A Scranton man threatened to burn down the house of a Department of Veterans Affairs doctor and then unleashed a profane and racially charged string of curses as he implored a call-taker at the hospital to “hang (himself) from a bridge,” police said.
James Wilhelm Accordino Jr., 33, of 608 Tall Trees Road, is facing terroristic threat charges following the call he placed to the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Plains Twp. on Tuesday morning.
According to the complaint filed by Veterans Affairs police, Accordino complained to a medical support assistant that he was “not happy” with the way his physician, Dr. Bina Ahmed, pronounces her name.
Accordino then threatened to burn down Ahmed’s house, police said.
The call-taker informed Accordino that he planned to hang up the phone, but stayed on the line in an effort to help him, according to the complaint.
When Accordino realized the man was still on the phone, he began cursing and used a racial epithet used to disparage Black people, police said.
“(Expletive) you (expletive),” the complaint quotes Accordino as saying. “Go hang yourself from a bridge.”
Police charged Accordino with a misdemeanor count of making terroristic threats and a summary count of harassment.
Court records indicated he had not been arraigned on the charges as of Thursday morning.