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Police: Man punched out ambulance windows, jumped out of rig, made threats

Police said they found Matthew T. Perry, 31, chasing the ambulance crew around with his arm bleeding after punching out the windows with his bare hands

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Matthew T. Perry, 31, is accused of punching out the windows of a Sugarloaf Township ambulance with his bare hands and making terroristic threats to first responders and hospital staff.

Photo/Sugarloaf Fire Company Inc. Facebook

Amanda Christman
Standard-Speaker, Hazleton, Pa.

SUGARLOAF, Pa. — A man found passed out in a Sugarloaf Twp. motel room punched out the windows of an ambulance with his bare hands while en route to the hospital on Tuesday.

Matthew T. Perry, 31, of Luzerne was on his way to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton when he damaged the Sugarloaf EMS ambulance but was apprehended by Sugarloaf Twp. police on Broad Street in Hazleton and eventually brought to the hospital where he’s accused of threatening hospital staff.

Perry faces criminal mischief, institutional vandalism, disorderly conduct, reckless endangerment and public drunkenness by Sugarloaf police.

But, Hazleton police also charged him with three counts each terroristic threats and harassment for his encounters at the hospital.

Magisterial District Judge Daniel O’Donnell, Butler Twp., set bail in both the cases at $5,000 each and unable to post the money, he was taken to jail.

Arrest papers state:

Police and Sugarloaf Twp. EMS were sent to Motel 6, 1064 Route 93, Tuesday at 6:12 p.m. for a man with alcohol poisoning in room 205. The patient was unresponsive and had shallow breathing.

A woman at the motel told police she brought Perry there on Monday after he was kicked out of a rehabilitation facility but when she came to check on him on Tuesday, found him unresponsive on the bed.

Police attempted to wake him and he began mumbling, denying drinking but there was a large glass bottle of Fireball whiskey in the bathroom which the woman said was full the night before. She also said Perry took multiple pills.

First responders got Perry to put on clothes and helped him walk to the ambulance.

Perry took ill in the hallway and got agitated stating that he was going to “Jason Bourne our (expletives),” and began punching the hallway floor, saying he would fight all the first responders there.

Authorities were able to talk him down and got him onto a stretcher.

At a paramedic’s request, police followed the ambulance to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton but the ambulance left before officers.

Officers were called around 7 p.m. while the ambulance was en route to Hazleton because Perry removed himself from the stretcher, punched out both rear windows and jumped out of the ambulance on Route 93 and Cedar Street in Hazleton.

Sugarloaf officers found Perry with several long and deep bleeding cuts to his right arm, chasing the ambulance crew around.

Officers ordered him to the ground and put him in handcuffs, placing him back in the ambulance which brought him to the hospital.

Around 11:30 p.m., Hazleton police responded to the hospital at 700 E. Broad St., for Perry threatening staff.

Police were told he had to be physically retrained and sedated due to his behavior.

While attempting to administer medical care, Perry threatened to kick a doctor in the nose and then threatened a nurse.

“I will punch you in the face when I get out of here,” and “I know where you live and I can’t wait to get out of here and find you. I will murder you,” he’s quoted in arrest papers as saying.

To a security guard he said, “I’ll break your white ass neck.”

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©2020 the Standard-Speaker (Hazleton, Pa.)

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