Man arrested following threat to Montgomery VA hospital

A man is in custody following what started as an “active shooter investigation” Wednesday morning at the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System’s Perry Hill Road campus.

After the threat and subsequent lockdown, authorities say they arrested the suspect at his Camp Hill home. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency identified him as Michael Barnett, 61. He was charged with making terroristic threats and rendering false alarm to a hospital before being booked into the Montgomery County Detention Facility under $18,000 bail.

VA Police Chief Davis Agee said the incident started around 9:30 a.m. when a man called suicide prevention coordinators and told them he was going to come to the hospital to shoot VA staff and then himself.

Read more: WSFA (Montgomery, AL)