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Army veteran indicted on gun charge in VA threat

Associated Press - November 4, 2009 3:54 PM ET

BENTON, Ill. (AP) - An Army veteran who authorities say threatened to go on a shooting rampage at a Veterans Affairs hospital in southern Illinois has been indicted on a gun charge.

A federal grand jury in Benton indicted 29-year-old Mark Harmon on one count of attempted possession of a firearm on federal property with the intent to commit a crime.

Tuesday's indictment replaces a criminal complaint that accused him of having a handgun last month outside the VA hospital in Marion after calling a nurse and saying he planned to "fill that place with lead."

Authorities say they found a loaded Glock 23 semiautomatic handgun and a magazine filled with 13 bullets in Harmon's truck.

Harmon, who had been stationed at Fort Campbell on the Kentucky-Tennessee state line before being discharged, is jailed without bond. 1 of his public defenders declined to comment Wednesday.

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