PERRYVILLE, Md. — In a town of 4,500 people, Perryville police issue tickets, monitor traffic and respond to occasional calls for service, but over the weekend, they were confronted with something far more serious.
“We received a call from dispatch that this individual, Mr. Giles, wanted to speak with an officer over some unpleasantry that he had with some of our officers on a different day,” said Perryville Police Chief Robert Nitz, “and when they called him, he went off on a tirade about wanting to blow up the town.”
Watch as Perryville police react to a call they received for mass violence
According to charging documents, 66-year-old Christopher Giles was irate that an officer had put him in handcuffs for the first time in his life.
He referred to himself as a professional killer.
He also demanded that a SWAT team respond to his location at the Residence Club in Bulle Rock, and they accommodated him and placed him under arrest.
As he was being transported, he made reference to a target list.
“Specifically, he mentioned the Great Wolf Lodge, which is a large indoor water park that has a lot of children, a lot of families there so it led to the seriousness of the investigation,” said Nitz.
The day before his threats, a judge had granted a neighbor of Giles in Bulle Rock’s gated community a peace order after he allegedly told a female minor he was going to be her ‘daddy,’ alarming the child’s grandmother, and in recent months, he also had run-ins with Havre de Grace police displaying bizarre behavior as well.
“He seemed to have unraveled over the past several months so there is a certain level of seriousness that we have to take with it and take into account there may be some mental health component to it,” added Nitz, “so we ask anyone who is going through a mental health concern, they can call or text 9-8-8 to get any type of resources that they need.”
Giles is being held at the Cecil County Detention Center with no bond.
