A 44-year-old Middletown man has been charged with weapons of mass destruction and other related offenses after police and other agencies shut down a portion of the borough for several hours.
Middletown Borough Public Safety Director William Baldwin said everything started around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the area of Spring and Union streets.
Baldwin described it as a “situation that the Homeland Security Investigation team was working with the Middletown Borough Police Department.”
Joseph M. McClure was charged with weapons of mass destruction, risking catastrophe and reckless endangerment, and was being arraigned around 8:30 p.m., Baldwin said.
Online court dockets show McClure was denied bail, with the reason give that he is a “threat to society.”
Throughout the investigation, Pennsylvania State Police’s explosive’s unit and a bomb unit vehicle from Reading Police were at the scene. Union Street was closed between Water to Emaus streets, and people were evacuated from their homes east and west of the area.
Residents were allowed to return to their homes around 9:30 p.m.
Due to the ongoing investigation, Baldwin could not disclose what, if anything, was found in McClure’s home.
McClure has two prior DUI convictions and two prior convictions for terroristic threats. He was arrested for the prior threats in 2005 and 2010.
Baldwin said currently the charges were filed at the state level, but he anticipated they would become federal later.
“This is a fluid situation,” Baldwin said. “It’s still ongoing as we speak.”
Baldwin said a lot of men and women were working to protect the community, which he said shows how serious the situation was.
Middletown Mayor James Curry thanked many entities who were part of the response to the incident, including: Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and explosives investigations, state police’s bomb squad, Dauphin County Sherrif’s Office K9 Unit, Penn State Harrisburg police, Harrisburg International Airport police, Dauphin County Public Safety, South Central EMS, Allentown Police Department, Lower Swatara Police Department, Derry Township Police Department, the Middletown Volunteer Fire Department, Fire police of Londonderry Township, Highspire, Lower Swatara Township, Derry Township and Steelton, and Middletown borough agencies including public works and emergency management services.
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