A registered sex offended is behind bars today after he prompted a local hospital to go on lockdown.
On Tuesday, Fayette County Memorial Hospital went on lockdown at around 6:30 p.m. after a concerned citizen called police and said that they had dropped a man off near the hospital and “that he has a gun and plans to kill people.” The caller told police Ray A. Fannin, Jr. had several bags and said he was going to the hospital.
That caller also reportedly called the hospital and told them, as well.
Officers from Washington Police responded to the emergency room and one of them found Fannin walking inside the hospital. They stopped him and found several “folding knives” on him. He was placed under arrest for a parole violation. Fannin is on patrol for allegedly raping his ex-wife several years ago and is a registered sex offender.
Fannin reportedly denied to police that he was going to harm anyone, a police report said.
The hospital went on lockdown for ten minutes, according to Whitney Gentry, a hospital spokesperson. Interim Police Chief Rusty Lowe told the Guardian that the police department did not tell the hospital to lockdown, and that if the hospital did, it was at their own decision.
Numerous people, including hospital employees, took to social media to talk about the lockdown. One employee said she was inside when a threat of a shooting occurred and was locked in an operating room out of an abundance of precaution.
A little later on Tuesday night, Fannin’s father spoke with police and told them his son had dropped off a bag at his house earlier in the evening and inside, the father found a handgun.
