71 year old veteran faced off with SWAT at VA hospital

Flash grenade ends standoff at VA office
A 71-year-old veteran from Creswell is taken to the hospital after a SWAT team defuses a tense confrontation

BY JACK MORAN
The Register-Guard
A Eugene police SWAT team on Wednesday used a percussion grenade to end a standoff with a military veteran who allegedly threatened to shoot a local Veterans Affairs clinic manager and later pointed a shotgun at a federal police officer who works at the facility.

Eugene police took 71-year-old Milan Jackie Boon into custody following the standoff, which ended shortly after noon in the parking lot of the VA clinic at 100 River Ave.

Boon, a Creswell resident, was cited on charges of menacing, pointing a firearm at another person, unlawful use of a firearm and disorderly conduct. He was not jailed, police said.

Though Boon had blood on his face when he was loaded into an ambulance, he did not suffer serious injuries in the incident, police Lt. Doug Mozan said.

According to police and a VA spokeswoman, an employee of the clinic notified police at 11:24 a.m. that an agitated veteran had arrived there a short time earlier.

The man complained about what he perceived as subpar service, then allegedly told the clinic’s operations manager that he would shoot her with a shotgun. Police later recovered the weapon from Boon’s Plymouth minivan, which he had parked in a handicapped spot in the clinic’s front lot.

“He was upset,” VA spokeswoman Sharon Carlson said. “We can’t determine exactly why. When he came in, he stated that the (clinic) staff wasn’t doing anything.”

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Flash grenade ends standoff at VA office