BY KYLE LOVERN
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

WILLIAMSON, W.Va. — A potentially volatile situation was avoided at the Williamson Fire Department (WFD) when an man allegedly threatened to shoot personnel at the emergency services building and then turn the gun on himself.

Israel Nicholas Varney, 33, of Williamson, was charged with terroristic threatening, being a prohibited person with a firearm, burglary and assault.

Senior Trooper C.K. Johnson of the West Virginia State Police responded to the Williamson Fire Department after a 911 caller reported that Varney had threatened fire department personnel and was later parked outside the WFD with a firearm in his possession.

Trooper Johnson encountered Varney as he was leaving the building and making his way to the vehicle. The officer observed a long firearm that “appeared to be an AR-15-style rifle on the front passenger seat.”

A firefighter told Johnson that Varney had entered the third floor of the building, where firefighters stay, and began mumbling. The firefighter suspected that Varney was under the influence of alcohol.

Varney then walked downstairs to the fire department’s bay area, where he began shouting and clapping his hands together “as if he was ‘hyping himself up,’” the complaint states.

EMS personnel and Varney told police that he had recently been discharged from an alcohol rehab center.

Varney was arraigned and lodged in the Southwestern Regional Jail in Holden on a $50,000 cash bond.