ALBANY — A roughly four-hour lockdown at Albany Medical Center Hospital on Monday began after a man threatened staff and locked himself in his mother’s room.
The 61-year-old Colonie man, who was not immediately identified, was taken into custody shortly after 7 p.m.
Police said the investigation remains ongoing after the hospital released an alert for “a potentially armed assailant” around 2:40 p.m. Monday afternoon.
The incident began when the man came to the hospital after learning his 97-year-old mother was going to be transferred to another institution, city police spokesman Steve Smith said.
“We’re still trying to figure out what happened after that but he then barricaded himself in the room with a handgun,” he said. Police later recovered a BB gun from the room.
The hospital and Albany Medical College immediately went into a lockdown, the hospital said. The incident ended around 7:15 p.m. when members of the department Emergency Services team took the suspect into custody. The team did deploy a flashbang device, which assisted them in taking the man into custody.
“At no time during this entire incident were our other patients or our staff in danger,” the hospital said in a statement.
Both the man and his mother were being medically evaluated.
About 90 minutes before the incident ended, city police and hospital officials said the man was isolated to a single room and police were negotiating with him.
Around then, the hospital began loosening security restrictions, allowing staff to come and relieve others for overnight shifts. “Thank you to our staff for coming in for their shifts tonight,” the hospital tweeted.
Ambulances were also being accepted at Albany Med’s emergency department. However, all other visitors were being asked to stay home for the remainder of Monday…
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