NEW HAVEN - The man who caused chaos in Yale-New Haven Hospital‘s emergency department waiting room Monday night is still unknown to police.
City emergency officials say there were nearly three dozen people inside that emergency waiting area when the atmosphere changed quickly.
A 911 call came in to New Haven police from the Yale-New Haven Hospital at approximately 9:30 Monday night.
“There was an adult male, who came in and asked to see a person in charge,” said New Haven Fire Chief John Alston.
The Chief says the man was agitated and folks in the emergency room waiting area tried to help him as best they could
“He became a little belligerent, reached into a back pack, which was on his back, threw a towel with some type of stain on it onto a counter and said this is going to be chemical warfare,” said Alston.
Then, the man ran out of the waiting room. The suspect is described as follows:
- Asian
- Approximately 5’6” tall
- Medium build
- Short black hair
- Wearing glasses
- Bllack jacket
- Light blue jeans
- Gray shoes
- Black backpack
Two of the hospital’s medical staff and one member of the security team came in contact with that towel.
“They were isolated,” said Rick Fontana, The city’s Emergency Operations Director. “So, they were just put in a separate area until we determined what the process would be.”
The three employees were given decontamination showers, while the other 32 people who were in the waiting room were evacuated from the hospital.
Chief Alston said all of the metering they conducted inside the waiting area came back negative.
The towel was sent to the state lab for testing.
None of the employees or others in the waiting room were impacted in any way, in terms of their health. And the hospital says emergency room activities continued uninterrupted.