MANCHESTER CT Aug 4 2019 — Police charged a patient in the emergency room of Manchester Memorial Hospital Saturday night, after he repeatedly spat at, threatened to kill, and yelled racial slurs at hospital staff and police, police said.

Matthew Burto, 56, of Wethersfield, is charged with three counts of assaulting emergency personnel or a police officer and one count of third-degree intimidating due to bias, all of which are felonies. He also faces misdemeanor charges of second-degree threatening and second-degree breach of peace.

Burto is being held with his bond set at $35,000, and he’s next due in Superior Court on Aug. 20.

According to an incident report filed by Manchester Police, the events of and leading up to the arrest occurred as follows:

Police responded to reports of an assault at the hospital at 71 Haynes St. late on the night of Saturday, July 27.

Upon their arrival, a hospital security officer told police that a patient had come out of his room and was behaving unruly. Staff directed him to return to his room, but he ignored their directions. Two hospital security officers physically escorted Burto to his room and restrained him to the hospital bed.

While the officers were doing so, Burto repeatedly spat at one officer, called him a racial slur, and then threatened to shoot him, according to the security officer’s sworn statement to police.

Burto’s nurse told police in a sworn statement that she had gone into Burto’s room to check on him because he was yelling. Burto began to spit on her and threatened to come back later to kill her.

She called security officers, who restrained him, but he continued to spit on the security officers. The nurse said she also heard Burto repeatedly use the racial slur noted by the security officer in his report.

Police officers said that they tried to talk with Burto, but he spat at them and called them racial slurs. A facemask was placed on the restrained Burto to keep him from continuing to spit at police and hospital staff.

Police noted in their report of the incident that they knew Burto was able to breathe through the facemask because he continued to talk and use racial slurs.

Burto was handcuffed and then transported by police cruiser to the police station.

At the station, Burto refused to be photographed or fingerprinted. He was given paper clothes to replace his hospital robes. He was later placed on suicide watch after he was observed attempting to tie the paper clothes around his own neck.

journal inquirer

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