Docs Element Wannabe Biden Murderer and Ex-Military Paratrooper Scott Ryan Merryman’s Downward Spiral

A Kansas man accused of threatening to assassinate President Joe Biden is a former Military paratrooper who suffers crippling PTSD from his service in Afghanistan, the place he was concerned in a “chaotic” firefight wherein he by accident killed a younger little one standing subsequent to a Taliban fighter.

That’s in accordance with new courtroom filings reviewed by The Every day Beast, which supply extra perception into the alleged threats.

Scott Ryan Merryman, 37, was arrested final month after claiming he had been instructed by God to “lop off the pinnacle of the serpent within the coronary heart of the nation,” which allegedly meant murdering Biden by delivering a “deadly head wound,” states a legal criticism filed Jan. 28 in Baltimore federal courtroom. Merryman, who now works as a building contractor, was intercepted by the Secret Service within the car parking zone of a Hagerstown, Maryland, Cracker Barrel, the place he knowledgeable brokers he “needed to ship a message to President Biden, and advise him that individuals had been fed up with the divisiveness within the nation and to show again to God (or go to hell),” the submitting explains.

After making “quite a few feedback about God, being guided by God, cloaked within the ‘blood of the lamb,’ and armored by God,” Merryman was taken into custody by police, who discovered a loaded journal for a .45 on him and a recognizing scope in his backpack, which Merryman stated was for “recon,” warning he was “coming for his bitch ass sleepy Joe,” prosecutors declare.

Merryman had a “embellished” five-year stint in Military Airborne, enlisting in 2005 on the age of 20, his court-appointed legal professionals stated in a letter despatched Monday to Chief Choose James Ok. Breder of the federal district courtroom in Baltimore. He spent 15 months in Afghanistan, the place he was a member of a tactical human intelligence staff and labored at a prisoner of battle camp.

Whereas there, Merryman saved the lifetime of a fellow soldier who had been shot, the letter says. However he additionally skilled extreme “battle trauma” from witnessing the demise of his accomplice and inadvertently taking pictures and killing an harmless little one.

“The emotional and bodily toll of Scott’s time in Afghanistan was intensive,” states the letter. “Whereas nonetheless within the Military, Scott was hospitalized for 5 days in 2008 with suicidal ideas. He was hospitalized once more in 2009, this time for 2 weeks, attributable to unstable psychological well being and modifications in medicine.”

U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Maryland

Contents

• 1 U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Maryland
• 2 Liz Oyer, Esq.
• 3 U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Maryland

Merryman later grew to become hooked on oxycodone after again surgical procedure in 2010 that “did not alleviate extreme continual ache ensuing from his airborne service.” He retired from the Military as disabled in Might of that yr, having earned quite a few medals, the letter says.

However health-care professionals haven’t been capable of successfully deal with Merryman’s psychological well being points, his legal professionals contend, claiming this led to an intense downward spiral culminating in Merryman’s arrest final month on prices that he deliberate to kill the president.

Merryman’s first suicide try got here in 2011, after then-Rep. Mike Pompeo’s workplace helped the disabled veteran get a mattress in an acute psychiatric unit at a VA hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the letter says.

In 2018, Merryman’s attorneys say a good friend of his known as the VA disaster line over concern that Merryman “had voiced suicidal ideations and was in a darkish place.” He then started therapy for PTSD and melancholy, in accordance with the letter.

“Scott’s psychological well being once more declined precipitously in 2021,” it explains. “On March 30, 2021, Scott was admitted to the emergency room affected by extreme melancholy, suicidal ideation, and alcohol intoxication.”

The VA then positioned Merryman on its “Suicide Excessive Threat Listing,” and his then-girlfriend tried to get him into inpatient therapy in his hometown of Topeka, however Merryman as a substitute opted for outpatient counseling and group remedy. In late Might 2021, Merryman known as the VA “in disaster.” His father obtained on the cellphone, telling a therapist that Merryman had tried suicide a number of instances over the previous few days. The VA stated they might “notify his psychological well being supplier for follow-up,” and as a substitute of being admitted to the hospital, police took Merryman into custody in a single day.

With out correct medical intervention, Merryman continued to say no, his legal professionals declare. Final June, Merryman tried suicide once more and needed to be airlifted to a trauma middle. After 4 days within the hospital, Merryman was launched.

“Regardless of his household’s finest efforts, no inpatient intervention was supplied by the VA,” the letter continues. “As soon as Scott was medically secure, he was discharged from the hospital on to outpatient care solely.”

Liz Oyer, Esq.

