WORCESTER, Mass. — An employee of a local college is facing charges for allegedly making threats against the school.
Heather Lyons, 23, works in food services at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and appeared in court Friday afternoon on charges she wanted to shoot up and bomb the school.
Police say the woman told her therapist about her violent thoughts and that's when the therapist went to police.
"Ms. Lyons stated that she had planned to place a decoy bomb in the WPI Campus Center, then set off real bombs in Morgan Hall," court documents obtained by FOX25 say.
Police say Lyons also told them "Armed with a sawed-off shotgun she would kill her former boss and then shoot and kill people at random."
The alleged threats follows a sexual harassment complaint Lyons filed against her boss but later admitted to police she lied about.
WPI sent an alert to students outlining the alleged threats saying "While she made serious threats to campus, police have found no evidence that she had the means to carry them out."
In Massachusetts, medical professionals have a duty to report plans to commit a crime if there are specific threats or victims identified.
The company Lyons works for gave FOX25 the following statement.
The safety of our associates, guests and clients is always our top priority. On the evening of August 11, 2016, we learned that a Chartwells associate on campus threatened violence against the campus. The individual who made the threat is currently in police custody and banned from the WPI campus. At this time the Worcester Police Department is leading this ongoing investigation. We take these allegations very seriously and are working in full cooperation with WPI Campus and WPI Police. At this time we do not believe that this threat poses an imminent risk to the WPI community.