Barb called me about 10:20 yesterday morning to ask if I had heard anything about a hostage situation in the Governor Hotel in downtown Jefferson City. I did a quick Twitter search, found nothing, and posted a query at 10:23 a.m.
I headed back to the Missourinet newsroom where they had heard the same rumor. One of our reporters was in the area so that sent him to the scene to see what was going on.
I was monitoring Twitter and it quickly caught fire. Civilians and news organizations, everybody tweeting and retweeting any little bit of information. Most of which were rumors. “Shots fired!” (Didn’t happen)
Our reporter’s iPhone battery was running low so I grabbed a Fllp video camera and headed downtown but couldn’t get past the security perimeter. So I headed for the Coffee Zone which afforded a nice view of the (in)action. [link]
Spotted this guy on the way and posted image to my Posterous page where readers immediately pointed out the Missouri Highway Patrol patch on his sleeve (I thought he might be National Guard.
When I got to the Zone I discovered I didn’t bring my reading glasses which meant my iPhone was useless. Fortunately, I had left a pair of spare readers behind the counter a year or so back.
Helicopters, snipers on rooftops, lots of that yellow crime scene tape blocking off streets… and it turned out to be a false alarm. Somebody thought they heard an intercom announcement about a “hostage situation.”
This immediately lead to speculation about what the announcement might have really been. My favorite was posted by @MoRecord:
“Attention embroiders! Please remain on your sofa’s, we have a cross-stitch situation.”
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