A military veteran who said he did service in Iraq will be evaluated for his competency to stand trial on charges that he used a shovel as a deadly weapon and attempted to disarm a police officer in a Dec. 12 incident in Woodside.

Milo Mcintosh Imrie, 23, pleaded not guilty to all charges in December and has been in county jail on $25,000 bail.

Superior Court Judge Lisa Novak suspended criminal proceedings at a Feb. 1 hearing and continued the case to Feb. 5 for the appointment of mental health professionals to evaluate Mr. Imrie, who may have post-traumatic-stress disorder, according to a report by the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.

Were Mr. Imrie to make bail, he would have to stay in a residential treatment center, prosecutors said. Geoff Carr, his defense attorney, "expressed a doubt" as to his client's competency to stand trial, prosecutors said. A competency evaluation usually takes six weeks, and if the two court-appointed experts -- psychiatrists or psychologists -- disagree, the court will appoint a third as a "tie breaker," District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.

In the Dec. 12 incident, Mr. Imrie allegedly threatened violence in the Woodside home of his 22-year-old cousin. While holding a gasoline can, Mr. Imrie allegedly told his cousin that he planned to kill both of them either with a knife or by dousing them both with gasoline and igniting it, prosecutors said.

The cousin took the gasoline can from Mr. Imrie and went into the kitchen to wash his hands, where he noticed knives on or in a butcher block, prosecutors said. The cousin took the knives outside and threw up them on to the roof, but while his back was turned, Mr. Imrie allegedly hit him once with the shovel and fled the house, prosecutors said.

Deputies found Mr. Imrie at the Menlo Country Club on Woodside Road opposite Woodside High School, where he reportedly resisted arrest and tried to remove a gun from one of the deputies. The next day, in transit after being released from a psychiatric evaluation hold, he ran away when the door of the patrol car was open. Deputies caught and quickly subdued him, prosecutors said.

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