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Security officer fired after allegedly making threats

Healthcare Security Weekly, February 18, 2008

A 54-year-old security officer at Lawrence (MA) General Hospital was arrested on the job February 12 and charged with threatening to commit a crime after he allegedly threatened to "wreak havoc" in the hospital, the Eagle-Tribune reported.

Police took the security officer, who worked at the hospital for four months, into custody following an interview at the facility. The hospital immediately fired the officer and ordered him to return his hospital-issued clothing and gear, the newspaper reported.

The security officer has pled innocent to the charge and told police his comments were taken out of context and that he was providing examples of the ways security could be compromised, the newspaper said. Co-workers told police he made statements that he would wreak havoc in the hospital by setting off the fire alarm, threatening patients in the psychiatric unit, and saying it would be easy to get a bomb through hospital security. According to police, he also reportedly showed a co-worker a gun at a nearby movie theater.

Police searched his home and found more than a dozen handguns, an AR-15 assault rifle, and numerous rounds of ammunition, the newspaper said.

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