Loveland veteran with PTSD seeks leniency for anti-police pipe bombs

DENVER — At the opening of the coronavirus pandemic, an Army seasoned was arrested arsenic helium prepared to spell to Colorado’s Capitol for an equipped protestation of the state’s lockdown restrictions.

The FBI recovered 4 tube bombs wrong Bradley Bunn’s house, devices helium told agents helium planned to usage against immoderate authorities who tried to raid his home and instrumentality his guns, according to tribunal documents. He told a person the bombs were almighty capable to crook a shielded breach squad into “manageable sized parts,” national prosecutors said.

A twelvemonth and a fractional later, Bunn, 55, who pleaded guilty to making and possessing the bombs, is asking for leniency erstwhile helium is sentenced Wednesday, with his lawyer arguing a enactment tin beryllium drawn from his combat acquisition to the declining intelligence wellness and delusional reasoning that she claims led him to make the bombs. A psychiatrist concluded Bunn suffered from slump and paranoia, arsenic good arsenic analyzable station traumatic accent upset that stemmed from some his Iraq combat acquisition and his childhood.

“Absent his progressive intelligence illnesses, it is highly improbable that helium would person engaged successful specified behavior,” Dr. Doris Gundersen said successful a study submitted by the defense.

Bunn’s lawyer, Lisa Polansky, has asked U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello to condemnation him to clip served, astir 17 months, followed by supervised release, successful portion due to the fact that she said helium volition not beryllium capable to get Veterans Administration attraction for his intelligence wellness problems if helium is successful prison.

Federal prosecutors connected Tuesday asked Arguello to condemnation Bunn according to the mean sentencing guidelines, which could mean a condemnation of astir 3 years oregon longer, depending connected the determination of his transgression history. The sentencing study prepared by the authorities with that accusation has not been made public.

“While the defendant’s prior subject service is laudable, it indispensable besides beryllium balanced with the information posed by the defendant’s actions successful the instant case,” they said successful a filing that elaborate the knife, handgun, high-capacity firearm magazines and different cogwheel helium had loaded successful his motortruck erstwhile agents arrived astatine his location successful Loveland, 50 miles (80 kilometers) northbound of Denver, connected May 1, 2020.

Authorities person not publically identified Bunn arsenic subordinate of an extremist group. However, Gundersen’s study notes helium visited extremist, right-wing societal media and different sites. It besides says that successful discussing his content that the authorities would effort to forcibly instrumentality his guns, Bunn mentioned the sidesplitting of Duncan Lemp successful a 2020 constabulary raid. Lemp is considered a martyr of the loosely-knit “boogaloo” anti-government movement.

Because of his assertion that the authorities wants to portion radical of their rights and freedoms, including the close to carnivore arms, Gundersen said she suspected Bunn identifies with different group, the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia group. But she said helium would not corroborate whether helium was formally progressive with them.

The fig of existent oregon erstwhile members of the subject arrested for crimes considered ideologically motivated is comparatively small. But it has grown successful caller years, from an mean of astir 7 a twelvemonth from 1990 to 2010 to 16 per twelvemonth from 2010 until now, excluding those arrested during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol breach, said Elizabeth Yates, a elder researcher connected home radicalization astatine the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. Anti-government beliefs are the astir communal ideology among them, followed by achromatic supremacy, she said.

According to defence filings, Bunn served successful Iraq astatine the tallness of the warfare determination successful 2003 and 2004, and his platoon was ambushed arsenic it made its mode backmost to Al-Hawijah. A homemade weaponry exploded, and Bunn suffered proceeding nonaccomplishment and a suspected caput injury.

Bunn was diagnosed with aboriginal onset PTSD and large slump astatine the Cheyenne VA Medical Center successful 2005. He reported experiencing vivid flashbacks and panic attacks and being hypervigilant successful nationalist and private, among different symptoms. His matrimony began to autumn apart. He aboriginal mislaid custody of his 4 children, past seeing them successful 2014.

Bunn showed immoderate betterment done attraction provided by the VA but had choler issues that led to a “disruptive behaviour flag” being enactment connected his grounds for a time, tribunal documents said.

In 2016, helium started talking to a therapist astir his content that helium could exorcise evil spirits, an thought helium would go preoccupied with.

In January 2017, a attraction supplier noted Bunn was paranoid and “possibly delusional.” A period later, a intelligence wellness squad became acrophobic astir his continued usage of the medicine cause Adderall and the anticipation it was “precipitating psychosis.”

In August 2019, erstwhile a doc told Bunn helium would request to beryllium evaluated each 3 months to proceed receiving Adderall, a stimulant, Bunn near treatment. He was not being treated erstwhile helium was arrested.

Bunn told Gundersen, the psychiatrist, helium planned to bring arms with him to the Colorado Capitol to pb patriots successful a peaceful protestation of COVID-19 restrictions and the state’s reddish emblem law. The law, which Bunn had testified against earlier successful 2020, allows the weapons of idiosyncratic considered a menace to themselves oregon others to beryllium confiscated with a judge’s order.

Bunn said helium warned an unspecified sheriff of the group’s plans to ascent the Capitol stairs and protestation peacefully but besides said that if authorities tried to apprehension them, determination would beryllium a gunfight.

Bunn told the psychiatrist helium was successful a “bad place” erstwhile helium was arrested and said helium is gladsome nary 1 got hurt.

When asked what helium would person changed astir what happened, helium said: “It was a pugnacious concern with the coronavirus and each the isolation. I inactive would person testified successful beforehand of legislators. But successful hindsight, I privation I would person been patient. I privation I would person prayed more.”