Police: Man impersonated UPMC worker, tried to steal car

An Altoona man is accused of posing as a UPMC Mercy hospital worker, threatening a woman and climbing into her car as she tried to exit a parking garage, then assaulting another man who tried to intervene, police said.

Byron Lamont Leverette, 28, was arrested on robbery, public drunkenness and several other charges Monday night and arraigned Tuesday morning, court records show. He was unable to post bail set at $25,000 and remains at Allegheny County Jail pending an April 29 preliminary hearing.

In a statement, UPMC officials said, “The safety of our patients, visitors and staff on our campus is always our primary concern. As a matter of protocol involving an active criminal investigation, we cannot comment any further at this time.”

About 11:30 p.m. Monday, a female hospital employee was in her car about to exit the parking garage along Forbes Avenue when a man, later identified as Leverette, approached her. Police said he told her he was a UPMC employee and asked that she pay him $5.

When the woman did not pay him, Leverette took her ID badge by force, then opened the rear passenger door and climbed into her car’s backseat, witness interviews and surveillance footage revealed, according to a criminal complaint.

The woman put her car in reverse, backed up several feet, got out and ran toward another vehicle asking for help, the complaint said.

As she ran toward another vehicle to ask for help, “Leverette hit her vehicle in apparent rage when she would not cooperate,” the complaint said.

A man who was about to leave the garage saw Leverette sitting in the backseat of the woman’s car as she ran toward him telling him that a man was trying to steal her car. The man told police that he approached the car and told Leverette to get out.

Then Leverette threatened to cut the man’s neck, the complaint said.

Leverette grabbed the woman’s duffel bag and approached the man, striking him in the chin and telling him to back up.

The man denied needing medical treatment, but said he “was in fear of injury as he was unsure if Leverette was armed,” the complaint said.

A third witness also told police she saw Leverette inside the woman’s vehicle and the woman asking for help. The witness called police and then saw the man strike the woman’s car.

Police said they observed scratches and scuffs on the woman’s car and smelled alcohol on Leverette’s breath. He initially asked for medical treatment and said that his head was hurting, the complaint said. A doctor cleared him for jail booking.

Police charged Leverette with nine charges — including three felony counts of robbery, along with theft, harassment, making terroristic threats, criminal mischief and public drunkenness.