LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa.– A Middletown man was recently convicted of threatening staff at a Lititz hospital in 2018, causing the facility to lockdown.
Donald Burkhart Jr., 49, was convicted of felony and misdemeanor counts of terroristic threats in connection to the incident.
On November 20, 2018, Burkhart Jr. made a series of threats while his wife was in labor at UPMC Lititz on Highlands Drive.
Evidence presented at trial included that Burkhart Jr. made claims that he was the president of a bike gang and told staff that “things got ugly” at a previous hospital incident.
He also told a nurse that he had “already spent five years behind bars,” and he, “wasn’t going back.”
Testimony says that Burkhart Jr. told a doctor that “they will descend on this hospital and have their way.”
He also allegedly commanded that his wife be allowed to smoke and that he should be allowed to bring his pit bull into the hospital.
Staff testified at trial that they feared for their safety, and that the entire hospital was locked down from the evening of November 20 to the following morning on November 21.
