Vietnam vet given 10 years' probation for shooting at Watauga police

Vietnam vet given 10 years' probation for shooting at Watauga police
Posted Monday, Aug. 29, 2011
BY DOMINGO RAMIREZ JR.
ramirez@star-telegram.com
FORT WORTH - A Vietnam veteran has been sentenced to 10 years' probation for shooting at police during a standoff in 2009 when the officers went to his Watauga home to check on his welfare.
No officer was injured in the standoff that lasted more than nine hours.

SWAT officers shot at least six rounds of a chemical agent into his home before they rushed in and tackled the troubled veteran.

Ronnie Crowder, 59, was sentenced to probation with deferred adjudication last week in Criminal District Court No. 213 on the charge of attempted capital murder.

Crowder joined the Marines when he was 17 and was an artilleryman in Vietnam, serving two tours, his wife told the Star-Telegram in a 2009 interview.

He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and for years has been treated by psychiatrists from Veteran Affairs. He then contracted diabetes and throat cancer which forced doctors to remove his larynx in May 2009. At that time, he also had to take nourishment through a tube in his stomach.
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