CINCINNATI — The person who made threats against P&G was taken into custody at an apartment complex on Rolling Hills Drive in Covington Wednesday following a mental health warrant, according to police.
He is currently being held at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Covington, investigators said.
A mental health warrant allows an individual or institution to say that someone has mental health issues and that they should be evaluated if they are deemed a danger to themselves or to others, according to criminal defense attorney Martin Pinales.
The man taken into custody, a former P&G employee, prompted the closure of the company's downtown Cincinnati offices after making multiple threats. The offices were reopened Thursday.
Cincinnati police were contacted Tuesday night by Kenton County regarding information its investigators gathered about a potential security threat at the company's downtown offices, according to a statement by Cincinnati police.
At around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, the company made the decision to close out of an abundance of caution
"Cincinnati police offered to provide a security presence to P&G's downtown location as employees came to work," the department said.
A P&G employee told WCPO she received a text around 6:30 a.m. instructing her to check her email for further details. She received the email around 6:12 a.m. notifying her that the office was shut down.
SWAT officers were stationed outside of P&G's offices all day Wednesday.
Cincinnati SWAT outside P&G headquarters. pic.twitter.com/nFRTW6WVGi
— Jay Warren (@JayWarrenWCPO) May 18, 2022
Ohio State Highway Patrol said the department received an officer safety bulletin Wednesday morning from Cincinnati police about a P&G employee who was fired in 2021 for not coming back to work after working from home during COVID.
He texted at least two employees about taking over the company, according to the safety bulletin.
"I'm shutting the world down via Cincinnati tomorrow," he texted, according to the safety bulletin. He also allegedly sent an email to a former CEO telling him he was now in control and also told his family last weekend that he was now running P&G.
The bulletin indicates that the man still has a P&G work badge but it has been deactivated. The bulletin warns the man may have access to firearms and has threatened to "put officers down," along with pointing firearms at law enforcement in the past.
This man "does not have a criminal history and according to family is suffering from mental illness," CPD said in the safety bulletin.
According to the safety bulletin issued Tuesday, the man was "not currently wanted." He has also not been charged with any crime at this time. For this reason, WCPO is not identifying him.
Despite not having a criminal history, the man involved has a history of run-ins with multiple police departments.
Through a public records search, WCPO found multiple northern Kentucky addresses associated with the man including an Edgewood address and the Covington address where he was taken into custody.
Edgewood police provided WCPO a log of police runs to an address on Canterbury Lane.
In March 2021 police were called for a domestic/property dispute. According to the incident report, when officers arrived the man told them if they attempted to approach the house, "officers would die."
Police reached out to Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders who advised that due to no criminal action being taken, other than his mental health, officers could not "force the issue."
"We did not have enough, even though he was threatening that he would put us down if we approached," an officer wrote in the report.
Edgewood police eventually left the scene.
WCPO received incident reports from The Rolling Hills Drive address in Covington, where the man was taken into custody on Wednesday. According to these incident reports, police were at the home twice Wednesday morning, once for a traffic stop and then again for a well-being check.
WCPO is working to get more information on the next steps of this investigation
