Police respond to hostage situation in downtown Pittsburgh

Another incident in the Steel City today!!

A person inside the building told Channel 11 News that a man with a gun and at least two bags with unknown contents is on the 16th floor holding several people at gunpoint.

usnews.nbcnews.com...

www.post-gazette.com...

According to initial reports, the person being held hostage may be a owner or manager of the business, which is run out of Suite 1625 inside Gateway Three.

pittsburgh.cbslocal.com...

Talking heads are saying: Ex-Military suspect, health-care, retirement benefits,!?!? Sounds like an ex-employee to me.

Here's the Co. where the hostage is being held.
www.cwb-a.com...

Third Party Administration
CW Breitsman Associates, LLC, is an independent, full-service, Third Party Administrative (TPA) firm providing professional administrative services to qualified group benefit plans and compensation related programs.

Should be in Breaking News?

I have a friend who's wife works in the building next to the one in question.
It seems the perpetrator went inside the building to make a scene.
Police have surrounded the building with squad cars, helicopters, and the such.
Not sure what the reasoning is quite yet.

No reports on injuries or casualties as of yet.


Will post any information I hear on the pipeline.

Source - news.yahoo.com...

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A man who has taken a hostage inside a downtown Pittsburgh high-rise is posting Facebook updates as police try to negotiate the release of the man he's holding.
Pittsburgh police Chief Nate Harper identified the suspect as 22-year-old Klein Michael Thaxton. On his Facebook page, Thaxton says he's tired of the life he's lived and has "lost everything."
Harper said Thaxton entered the 16th floor office of a benefits administration firm around 8 a.m. Friday asking for the man he eventually took hostage.

I saw this on my local news station on their noon broadcast but they didn't have a link on their website so I found this on yahoo. They, on my local channel, labeled him as an 'Anti-American.' I hope this isn't another staged event to help push gun control.

Facebook Page

According to a comment left on his Facebook page, this may be about a girl?

Update:
Facebook has shutdown his profile page. According to ABC57, they were claiming that he also has a bomb and attempts are being made to keep him calm.

reply to post by 5 oClock


Man I only live 30 minutes from Pittsburgh, my wife works in Pittsburgh (nowhere near here thank god!) and we keep having all kinds of stuff happening here all of a sudden!!

My thoughts and prayers go out to people involved and I hope this is finished without any injuries or casualties!!

My wife used to work dahntahn at Smithfield & 3rd. Now we're in the VA semi-sticks ;-)

Heard the talkin heads saying there is CCTV footage of this guy casing the place out yesterday. This is not a random (I'll go in this building situation). He was/is on a mission for some reason.

reply to post by 5 oClock


Interesting to see where this story goes. Before they took his face book page down, a lot of his supporting friends where sympathizing with how hard the economy is for you black men...
But there was also a comment left on the most recent post that talked about not doing all of it over a girl...

Is it possible that the male hostage he took might be the third person in a love triangle?

His facebook page was odd as well. His cover photo was of this


and he has another public picture of what looked like an AR15 rifle.

I got a look at his Facebook page before it was shut down. It does not mention the military at all. KDKA is just trying to play the demented Vet angle. It says that he is 22 years old and went to Triangle Tech out of high school.

He gave up peacefully. Nobody was hurt. Apparently I was wrong he server two years with the Army Combat Engineers, never deployed and they won't discuss the specifics of his separation. Now I can get back to work.