BREAKING: Hostage situation at courthouse
We have received word that a life-sentenced prisoner is holding a deputy sheriff at knifepoint in the prisoner area at the Pulaski County Courthouse in Little Rock. A SWAT team is there, but we don't know the identity of the prisoner or the hostage.
We will update this story as more information becomes available.
UPDATE (11 a.m.): Sources tell us the prisoner is Alonzo Gilliam, who was being transferred to or from trial when he took a female deputy police officer hostage. (Gilliam appealed in 1998 to the U.S. Court of Appeals claiming the Arkansas Dept. of Corrections faield to protect him from being assaulted by another inmate.)
UPDATE (11:15 a.m.): Cody Burk of the Pulaski County Sheriff's office says Gilliam is now in custody. Gilliam, 29, was on his way to a pre-trial hearing on a murder charge, and the incident took place in the basement holding facility of the courthouse.
Our reporter on the scene says a SWAT officer told him that Gilliam surrendered after 30 minutes of negotiations. Gilliam told officers that he knew he was going to be sentenced for a long prison term and didn't want to go, at one point saying he wouldn't be taken alive.
The victim was a 60-year-old black female who may have been a county employee and not necessarily a police officer.
Comments
Quick, Guv! Give him a pardon!!!!!
Posted by: rosso | April 28, 2006 10:54 AM
I hope for the officer's safety.
Posted by: JD | April 28, 2006 11:07 AM
A female deputy police officer. This sounds famiiar. Didn't this kind of thing happen in Georgia when the guy who was 'guarded' by a female escaped and killed some people.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 28, 2006 11:21 AM
You're right, anonymous. Stupid women can't be trusted to "guard" anyone. Uppity females. Demanding equal rights, but as the weaker sex they just aren't equal. (And why do I get the feeling that any female deputy or even sheriff's department receptionist could easily kick your ass?)
Posted by: Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler | April 28, 2006 11:46 AM
Oh thank heavens it's over. For a minute I was afraid the horrible man had grabbed our Governor as he made his usual rounds checking the court house benches for loose change.......whew!
Posted by: Deathbyinches | April 28, 2006 11:53 AM
And who says the Times isn't a news organization??
Ok, it was the guv, but he's wrong.
Posted by: Odell Goodrum | April 28, 2006 11:53 AM
Come on people, with this article the Times is clearly just trying to editorialize on the role Pat O'Brien is playing in reshaping the clerk's office from the Republicans.
I won't believe this really happened until I can get home tonight and watch the evening news. Or maybe until I read about it tomorrow in the Dem-Gaz.
Clearly, Alonzo Gilliam is just making a statement about "politics and culture."
Posted by: Sceptical. | April 28, 2006 12:30 PM
Dear Mrs. Frankfurter,
You would be terribly disappointed, my dear. However, I would never refuse to accomodate a lady. Try to refute the argument and not make it a personal attack. You liberalism is showing.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 28, 2006 12:32 PM
"You [sic] liberalism is showing."
What a nice compliment! Who says trolls are not compassionate?! I'm sure Mrs. F. was warmed by your kind words.
Posted by: Nom de Plume | April 28, 2006 12:57 PM
I know that I am warmed right down to the cockles of my trollie heart.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 28, 2006 12:59 PM
By the way---it should be "Cyber de Plume" not "Nom(sic) de Plume".
Posted by: Anonymous | April 28, 2006 01:04 PM
Boy, if you're going to be nitpicky about someone's handle, get it right. It would be "nom de cyber," since the word "nom" is French for name and "plume" means "feather," as in a feather quilled pen.
Posted by: JG | April 28, 2006 01:22 PM
Gosh, thanks for the French lesson. I took German. So, does that mean you are going to change your handle?
Posted by: Anonymous | April 28, 2006 01:28 PM
I thought the Governor said the Times doesn't report any news.
Of course, he may be right, this will probably merit a paragraph, if that, in the the week that was feature in the print edition.
Posted by: Crash Davis | April 28, 2006 01:38 PM
If I remember orrectly, Carolyn Staley was nominally listed as a democrat.
Although, I think the last time she ran the party declined to support her
Posted by: Arkhobbit | April 28, 2006 01:54 PM