New York Daily News – by Laura Dimon
Cops busted a mentally unstable man who walked into a Bronx junior high school on Friday clutching a glass vial that he claimed was a “chemical nerve agent” — prompting a school evacuation — police said.
Ryan Roderick, 45, temporarily escaped the law until he returned hours later and was cuffed at the scene.
Roderick, of Brooklyn, first entered the lobby of J.H.S. 162 on Saint Ann’s Ave. near 149th St. around 9 a.m., cops said. He had a hospital ID around his wrist and was holding a radio device in one hand and a glass vial containing an amber liquid in the other. He held up the vial in plain view and made threats that it was a “chemical nerve agent,” authorities said.
School officials called police, but Roderick ran off and cops were unable to track him down. The school was evacuated, according to the complaint.
Roderick returned to the school about five hours later, cops said. When school officials realized it was the same man, he dropped the vial.
The Education Department said the school was placed on a temporary lockdown but instruction resumed after the NYPD conducted a search and cleared the building.
“Students and staff are safe, and we will continue to monitor the situation,” spokeswoman Toya Holness said.
The liquid from the container was tested at a state health department facility in Westchester Friday evening and deemed non-toxic, officials said. It will also be tested at a federal facility in Maryland.
Roderick was charged with making terroristic threats. He has one sealed prior arrest.