Judge orders more treatment for troubled vet with gun

Judge orders more treatment for troubled vet with gun
By Laurence Hammack
The Roanoke Times
November 24, 2012
ROANOKE

Sean Duvall will continue to receive the help he sought the night of June 8, 2011, when the depressed veteran called a suicide crisis line - only to be charged with possessing the homemade gun he nearly turned on himself.

Federal prosecutors, who charged Duvall with four felonies after his call for help, asked Wednesday that he be kicked out of the Veterans Treatment Court. Duvall was placed in the program, designed to offer treatment to veterans struggling with substance abuse and mental illness, after his arrest sparked controversy earlier this year.

Duvall, 46, spent a week wandering around town in 2011, sinking deeper in depression and coming closer to using a gun he had made to kill himself.

After calling a toll-free help line run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Duvall agreed to wait in a parking lot at Virginia Tech until a police officer arrived. read more here