Hostage situtation at Lindale Mall

[Glowie]

Tonight I heard traffic on the "CRPD Assault" channel . The Special Response Team and other Officers were transmitting back and forth between dispatch, they 'blanketed' Sears and cleared out finish line and some other stores, Linn County deputies also partook in the clearing of the mall. Two men were arrested and the suspect told officers another man was STILL in the mall. When they found the man dispatch gave a description of a hostage and the hostage taker. Dispatch said the hostage was wearing a baseball cap, the last traffic I heard was a SRT member yelling " ASSAULT ASSAULT ASSAULT".

 

[timkilbride]

I didn't see anything on the news at 2100 lastnight or the KGAN website. Maybe this was a drill.

 

[splash1]

I agree about the drill. Linn co, local PD,Fire ,EMS did a mock school shooting a few days ago at Cornell college in Mt Vernon.
rick

 

[newsphotog]

Don't they usually say "this is a drill" every five minutes or so?

A few years ago it was a slow day in the newsroom and we kept hearing remnants about a pursuit over the scanner. After looking at a city map for a while, we realized it was just a drill at the state fairgrounds (the street names inside the fairgrounds also use the same street names as the city).

The mall seems like a good place for a drill of that kind, especially if it's after-hours.

 

[NeFire242]

The best drills are the ones unannounced.

Yeah I searched all over the news last night too, and nothin.

 

[Signal3and2]

The mall seems like a good place for a drill of that kind, especially if it's after-hours.

I personally think it would be hilarious if they did a drill during regular business hours and didn't tell anyone. But it would also cause mass pandemonium and have the public in an outrage. Doesn't anyone have a sense of humor anymore?

 

[newsphotog]

I personally think it would be hilarious if they did a drill during regular business hours and didn't tell anyone. But it would also cause mass pandemonium and have the public in an outrage. Doesn't anyone have a sense of humor anymore?

I can't remember what town this was, but I was covering a terrorism drill somewhere in central Iowa that was pretty large-scale -- they staged multiple incidents around the city at the same time. A middle school was used as the final phase of the drill. A terrorist was supposedly holding hostages inside the school. Some civilians in the neighborhood knew what was going on. The terrorists/actors used paintball guns and every once in a while if an unsuspecting civilian was walking down the street, the terrorists would point their paintball rifles out the window and shot at the pedestrians.

Hilarity did indeed ensue.

I was one of the unsuspecting civilians...

It stung like a mothertrucker.