L.I. hospital put on lockdown after off-duty NYPD cop spots man with bombs in backpack
Quote:
A Long Island hospital was put on lockdown after an off-duty NYPD cop helped security track down an unhinged man with what looked like a homemade bomb in his backpack, officials said Wednesday.
His hunch may have saved lives.
"The device was real. We have recovered additional devices,” Suffolk County Police said in a statement about the incident Wednesday night.
Robert Roden, 33, was carrying three explosive devices in his backpack, and had several more in his home, Suffolk County Police said.
NYPD Detective Salvatore Billigmeier, of the 107th Precinct in Fresh Meadows, Queens, had just dropped his 78-year-old father off at Stony Brook University Hospital’s emergency room about 9 p.m. Tuesday and was waiting in the lobby when he noticed Roden, who looked suspicious, officials said.
He was wearing a tactical vest used by military personnel with ammo clips sticking out of the pockets and a backpack.
Billigmeier went to building security to see if Roden had anything to do with the hospital. When it was clear that he didn’t, security called university police, who tracked him to a bathroom.
University police pulled the man out of the bathroom and looked in his backpack, finding a suspicious device.
Two floors of the Suffolk County hospital were evacuated, including the emergency room, and the building was put on lockdown as members of the Suffolk County police arson team were called in to investigate.
As police investigated, Billigmeier’s father was treated at the emergency room for an unspecified ailment and released.
The lockdown was lifted about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday after the item in the backpack, which looked like an improvised explosive device, was “rendered safe” and the items inside were taken in for analysis, Stony Brook University Police Chief Robert Lenahan said.
Later Wednesday, police and federal investigators got a search warrant for his Mastic Beach home, where they found more explosive devices, cops said.
Suffolk County police arrested Robert Roden and charged him with possession of a weapon and a controlled substance, and contempt. He will be arraigned Thursday at First District Court in Central Islip.
Police officials say they’re working with the FBI as the investigation continues.
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11 Jun 2020, 2:53 pm
