A Wilkes-Barre man threatened to cause “bloodshed” and punish two employees for perceived wrongs at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, according to Veterans Affairs police.
Donnie Ray Edwards, 59, of 61 E. Northampton St., is accused of threatening the employees during a counseling session Friday morning.
According to the complaint, a social worker contacted police Friday morning to report Edwards had been threatening staff members.
Another social worker reported hearing the threats during a counseling session with Edwards, who said he would “take the law into my own hands” if he wasn’t permitted to go back to work later that day, according to the complaint.
“Luckily, the military trained me how to kill,” the complaint quotes Edwards as saying. “Things have to change around here, and bloodshed usually makes people change.”
Edwards also said he knew how to get a gun and that two “racist white dogs” who lied about him at the hospital “need to be punished,” the complaint alleges.
The employees reported that they felt Edwards had threatened their lives, police said.
Police charged Edwards with making terroristic threats and harassment. Magisterial District Judge Joseph D. Spagnuolo Jr. arraigned Edwards on the charges Saturday afternoon and ordered him jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility with bail set at $50,000.
A preliminary hearing was set for Nov. 13.
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