Gonzales man apprehended after making multiple threats against hospital, staff

“Law enforcement takes all threats serious, but due to his past actions, we believed he would carry out his threat. It was determined the safest way to take Parsley into custody was with the assistance of the Texas Department of Public Safety SWAT Team.””

Gonzales County Sheriff's Office

A Gonzales man who made headlines when he drove through a hotel lobby in Oklahoma nine years ago was arrested Friday, Sept. 13, after making terroristic threats against Gonzales Healthcare Systems staff.

John Edward Parsley, 71, was apprehended when multiple law enforcement agencies converged on his residence on County Road 90B out of concern for menacing comments and calls he had made the day before.

The Gonzales Police Department had received a call at 11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 12, about threats the hospital had received. Parsley allegedly made threatening phone calls to hospital staff regarding an upcoming surgery his wife was scheduled to have on Monday, Sept. 16. Unfortunately, the surgery had to be canceled after she was not medically cleared for the procedure.

The cancellation allegedly enraged Parsley to the point he made threats to the hospital staff to do harm to the facility, staff and any responding law enforcement should the surgery not take place on Sept. 16 as previously scheduled. The hospital continued to receive threatening calls throughout the day and referred the case to police, which obtained an arrest warrant against Parsley for terroristic threat.

An investigation into Parsley’s past brought back up news coverage and charges from December 2015, when Parsley intentionally drove his vehicle through the lobby of a Comfort Inn hotel in Alva, Okla., because he allegedly was upset about a credit card charge. In that incident, two female hotel employees narrowly escaped injury as Parsley plowed his truck into the front entrance and the front desk because he was mad he had to pay cash for two nights at the hotel after his credit card was declined. Surveillance video from the hotel showed the carnage created by Parsley and was shared by the Associated Press, USA Today, Daily Oklahoman NBC News and other media outlets throughout the country.

Parsley was arrested on scene in Oklahoma that day and charged with two felony counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and one count of malicious injury to property valued at more than $1,000 — the total damage to the hotel being more than $100,000, according to published reports. While jailed in Woods County, he was also charged in April 2016 with a felony charge of injuring or burning a public building for damages he caused to his jail cell in breaking the toilet and sink after complaining about not receiving some medications.

It was not immediately known what punishment Parsley received for his actions from the 2015 and 2016 cases or how he came to be released from jail in Oklahoma and back in Gonzales in 2024. GCSO said in a release to the Inquirer that Parsley does have a warrant for his arrest from the earlier incident, but the arresting agency out of Oklahoma was not seeking extradition from out of state.

They did indicate there was a high level of concern that Parsley would follow through on his threats due to what happened nine years ago.

“Law enforcement takes all threats serious, but due to his past actions, we believed he would carry out his threat,” Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement to the Inquirer. “It was determined the safest way to take Parsley into custody was with the assistance of the Texas Department of Public Safety SWAT Team.”

On the morning of Sept. 13, GPD, GCSO, DPS SWAT, DPS Criminal Investigations Unit and DPS troopers served a warrant on Parsley at his home on County Road 90B in Gonzales County. He was safely taken into custody. Gonzales County EMS was also on scene to provide medical assistance for the operation. During a search of the residence, numerous firearms were seized.

Parsley remains in the Gonzales County Jail at this time.