Police: man in custody for burglary tries to take officer’s gun at Excela Westmoreland Hospital

WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — A chaotic and active scene surrounded Excela Hospital in Greensburg Thursday night after a man allegedly tried to grab an officer’s gun inside the emergency room.

In his mugshot, Cory Lonsinger appeared bloodied and bruised.

Lonsinger is accused of causing a massive response here at Excela hospital Thursday after police said he grabbed an officer’s gun.

”The first transmission was somebody yelling like they needed help. The second transmission, the officers were able to make out there was something to do with a gun and a hospital,” Greensburg Police Chief Shawn Denning said.

That call brought the entire city’s police force to the Greensburg hospital.

Police said Lonsinger lunged toward a South Greensburg officer, and tried to grab his gun, and kept saying “I have it, I’m going to shoot you.”

The scuffle triggered an active shooter alert code from the hospital to shelter in place.

Luckily, Lonsinger never got the gun out of the holster.

”We were fortunate that during that struggle, he wasn’t able to manipulate that holster to get that firearm out, but did make statements he wanted to do that and had his hand on the gun,” Denning said.

Lonsinger was there after South Greensburg got into a pursuit with him earlier Thursday.

They said he broke into a house on Poplar Street and ran and broke into another house on Elm.

He was pepper sprayed inside the house which caused a mess for the homeowner who we found cleaning up on Friday.

She said she was glad she was not home, but she will need to replace at least a window screen.

In the process of the pursuit, police said Lonsinger hurt his foot which led them to the hospital in the first place.

”If the suspect was able to get the officer’s firearm, for his safety and those inside and the officers, it could’ve definitely went a different direction, so we’re fortunate that did not happen,” Denning said.

Lonsinger was committed to the Westmoreland County Prison after being charged with both the burglaries and the hospital incident.

One Greensburg officer suffered a broken wrist from the incident.

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