Vet's propensity for threats and gun-wielding date to at least 2006 when he was accused of storming his ex-wife's house with an assault rifle and threatening to shoot her.

NOTE from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... Earlier this week we brought you the story about a man who tried to "storm" the Marion, IL VA facility.  That article here ...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfoct09/nf101409-4.htm

Now, we learn he is a veteran (of four months) and has a very disturbing past.

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Papers: Jailed vet has history of menacing conduct

By JIM SUHR (AP)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5
ibQWRnQHk84utR0EaTc2EPmMh9_QD9BCBQR01

ST. LOUIS — An Army veteran being held on charges that he threatened a shooting rampage at a Veterans Affairs hospital in southern Illinois has a history of menacing behavior involving family and firearms, court records show.

Mark Harmon, 29, waived a hearing Thursday over the U.S. government's request that he remain jailed until being tried on one count of possessing a firearm on federal property with the intent to commit a crime.

Police at the VA hospital in Marion, Ill., arrested Harmon last week after he told a nurse by telephone that he was armed and was "going to fill that place with lead," according to an affidavit filed in court by Roy Thompson, acting chief of the site's police force.

Authorities found a loaded Glock 23 semiautomatic handgun, a magazine filled with 13 bullets and 13 loose rounds of ammunition in Harmon's truck, Thompson wrote.

Court papers do not detail what grievance Harmon may have had with the VA hospital, roughly 80 miles from his home in Shawneetown, Ill.

Though Harmon's legal scrapes since 2006 included a judge's order that he seek treatment for substance abuse and anger issues, it's unclear whether those problems were tied to his military service dating to his 1997 enlistment in the Army Reserves.

Harmon signed up for a three-year stint in the active-duty Army in January 2007 and was stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky. But just four months later, he was discharged under an "administrative separation." Reasons for such partings may be made public only if the soldier signs off on the disclosure.

Details about any mental health issues Harmon may have had while in the military are confidential under medical privacy laws, said Ray Gall, a spokesman for the records-keeping Army Human Resources Command in St. Louis.

Harmon's Army Reserve units were mobilized at least three times between January 2002 and November 2003, but there's no indication he spent time overseas or in combat, Gall said.

Calls to the Shawneetown home of Harmon's parents went unanswered Friday. His ex-wife, Ashley Price, does not have a telephone listing, and his public defender did not return messages Friday from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Court records in his native Gallatin County, Ill., show Harmon's propensity for threats and gun-wielding date to at least November 2006, when he was accused of storming his ex-wife's house with an assault rifle and threatening to shoot her.

Felony home invasion and aggravated assault charges were tossed out by a judge the next month, court records show without explaining why.

But prosecutors refiled those charges in June 2007 after Harmon went to his father's home armed with an assault rifle and handgun, then threatened to kill his parents and shoot any police who tried to intervene, Shawneetown Police Chief Robert Patton said this week.

Prescribed medication Harmon had taken caused him to nod off, enabling his parents to sneak out to safety, Patton said. With the house surrounded by heavily armed police, Harmon was awakened when the telephone rang, noticed he was alone and bolted from the house before being arrested outside, Patton said.

As a result of the standoff, Harmon was charged with two counts apiece of aggravated assault, misdemeanor unlawful use of a weapon and disorderly conduct.

In November 2007, prosecutors dropped those charges in exchange for his guilty plea to a misdemeanor count alleging that he damaged Price's table in September 2006.

Harmon was ordered to spend two years on probation and seek treatment for substance abuse, unspecified "past trauma issues" and anger management, court records show. He also was required to undergo random drug screening and was barred from certain areas of Shawneetown, including three taverns.

In September 2008, Harmon was accused of pushing Price during a domestic dispute and damaging her cell phone and computer. Those charges were dropped the next month when Price refused to prosecute her ex.

In a financial affidavit filed with the latest charges, Harmon lists himself as a full-time student and divorced father of two who during the past year has drawn $2,700 in financial aid.

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TOPICS: veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs, Mark N. Harmon