UPDATE @ 5:06 p.m. (Nov. 8): The parents of Michael David Haas are in Ohio trying to post bail to get him released so he can check himself into the VA Medical Center.
“He thought he was in Afghanistan last night,” Anne Haas said of her son, who had special ops training while in the Army.
“He is one-hundred percent disabled veteran with PTSD,” she said.
Anne and David Haas traveled to Ohio from their home in Dubuque, Iowa, in the aftermath of Monday night’s shots-fired incident involving their 32-year-old son and a SWAT team, Greene County sheriff’s deputies and the Ohio Highway Patrol.
“He has no memory of it,” Anne Haas said of Michael David, a Beavercreek High School graduate who joined the Army right after the 9/11 terror attacks.
Afghanistan was Michael’s last tour of duty, she said.
The plan is for her son to remain at the VA until he gets his medicine regulated, she said.
According to a deputy at the Greene County Jail, bail for Haas — set at $25,000 — had not been posted as of 5 p.m.
EARLIER, FULL REPORT
According to Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer, Michael David Haas fired an estimated 50 to 80 rounds on Monday night. None was found near the deputies, he said.
“We’re very fortunate that nobody was injured in this ordeal,” Fischer said. “We just want to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”
Haas was booked in the Greene County Jail on Tuesday and was being detained initially on charges of aggravated menacing, using weapons while intoxicated, improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle and inducing panic.
The county is familiar with Haas, the sheriff said. Haas, who has military experience, is a former maintenance worker with the Greene County Board of Commissioners.
“He would work around us quite a bit,” Fischer said. “A lot of the guys knew who he was. He’s always been somebody we could talk to and we never had any problems. It’s really disturbing that this event last night happened.”
Fischer said Haas was able to obtain a vehicle in Cedarville from a family friend, then drove to Wilberforce where he was confronted by two Wilberforce University officers and taken into custody. A weapon was found in the vehicle, Fischer said.
Prior to the SWAT team arriving, Haas was able to leave the initial area “unbeknownst to us,” Fischer said.
Deputies were dispatched to a home in the 2400 block of Murdock Road in Cedarville Twp. about 8:30 p.m. Monday on reports of a suicidal man. The address is north and east of Wilberforce University, west and south of Cedarville, just off U.S. 42.
Deputies said the man fired shots at deputies during negotiations, which prompted a call for SWAT. The Ohio Highway Patrol used a helicopter to search the area.
Wilberforce University and Central State University were placed on lockdown. Both campuses were allowed to lift the lockdown after the man was taken into custody.
Neither deputies nor SWAT team members fired any shots during the incident, which remains under investigation.
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