Herbert Myers was arrested in the school shooting threat.
An Egg Harbor Township man who allegedly threatened to “shoot up” a Mays Landing school suffers from schizophrenia and should have a mental health evaluation performed under court supervision, his public defender said during a hearing Monday.
Herbert Myers, 42, was charged with causing a false public alarm and making terroristic threats on April 9 in Hamilton Township.
Schools in the Mays Landing area were locked down after Myers called police and made threats, Atlantic County Assistant Prosecutor Zachary Massey said.
“He stated that he had a gun on his person, and he was going to shoot up a school in Mays Landing,” Massey told Superior Court Judge Dorothy Garrabrant during the hearing.
Hamilton Township police and Atlantic County sheriff's officers were placed in and around the Mays Landing area schools while the investigation was being conducted.
After allegedly threatening the schools, Myers was identified as the suspect and arrested while he was riding on a New Jersey Transit bus in Vineland. Myers brandished a knife at the police officers when they confronted him on the bus, Massey said.
Massey argued that Myers is a danger to the community and should remain in custody in the Atlantic County jail pending trial. Garrabrant granted the request to keep Myers in jail. Myers’ next court hearing is scheduled for June 2.
“The defendant is clearly a danger to the community, given the current charges where he threatened to shoot up a school,” Massey said.
John Bjorklund, the public defender for Myers, said the court should order Myers to undergo a mental health evaluation as soon as possible.
“I think that a mental health evaluation would be in order,” Bjorklund told Garrabrant.
According to Bjorklund, there have been other times when Myers has called the police, identified himself and then made threats over the phone. The threats were not carried out, Bjorklund said.
“It does not appear as though he is a violent individual, although there are threats of violence,” Bjorklund said.
He added, “(It’s) not uncommon when we’re dealing with a person with mental health issues, and in this case, schizophrenia.”
Bjorklund indicated that Myers’ mental health challenges may form the basis of his defense against the charges that he threatened to shoot up the school.
He surmised that when Myers calls police to threaten violence, he may actually be “reaching out in another way to law enforcement” for help with his mental health issues.
“But then when the matter comes to fruition, there’s nothing to indicate that he could act out any of the threats that he actually allegedly made toward any of these persons,” Bjorklund said.
During her remarks at the hearing, Garrabrant also noted that Myers “suffers from mental health challenges.”
