A person charged with threatening to assassinate President Joe Biden claims he's affected by put up traumatic stress dysfunction (PTSD) stemming from when he killed a baby whereas serving in Afghanistan.
Scott Merryman, a 37-year-old contractor from Independence, Kansas, was arrested in Washington, D.C., in January after allegedly threatening quite a lot of people, together with quite a few U.S. Secret Service brokers, reportedly telling them he had "a bullet together with your identify on it."
Most notably, nevertheless, have been alleged threats made towards the White Home and President Biden. Merryman at one level allegedly instructed Secret Service brokers that he was coming to Washington, D.C., to "lop off the pinnacle of the serpent within the coronary heart of the nation," which the brokers took as being directed towards the president.
Following his arrest, additional particulars have been launched about Merryman after his court-appointed attorneys despatched a letter to a Baltimore federal decide on his behalf. The letter, printed Sunday, revealed that Merryman has a historical past of extreme psychological sickness.
The letter describes Merryman as having a "adorned" profession within the army throughout a five-year span as a U.S. Military Airborne parachutist. He reportedly enlisted within the Military on the age of 20 and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2007.
His attorneys record quite a lot of traumatic occasions that led to Merryman ultimately affected by PTSD. Most notably was an incident during which Merryman "inadvertently killed a younger little one who had been standing subsequent to a Taliban fighter taking pictures an AK-47 on the troops," in keeping with the letter.
Plenty of bodily accidents that Merryman suffered additionally reportedly contributed to his battles with psychological sickness.
"The emotional and bodily toll of [Merryman's] time in Afghanistan was in depth," the letter stated. "After his discharge from the Military, [Merryman] linked with psychological well being suppliers by his native [Veteran's Affairs] clinic."
The letter famous that, regardless of these therapies, Merryman "continued to wrestle with psychological sickness."
This contains quite a lot of suicide makes an attempt, together with cases in 2008, 2011, and 2018. The latest incident was this previous June, during which Merryman needed to be hospitalized for 4 days following one other try.
Regardless of the historical past of psychological sickness, the letter acknowledged that after Merryman was launched from the hospital, "no inpatient intervention was supplied by the VA. As soon as Scott was medically steady, he was discharged from the hospital on to outpatient care solely."
The letter describes Merryman's general psychological well being as having "declined precipitously" starting in 2021. Because of this, he was flagged as "excessive threat for suicide" in his VA file.
All through the remainder of 2021, Merryman's psychological well being fluctuated, and his spouse reportedly kicked him out of his home this previous December as a consequence of issues over his habits. He then left for Washington, D.C., roughly one month later along with his alleged plan to assassinate the president.
Because the court docket case continues, Merryman's attorneys have reportedly requested the VA to "assume duty for proposing a therapy plan...that would offer [Merryman] with the care [he] wants and in addition tackle the security issues raised by the Courtroom."
One among his attorneys, Elizabeth Genevieve Oyer, instructed The Day by day Beast that, "The prison costs that Scott is dealing with are the results of an acute psychological well being disaster. Sadly...the VA didn't intervene and supply the assistance he wanted."
Merryman stays in custody on costs of threatening the president, in addition to interstate communications containing a risk.
Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. Division of Protection (DOD) and the U.S. Division of Veterans Affairs for remark.
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