NAPANOCH – The head of the police effort that investigated the
incident involving Joshua Stuart said the emergency department staff members
at Ellenville Regional Hospital are the real heroes in last Friday’s
incident involving Joshua Stuart, 42, of Kerhonkson, last Friday morning.
State Police Captain Michael Drake, zone commander at the Kingston barracks,
Tuesday outlined the chain of events involving Stuart..
It began when he came to the hospital complaining of stomach pains and
asked for pain medication. His verbal aggression quickly turned to physical
as he knocked a container of sharps off a shelf and pulled a 9 mm handgun,
waived it at the employees then fired one round into a medicine cabinet.
Stuart did demand opioid medication from hospital staff, Drake said.
The hospital was locked down and Drake said if not for the actions of
the ER staff, the outcome at the hospital could have been different.
“These unarmed people in the hospital actually attempt to sooth
and calm – now, he just filed a round at them – they calm
and sooth him and tell him that they will escort him out a back entrance
to the emergency room to his vehicle, which they do and he complies and
he is actually diverted away from where the people were actually diverted
away from where the people were actually gathered in the lobby of the
hospital,” Drake said. “How many lives they saved, who knows,
but those people are heroes today.”
Stuart then jumped in his pickup truck and took off as police tracked
him to the dense woods at the start parklands in Wawarsing. When he came
to an obstruction in a path, he opened fire on New York City Department
of Environmental Protection Police officers, who returned fire.
Stuart then took off into the dense woods where Drake said they had him
contained until late Saturday night into Sunday morning when residential
burglar alarms went off, indicating he was trying to break into homes.
He then stole a car from a residential driveway and was able to slip
through the heavy police presence and make his way to Brooklyn, where
federal crime task force members took him into custody late Monday afternoon.
Senior Assistant Ulster County District Attorney Gerald Van Loan said
the case would be presented to a grand jury, but specific charges have
yet to be determined.
Drake said police on the local, state and federal levels will work out
the details of the charges to be filed. For now, Stuart remains in custody
in New York City.
Stuart does have a checkered past having been charged over time with a
variety of crimes from petty to this latest incident involving the firearm,
Drake said.
