UPDATE 8:15 pm EST:CNN (http://bit.ly/Znzs89) reports that the firefighters suffered minor injuries when authorities entered a home to free them, Gwinnett County police spokesman Ed Ritter said. A law enforcement officer was shot in the incident, but his injury is not considered life threatening.
UPDATE 8 pm EST:Gwinnett County police officials have confirmed a barricaded gunman was shot and killed just before 8 p.m., reports WSB-TV 2 Atlanta (http://bit.ly/XDKSdC).
UPDATE 7:50 pm EST:Shots were fired and an explosion was heard about 7:30 p.m., reports The Atlanta Journal Constitution (http://bit.ly/ZNxCNI).
The newspaper details that officers were seen running to clear the road for an ambulance immediately after the commotion.
An ambulance exited the scene with a police escort, lights and sirens blaring.
The unidentified man had five hostages, but released one firefighter to move the fire truck, authorities said.
UPDATE 7:30 pm EST:The Los Angeles Times reports that emergency scanner audiocaptured from local officials and posted onlinenoted that the gunman had “multiple handguns, multiple rifles.”
“We are in a situation where we have an armed person, and he is requesting certain utilities to be turned back on at his house, and he is armed, and we are in the room with him,” said one speaker in the scanner audio — apparently one of the firefighters in the home.
枪手”要求的电缆被打开5:30,” the speaker said, adding, “the person demands full cable, Internet — and what, sir? — and telephone, please,” the official said. “I need to give you a telephone number, and it’s aVerizoncarrier, and the phone needs to be reactivated within” — he stops as someone speaks — “within one hour, and I will give you the phone number. This will be his communication from him to whoever is outside.”
The newspaper details that a SWAT team has surrounded the house as negotiations continue.WSB-TV报道that the home was in foreclosure byFreddie Mac.
A “barricaded gunman,” as described by a police spokesman, is holding several Gwinnett County (GA) firefighters hostage in suburban Atlanta, reports CNN (http://bit.ly/Znzs89).
The hostage situation occurred after firefighters responded to a residence in Suwanee (GA) for what has been described by a Gwinnett County police spokesman as a “some type of medical call.”
Gwinnett County Fire Department spokesman Thomas Rutledge later said that one fire engine and an ambulance were sent to the scene, as is customary.
“There was no indication or any reason to believe there would be a violent situation,” Rutledge said.
Five firefighters were initially being held hostage, but one of them was released early Wednesday evening, according to the fire department spokesman.
That still left four firefighters inside the residence about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta.
