Authorities: Fatigues-clad vet kills self in Ohio
An Iraq War veteran wearing military fatigues stood in predawn quiet Friday at a monument to soldiers and fatally shot himself with an assault rifle outside the Veterans Affairs medical center where he had been a patient, authorities said.
Police said Jesse C. Huff, 27, fired a second round into his head after he survived a first shot. Authorities said he had appeared to have no intention of harming anyone else, although police searched a military-type backpack near the body and also Huff's van. The police bomb squad detonated the backpack as a precaution.
Officials at the VA center indicated that Huff hadn't been considered at high risk for a suicide attempt or had ever made alarming statements. Bill Wall, a VA clinical social worker who leads programs at the center for Iraq-Afghanistan veterans, said the Army veteran had been injured by an explosive device in Iraq.
Huff entered the Army April 15, 2003 as an infantryman and was promoted to the rank of specialist in 2005 before being discharged on June 15, 2007, said Army spokesman Wayne Hall.
Hospital officials said they couldn't release any other information about Huff's condition or visits to the center, but spokeswoman Donna Simmons said he was seen around 1 a.m. Friday, nearly five hours before the shooting.
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Wall said it's difficult to explain why Huff chose to kill himself where he did.
"This was a place where he felt comfortable, where he felt safe, which sounds paradoxical," Wall said. "It wasn't an angry, in-your-face type of thing."
He added: "Suicides in general are about emotional pain." -->-->-->
Cousin: Vet who killed self in Ohio changed by war
The cousin of an Iraq War veteran who killed himself outside a Veterans Affairs medical center in Ohio says serving in the war "affected him mentally."
Jason Osborne of Wilson, N.C. says 27-year-old Jesse Huff "went through a lot after he got out" and "wasn't the same when he came back." -->-->-->














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