City man pleads guilty in incident outside BA school | News, Sports, Jobs

HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Altoona man arrested in April outside Bellwood-Antis High School, where he became aggressive toward responding officers and caused a lockdown, has pleaded guilty to criminal charges for jail time five to 10 months. followed by five years of probation.

Because Daniel Joseph Richardson, 40, has been hospitalized or incarcerated since his April 26 arrest, Blair County Judge Wade A. Kagarise found him eligible for parole for his minimum sentence.

Once released, Richardson will report to Cumberland County to answer a pending charge, defense attorney Dan Kiss informed Kagarise.

Online court records show that in July, a motion was filed in Cumberland County to revoke Richardson’s probation sentence imposed in a 2022 case in which he pleaded guilty to terroristic threats.

In court Friday, Richardson said he apologized to the Bellwood community for his actions and promised it would not happen again.

Kiss said Richardson was in the Army reserves and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

In court Friday, he pleaded guilty to one felony count of disarming a law enforcement officer and one misdemeanor count of recklessly endangering another person and resisting his arrest.

The charges, filed by Bellwood police, said that on April 26, a high school student noticed Richardson “acting erratically” and alerted school district security officers. Richardson wore camouflage clothing, a red beret and walked around the school grounds with two pit bulls that were not on a leash.

Police said Richardson told them he was part of “special operations” and was responsible for finding a fiber optic line. Police also described him as being agitated and asking if they were willing to die for their country.

While waiting for an ambulance to transport Richardson to the hospital for an evaluation, police said Richardson became noisy, exclaimed that armed people had been shooting up schools and asked if the officers were going to shoot him above.

The criminal charges say Richardson challenged one of the officers, saying “You want to go?” »

When officers attempted to restrain Richardson with handcuffs, charges say he resisted and attempted to grab an officer’s gun.

The incident, which occurred around 8:30 a.m., prompted the school to declare a temporary lockdown, where all exterior doors are locked but students remain free to pass through the building.

The district also distributed emails to students’ families informing them that the situation was under control and that classes would proceed as scheduled.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.