorney can determine how to proceed."  continued…

Police went to the man's home about 8:30 p.m. after receiving a call that he was holding his wife and four children hostage. After releasing his family shortly after officers arrived, the man put on military body armor and said he wanted to "go down in a blaze of glory," Pritchard said.

Pritchard said the man had nine loaded firearms, including two assault rifles, in the house. The man did not point a weapon at officers during the standoff, but officers saw him with a weapon in a backyard several times, he said.

After refusing to talk to other officers, the man said he would talk to Herington police officer Curtis Hartman, who had befriended the man and visited him at his home.

Hartman talked to the man for about an hour before the soldier agreed to surrender.

"I think it was that rapport that helped resolve the issue the way it was," Pritchard said. "When he surrendered, he told the officer, 'I did this for you. You treated me like a person, and I appreciate it.'"

Pritchard said one of the conditions of the man's surrender was that he receive treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, from which the man believed he was suffering because of his service in Iraq. Pritchard said he didn't know when or how long the man had served.

Hartman wouldn't discuss specifics of the conversation but said the man talked about what was bothering him and about getting help.

"I got him to where he would remove his body armor and put down his weapons and listen carefully as I told him how he could come out of his house so there would be no harm to him or to any of our officers or to anyone else," Hartman said.

The man attempted suicide after being placed in a holding cell at the Herington Police Department and was treated for minor injuries before being taken by ambulance to Fort Riley, at about midnight Sunday, Pritchard said.

Pvt. Francisca Vega, a spokeswoman for Fort Riley, said Tuesday the man is a sergeant with the rear detachment of 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry, which is currently in Iraq. He has been deployed at least twice, and at least one of those deployments was to Iraq, Vega said.

She said the man has been admitted to Salina Regional Medical Center but couldn't say whether he was being evaluated or treated there.

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