A Pennsylvania man has been charged with making threats against Temple University and its police department as he was buying ammunition in a Walmart store, authorities say.
The Bucks County district attorney’s office says 29-year-old Patrick Buhler, who has addresses in Morrisville and Mount Bethel, was arraigned Saturday on misdemeanor terroristic threats and harassment counts.
Authorities allege in a criminal complaint that he spoke to a customer in the sporting goods department of the Walmart in Tullytown on Wednesday night about security at Temple University as he was purchasing five boxes of ammunition. He asked questions about campus police and the department’s response time, “eventually making the statement: ‘You will see something on the news in the next couple of days.'”
The complaint said Buhler said he was buying .223 caliber rifle ammunition because “he knows that cops wear bulletproof vests.” Authorities allege he had visited other Walmart stores to buy ammunition, knives, and small-cylinder propane bottles as well as a two-way radio and binoculars.
Authorities said in the criminal complaint that Buhler, located at his Morrisville address, said the conversation with the Walmart customer was a mistake, noted he insinuated “violent things” and said he didn’t know what he was thinking when he said them.
The criminal complaint also notes that Buhler was arrested in April in Flemington, New Jersey, on weapons offenses, in connection with the possession of assault-type weapons, rifles, handguns, large-capacity magazines, and prohibited ammunition. The status of that case was unclear.
Buhler was taken to Bucks County Correctional Facility. Bond was set at $100,000. Court documents don’t list an attorney for Buhler and a message left at a number listed in his name wasn’t immediately returned Sunday.
