![\"Sean](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Sean-Lovelace-208x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nAlmost two years ago, Sean Michael Lovelace was arrested when he fired at police from the rooftop of a motel in Roanoke, Virginia. There was some discussion soon after his arrest whether or not he was a veteran. From the Roanoke Times<\/a>;<\/p>\n Sean Michael Lovelace has struck those who know him as someone who needed help, as a man on the verge of harming himself or others. That much is clear.<\/p>\n What\u2019s less clear is whether Lovelace, the 42-year-old man arrested after Roanoke police say he stood on the roof of the Starlite Motel Wednesday and fired off a rifle shot, needed that help because of prior military service that left him scarred, or because of something else.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a vet,\u201d said Mark Lawrence, the manager of the Melrose Avenue motel and a self-described friend of Lovelace for several years. \u201cBelieve me.\u201d<\/p>\n […]<\/p>\n Both Ayers and Lawrence said Lovelace spoke of being denied treatment and assistance by the Department of Veterans Affairs.<\/p>\n \u201cHe also repeatedly said that the VA hospital wouldn\u2019t help him and the only way he would get the help he needed is if he got locked up,\u201d Ayers said.<\/p>\n But Roanoke police spokesman Scott Leamon said investigators have not found any evidence so far that Lovelace served in the military, and Lovelace\u2019s family \u201chas indicated\u201d to police that he isn\u2019t a veteran.<\/p>\n Lawrence and Ayers said that doesn\u2019t match the man they\u2019ve come to know over several years. Lawrence specifically remembered picking up Lovelace from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem after he had received treatment there last year.<\/p>\n Ayers said Lovelace had nightmares about children and babies being killed, which he had said was part of his service abroad. He would drink to silence the dreams, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said he couldn\u2019t handle remembering the things he seen when he served and alcohol helped him cope,\u201d Ayers said.<\/p>\n She said Lovelace displayed pins and other items that looked like military memorabilia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He’s nuts, so that’s all of the credentials that he needs to prove that he’s a veteran. Never mind that his family says that he wasn’t in the military, the guy’s a nut – he”s a vet, believe me. Well, actually, no he’s not, according to the National Personnel Records Center;<\/p>\n Lovelace had been a sex offender and a felon at least since his arrest for sexual battery in 2001. His only service was to the people of Virginia to repay his debt for breaking their laws. He cheated them this time, though. A few months later, after he was indicted for motel thing, Lovelace committed suicide while he was in jail. But that didn’t stop the Roanoke Times<\/a> from giving life to the rumor that he was a veteran;<\/p>\n Friends, including the Starlite manager, said he repeatedly told them he was a military veteran who was haunted by time he spent in the service. However, Roanoke police spokesman Scott Leamon said that after thoroughly investigating his case, police found no evidence to show that Lovelace was ever in the military.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Lovelace also wasn’t a teacher, a journalist or a city councilman, but they didn’t bother to mention that in the story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"Sean](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Sean-Lovelace-FOIA-232x300.jpg\")
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