The man who allegedly threatened to stab police officers and emergency responders with dirty needles and escaped from police has been indicted by the Union County Grand Jury.
Anthony C. Lagos, 38, of 270 Somerlot Hoffman Road West, Marion, has been indicted, charged with two counts of inducing panic and one count of vandalism.
Police were called to Memorial Hospital at 11:48 a.m., March 11. According to a police report, the caller said a male patient was “creating a disturbance and was not cooperating with hospital staff.”
Lagos had barricaded himself in a room in the Intensive Care Unit said Marysville Division of Police Deputy Chief Tony Brooks.
Court documents allege the man was “threatening to throw fecal matter at anyone who came in.”
Lagos allegedly broke a container holding used, dirty needles. He was allegedly, “threatening to stab anyone who came in.”
Brooks said the man, “threatened to infect first responders with a communicable disease if we came in the room.”
Police officials would not say what disease the man claimed to have but said, “whatever it is, we are going to take precautions when it comes to that.”
According to court documents, Lagos also said he was filling syringes with blood and was “setting booby traps.”
“Anthony was very agitated and held officers at bay for over two hours,” according to the police report.
Officers were able to setup a perimeter and keep Lagos inside the room. Brooks said a total of 13 police officers and five deputies from the sheriff’s office responded.
“We used all of our on-duty resources and had to call in our (second shift) guys to handle our calls for service,” Brooks said.
Crisis negotiators were called to the scene and spoke with the man. Police said that about 1:49 p.m., the man “surrendered to officers without incident.”
Electricity was shut off to the ICU and the unit was closed during the incident.
“Our guys did a great job of talking him out of there without needing to use physical force,” said Brooks.
About 8:53 a.m., the next day, police were called to the hospital on a call of an out of control patient.
Brooks said Lagos “was able to slip his restraints and climbed into the ceiling.”
Brooks said that once police arrived, the man was “compliant.”
“We were able to get him back into his restraints without any issues,” Brooks said.
Lagos was initially taken to the hospital in the early morning hours of March 11 at about 2:13 a.m. According to reports, Richwood Police Officer Alfred Blevins saw a “suspicious” man and his dog at North Union High School.
“It appeared to me that (the man) was highly intoxicated on some type of narcotic or suffered from some type of mental illness,” wrote Blevins.
The officer said the man was “yelling loudly.” When the officer confronted him, the man said he was cold.
“I noticed that he had cuts on his face, a bloody nose, mud on his knees, a wet jacket and weeds on him,” according to a police report.
The officer asked the man his name, “and he seemed very confused.”
“He stated that he was extremely cold and that he didn’t know his name,” according to the report.
The man gave police a name and three social security numbers, none of which came back to the name the man gave.
Blevins checked the man for weapons and, at his request, put the man in the police car. Medics arrived at the scene to evaluate him and he would not give his name.
“He was either lying or highly under the influence of drugs,” the deputy wrote.
The man was taken to Memorial Hospital.
While he was at the hospital, the officer took the dog to the police station and checked its registration.
The dog warden eventually took the dog and gave police the owner’s name.
Lagos is currently being held at the Tri-County Regional Jail in Mechanicsburg. Bond has been set at $50,000. If convicted on all charges, Lagos could face as many as three and a half years in prison.