A Tucson man has been arrested after he allegedly threatened to shoot patients and staff at Northwest Medical Center, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said.
Amir Safavi Farokhi, 28, was arrested Oct. 25 following a search of his residence in the in the 6300 block of West Huxley Place, the department said Tuesday in a news release.
Farokhi first called Northwest Medical Center on Oct. 21, allegedly threatening to “shoot hospital staff and patients if he did not get the medication he wanted,” according to a criminal complaint filed in Tucson federal court.
Farokhi allegedly called the hospital again on Oct. 22 and Oct. 23, and “made several statements indicating he was on his way to the hospital and would shoot patients and staff members,” according to the news release. In the Oct. 23 call, Farokhi allegedly told emergency room staff he was “10 minutes away with a machine gun,” court filing says.
The initiated security lockdown measures on both days, the release said.
Farokhi also is accused of making several calls from Tucson to Indiana, in which he indicated he had placed pipe bombs on school buses and would shoot responding police officers.
Farokhi allegedly called police in Bloomington, Indiana on Oct. 21, telling an employee he was watching her through a window and was going rape and kill her, the complaint says. The police traced the call back to Arizona, the complaint says.
Farokhi faces federal charges of making threats across state lines.
Tucson police determined the call to Bloomington was made from the same phone as the one made to the hospital, officials say.
The FBI continues to investigate.
The arrest comes less than one week after a Tucson man was accused of threatening to commit a mass shooting at the University of Arizona.
