Screencap of HMC's assertion of weekend events at the hospital.
HARRISBURG, Ill. - Despite Harrisburg Medical Center's claim to the contrary, there was indeed an "incident" at the hospital this past weekend.
Official sources advised Disclosure this morning (Monday, August 13) of some details of the incident, which developed Friday, Aug. 10, and continued through at least late Saturday, Aug. 11.
Here's the information as it was made available this morning by the Saline County Sheriff's Office.
The Saline County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an incident Saturday evening, after discovering bomb making materials in a vehicle at the Harrisburg Medical Center.Patrick T. Ohern, 63, of Crown Point, Indiana, had been involved in a minor accident on Friday, August 10th, on US Highway 45 North near Muddy. Ohern later was taken to Harrisburg Medical Center for treatment, where a firearm was found on Ohern. Ohern does possess a valid concealed carry permit from Indiana.
On Saturday August 11, 2018, Harrisburg Medical Center security had reported to Saline County Deputy Charles Welge, of the concern of Ohern and that the vehicle needed to be removed from the Harrisburg Medical Center parking lot.As Deputy Welge was doing an inventory of the vehicle, several items consistent with bomb making materials and an item that appeared to be a pipe bomb were located in the vehicle. The area was secured and the Secretary of State Police Bomb Squad was called to remove the items.
The investigation continues at this time.The Harrisburg Police Department assisted the Saline County Sheriff’s Office and the Secretary of State Police
Reader-submitted photo of Secretary of State Bomb Squad vehicles of an incident that "didn't happen"
And here's the backstory as we received it from official sources other than the press release; it's alleged to have gone down like this:
At some point in time Friday, two Saline County Sheriff's Office personnel, Detective Mike Jones and Deputy Lindsey Agin, responded to the single-vehicle wreck, wherein Ohern crashed his truck. Ohern refused treatment by EMTs at the scene, but apparently Jones and Agin believed he was "too messed up" from the wreck to drive, so they kindly offered to take him to HMC, with one of them taking the man in the squad car and the other to drive his truck to HMC to await the outcome once he was looked over.
This was accomplished; however, when he was being checked in at the hospital (and apparently evaluated for inpatient treatment at Mulberry Center, as he supposedly indicated he might be suicidal), a handgun fell out of an article of clothing where it was concealed.
This prompted a lockdown of that area of the facility, and authorities (law enforcement) were called. They secured that section of the facility quietly without alarming anyone, simply redirecting those in that area to another area very helpfully; there was no panic, no alarm, no chaos. It all went smoothly, according to reports.
Ohern's truck sat on the premises overnight Friday and into Saturday, at which point someone at the hospital asked that it be removed. Law enforcement responded and when the door to the truck was opened, weapons fell out. An item identified as a pipe bomb was within visual, so the officer backed out of the vehicle and began making calls. The bomb squad appeared, it took a while to get a warrant signed (because the truck couldn't be inventoried unless there was a valid search warrant in order to do it), and late Saturday, the truck was removed; it WAS a pipe bomb, but how big of one, how effective, what it was packed with, etc., is unknown.
Shawn Turner
Sadly, the political element in Saline was all over the internet Saturday night tacitly attempting to place the blame on Chief Deputy Ken Clore and his "policies." Most of this was issued by a former cop who has keyboard diarrhea, Shawn Turner. Turner was able to obtain "inside information" (cop sources in the divided factions supporting Clore's contender for the office of sheriff this fall, Whipper Johnson) in which he claimed the whole thing falls back on Clore's lap...which claim is somewhat bogus. Apparently Jones and Agin were being humanitarian by assisting Ohern in the way they did; sadly, that's what's come under attack by Turner and attendant acolytes. Turner, it might be noted, is supporting Johnson as sheriff because Turner wants another cop job (he's been fired from every cop job he's had over the last 10 years, largely because he fails at brown-nosing and manages to land himself in trouble somehow, the harder he sucks up...and I did a strike-thru on the above because we've learned that, hilariously, Turner ISN'T supporting Whipper; instead he's running as a write-in candidate...skip past the next strike-thru for the final caution.) If Johnson wins, it's a sure bet Turner will be begging him for a job on the sheriff's department, if in fact Johnson hasn't already unwisely promised him one...so voters, beware.
Why HMC posted what they did, when everybody on that side of town knew what was happening, is beyond understanding. Maybe after this post, someone will step forward and explain. In the meantime, all is well, and Ohern is receiving treatment somewhere. More if we get it.