HAZLETON, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Police say they are charging a man after he made threats to blow up a Luzerne County hospital and then threatened to “shoot” an officer.
According to the Hazleton City Police Department, on March 17 around 2:38 a.m., officers responded to the Lehigh Valley Hospital in Hazleton for a man making threats to blow up the hospital.
Police say hospital security told officers there was a man, later identified as Franklin Dossett-Torres, 25, of Hazleton, in the emergency room causing a disturbance.
Investigators stated when Dossett-Torres was asked to leave he told security he was going to come back with a bomb to blow up the hospital.
Officers were given Dossett-Torres’ address and arrested him at his house. Police say while Dossett-Torres was being finger printed he began to bang his head off a wall and was taken to the Lehigh Valley Hospital.
As stated in the affidavit, while in the hospital Dossett-Torres began yelling and screaming, rocking the bed back and forth, in an attempt to flip it.
When officers entered the room to calm Dossett-Torres, they say he sat up and punched one officer in the chest. Dossett-Torres then threatened the officer by stating “See him out on the street and shoot him up,” according to court documents.
Dossett-Torres has been charged with threats to use weapons of mass destruction, terroristic threats, aggravated assault, and harassment.
