Grand jury indicts Walter Laak, Iraq War Marine veteran with PTSD, on 22 charges

Walter H. Laak (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)

A Clark County grand jury indicted PTSD-afflicted Marine veteran Walter H. Laak on 22 charges on Thursday.

Most stem from a Sept. 14 confrontation in which he allegedly tried to run over a Las Vegas pastor with his vehicle before firing multiple gunshots into an apartment while the man’s wife and kids were inside.

Among the felony charges he faces are 10 counts of assault with a deadly weapon; two counts of attempted murder; one count of battery; three counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure; and two counts of aggravated stalking.

He also was charged with two gross misdemeanor counts of throwing a deadly missile.

In interviews at the Clark County Detention Center last month, Laak said he thought the pastor, former neighbor Andres Charry-Arana, was an FBI “snitch” trying to foil his efforts to expose what he claims were war crimes by U.S. military officials during his second combat tour in Iraq.

Laak, 36, who is scheduled for arraignment on Oct. 25 before District Judge Jennifer Togliatti, said he struggles with “delusional” post-traumatic stress disorder that he traces to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

In 2007, Laak shot and killed Juan Cordova in Las Vegas, claiming he fired in self-defense. A jury acquitted him of murder charges a year later.