Man held after alleged threats made to staff at Landmark
WOONSOCKET — A District Court judge ordered a local man held at the state prison Wednesday after police arrested him for threatening to kill several staff members at Landmark Medical
Center.
Eric Lenny Bounharsa, 27, of 134
Joffre Ave., was remanded to the Adult Correctional Institutions as a probation violator after a 2017 conviction for threatening public officials, according to the judiciary’s website.
He also faces a new count of making an assault on health care workers, a felony, as a result of the latest incident at the hospital.
Police say Bounharsa had been at Landmark since Nov. 26 after an encounter with
him at home during which they described his behavior as “agitated,” “manic” and “highly aggressive.” Officer Robert J. Frye said Bounharsa seemed oblivious to his commands to calm down. After Bounharsa mentioned that he was carrying a knife, Frye – the only officer on the scene – fired a Taser at him and called for backup.
The blast from the weapon stunned Bounharsa, but he continued to struggle enough to prevent Frye from getting him into handcuffs, so the officer Tasered him a second time. Frye later found a knife in Bounharsa’s pocket.
The encounter did not result in any criminal charges against Bounharsa, but he was sent to Landmark to have the Taser prongs removed, and also for a psychiatric evaluation, according to police reports.
Though Bounharsa wasn’t picked up at the hospital on a warrant until Wednesday, a doctor at LMC told police Bounharsa made the threats on Dec. 10, after he was informed that he wasn’t ready to be discharged.
She told Detective Sgt. Kevin Sanford that Bounharsa vowed that if he was not discharged he was “going to get cocaine and guns...and come back and shoot everyone.”
“If I can’t get in I will be waiting in the parking lot to take people out,” witnesses who overheard Bounharsa quoted him as saying. Pointing to specific individuals, Bounharsa allegedly said, “I’m going to kill you and you and you.”
The physician said Bounharsa was had already been on medication for some time when he made the statements, describing him as “lucid.”
Bounharsa has had multiple contacts with law enforcement during the last nine years and has served time previously at the ACI on five occasions since then, including a nine-month sentence in 2017 for making threats to public officials. He’s also been incarcerated for possession of marijuana, domestic disorderly conduct, reckless driving and domestic assault with a dangerous weapon, according to the Department of Corrections.