CBS News is reporting that a College Park man was arrested for terroristic threats in an episode Tuesday that shut down commuters traveling from New York to New Jersey.
The news station said Donald Dangelo Wallace, 39, also was charged with creating a false alarm after he was arrested by Port Authority detectives. CBS News quoted Weehawken, N.J., police detective Sgt. Thomas White as saying Wallace was from College Park.
A background check by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution indicated Wallace lives in Philadelphia and had once been a physical therapist in Georgia.
His Georgia physical therapy license was issued in 2002 and expired in 2005, according to state records. In January 2006, he was charged in Douglas County with aggravated assault on an officer of the court and possession of a concealed knife or firearm, according to Arrests.org.
Wallace is from Philadelphia, is former military and hasn’t lived in Georgia for years, according to a former professor who taught him in physical therapy at North Georgia College and State University in Dahlonega. The professor asked to remain unnamed because of the New Jersey situation.
In the Tuesday episode, according to White, a 911 call came in shortly after 5 p.m. with what appeared to be a pre-recorded message which warned authorities to “Get your hospitals up. The DC sniper is here in your city…. Get all your police ready and captivate. It’s a cold one and you better win. I have a DC sniper that is driving into your city right now. One part menthol chloride 3 parts nitrate.”
The call then hangs up, White told CBS news.
The massive police response shut down streets in Weehawken, not far from the tunnel, snarling traffic in the tunnel. Police also ordered passengers of a Hudson-Bergen NJ Transit Light Rail train near the Lincoln Harbor station just after 7 p.m. Tuesday, CBS News reported.
Major delays were also reported in nearby Hoboken, and in the Lincoln Tunnel itself. NJ Transit buses stopped running, and passengers on board were told to find another way home.
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