April 15 (UPI) — One man is in custody following a bomb threat and subsequent standoff at a TV news station in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Police negotiated with the man for two hours Thursday afternoon, while he remained inside the lobby of WWMT-TV.
He eventually surrendered and was taken into custody, after initially telling employees at the station he had a bomb.
“He wanted to talk to a reporter, looked at the clock and I said there was nobody in (the) news (department) at this point and time,” News Channel 3 Chief Engineer George Markle told reporters at his station following the incident.
“When he didn’t like that response, he said he had an explosive device and started pushing past me.”
Markle said he quickly managed to lock the man in the station’s lobby then ran back inside and alerted everyone, leading to a quick building evacuation.
Markle said the man told him he “wasn’t afraid to die.”
“We got everyone out of the building. We cleared the building in less than a couple of minutes,” assistant news director Jon McCrary told the station. “We are very fortunate that nothing happened and that all of our staff is safe and sound.”
Police arrived and talked to the man while he was in the lobby, continuing to smoke cigarettes. The man walked out of the lobby around 4:30 p.m., where officers handcuffed him and took him into custody, more than two hours after he first arrived.
Officers then used a robot to help search and retrieve a backpack he was carrying to ensure there were no actual explosives. Police said the backpack contained electronics, including a phone charger, and wires meant to imitate a bomb, but no explosive material.
“They talked to the person, locked inside the lobby actually, for about an hour and a half or two hours … And ultimately it was a peaceful resolution,” Kalamazoo Police Department spokesman Jay Shatara told WOOD-TV.
The incident forced the news channel to broadcast its two evening newscasts from across the street.
