Google Maps
Free Upper East Side News, Delivered To Your Inbox
The former Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center employee who brought bags to the Upper East Side hospital last Saturday and claimed they contained explosives has been identified and charged.
Advertisement
Williams Johnson, 39, was charged with placing a false bomb, falsely reporting an incident, and aggravated threat of mass harm. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Monday and was held on bail set at $50,000 cash and $150,000 bond. He is due back in court on March 20.According to a criminal complaint cited by the NY Daily News, Johnson entered the lobby of the York Avenue facility near East 68th Street around noon on Saturday seeking access to the 14th floor. A worker handed him a sticky note and asked him to write down his doctor’s name. Instead, Johnson used it to write that he was “being held against my will” and unable to make a judgment, and that he had a life-threatening bomb in his bag.
He then placed a backpack on a nearby chair, dropped a white bag on the floor, and fled on foot. The incident prompted a large police response that included the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit and bomb squad. Technicians X-rayed both bags and found that the white bag contained wiring consistent with an explosive device; they used a high-pressure water device to disable it before ultimately determining neither bag held any explosive materials. No injuries were reported.
MSK said in a statement that its security team “detected an incident in the 1275 York Ave. lobby and promptly notified the NYPD,” adding that the situation was “quickly contained” and that no one was harmed.