Upon finishing a 21-day stint in rehab for alcohol abuse final July, Merryman loved a interval of “relative stability,” in accordance with his attorneys. In August, he married his girlfriend Hannah, and started organizing occasions for veterans and their households. However after spending 10 days with out having the ability to get off the sofa, Merryman’s spouse grew to become involved that he is perhaps bipolar.

In December, Merryman reportedly informed his spouse he was going to kill himself. A gaggle of veteran mates had been capable of get Merryman right into a rehab program in Pennsylvania, and hoped for the perfect. Nonetheless, he checked himself out after every week, and flew again to Kansas.

It was at this level that Merryman’s troubles compounded. He informed his spouse that “they’re going to be a warrior staff to do issues for God,” and that “she simply must let him do what God is asking him to do,” his legal professionals stated, noting that Merryman informed his therapist that he was nice and that “God has been letting him know what he must do.”

Per week earlier than Christmas, a number of mates of Merryman’s—who had by now stopped taking his medicine—started expressing issues about his psychological well being.

“Mark my phrases given freely from Christ… you’re in it,” Merryman wrote on Fb. “Do I wish to die by the beast and have my flesh rot within the streets for 3 days. You assume Hannah is a large number proper now? Wait til she lives out this prophecy being fulfilled by the King of Kings in me. Lifeless at 40 going out like a rock begin [sic] doing God’s work for His kingdom and glory. Get on the practice. Choo choooo. It’s leaving quickly. Somebody get me a shot of Thorazine.”

U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Maryland

The VA’s suicide prevention coordinator known as the Jap Kansas VA to rearrange emergency inpatient take care of Merryman, however was informed that “we do not need any accessible beds in acute psychiatry right now,” in accordance with his legal professionals’ letter.

Over the vacations, Merryman’s spouse kicked him out of the home over her kids’s issues about his habits, and he moved in along with his dad. On the identical time, his VA medicine supplier left for a brand new job, and Merryman reduce off contact along with his medical doctors.

On Jan. 25, Merryman left Kansas and drove to the D.C. space with an alleged plan to kill Joe Biden.

“There might be a miracle on the White Home,” Merryman posted on Fb the following day. “I imagine Joe Biden is the AntiChrist now and he’ll endure a deadly head wound. I’ll deal that wound in Christ’s title. Bro…. That is getting deep. And I’m going to do it with bullets and no gun… I’m combating for the souls of this nice nation.”

After a confrontation with Secret Service brokers on the Cracker Barrel in Hagerstown, Merryman prompted one other scene at an area motel, in accordance with a authorities movement to maintain him detained.

Merryman “traveled over 1,100 miles from his residence in Kansas, to the State of Maryland, with the specific intent of attending to the White Home, to kill the President of america,” it says. “Between January 26, 2022, and the submitting of federal prices, Defendant threatened to kill the President of america on a number of events. Throughout that point, Defendant additionally threatened two Secret Service Particular Brokers—one in Kansas, and one in Washington, D.C.”

On the motel, Merryman declined to pay for his keep, insisting that “the room could be paid for by Joe Biden,” in accordance with an area police report included within the submitting. When cops arrived on the scene, Merryman “was chanting spiritual dialogue and talking in tongues loudly,” the report states. After refusing to go away the premises, officers arrested Merryman for disorderly conduct. Whereas looking out him, they discovered {a magazine} for a .45 caliber handgun containing “a number of dwell rounds of ammunition,” the report says. There was additionally a recognizing scope in Merryman’s backpack, which he claimed was for “recon,” in accordance with the feds.

Merryman stays detained on prices of constructing threats in opposition to the president of america and interstate communications containing a risk to hurt. Of their newest courtroom submitting, Merryman’s attorneys, Sasha Garcon and Elizabeth Genevieve Oyer, say they’ve requested the VA to “assume accountability for proposing a therapy plan…that would supply [Merryman] with the care [he] wants and in addition tackle the security issues raised by the Courtroom.” Nonetheless, they declare the VA “has not supplied any assurances in regards to the care that they would supply for Mr. Merryman if launched from custody.”

Merryman’s household “is understandably afraid” for him, as he awaits trial in a solitary cell on the Prince George’s County Detention Middle. They’re additionally “pissed off with the VA’s unwillingness to take possession of his care,” the letter says, concluding, “As Scott’s mom put it, ‘They broke him, however they received’t repair him.’”

In an e-mail to The Every day Beast, Oyer stated, “The legal prices that Scott is going through are the results of an acute psychological well being disaster. Sadly, regardless of many clear warning indicators, and dogged efforts by Scott’s household, the VA did not intervene and supply the assistance he wanted. Scott has been underneath the care of the VA for over a decade due to bodily and psychological trauma sustained in Afghanistan. He’s a embellished fight veteran who deserves higher than the solitary jail cell the place he has spent the final two weeks.”