An armed man entered the emergency room at Eastern Niagara Hospital in Lockport around 4.45am Saturday and claimed to have a bomb, according to WGRZ. “I believe there were shots fired initially but not since”.
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The man reportedly went through supply carts in the department grabbing drugs, then fled out an exit, where he was met by two responding Lockport police officers, Paul Meerboth and Rodney Peters.
The bomb squad determined that a cell phone connected to wires inside the backpack was inert.
Following the bomb threat, police issued a shelter in place order for all City of Lockport residents near the hospital, though the order was lifted at 10:57 a.m. The man made off with some drugs, the hospital confirmed in a statement.
Police put the hospital and the surrounding neighborhoods on lockdown as they searched for the man for several hours in backyards and streets in the area.
Lockport is in Niagara County and is more than 20 miles north of Buffalo.
Images from CNN affiliate WIVB showed a police SWAT team outside the hospital and a helicopter surveying the area.
Witnesses described the suspect as a white male with blonde hair, about 6 feet tall and in his early 20s. He was wearing khaki trousers, a khaki shirt and a ski mask.
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“Eastern Niagara Hospital appreciates the very professional and appropriate responses by the staff in its emergency department this morning at the time of the incident”, officials said.
