Man Shot After Taking a Hostage at Consulate

[Rose Siding]

A man dressed in black and wearing bizarrely worded placards rushed into the Mexican Consulate near MacArthur Park on Tuesday morning, grabbing a pregnant woman as a hostage before a police officer shot him.

Witnesses said the man brandished what appeared to be a gun on the fourth floor of the consulate, shouting demands such as "Call 911; I want the media" to staffers. He then dragged a female clerk down the stairs, past terrified bystanders and out of the building just as LAPD officers were arriving.

TV footage showed the intruder with his arm around the woman's neck, jamming what police said they believed to be a weapon against her back.

About half a dozen officers surrounded the man, who wore a black balaclava and partly obscured signs, portions of which read, "I think … therefore I exist" and "GOP & fans."

Witnesses said the suspect, identified as 19-year-old Manuel Ortiz Gonzalez of Canoga Park, shouted at the officers as he pulled the hostage backward away from police who crept toward him with weapons drawn. A source close to the investigation said Ortiz Gonzalez allegedly screamed: "Don't come any closer or I'll kill" the woman.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hostage10nov10,1,3932216.story

[Us vs Them]

1. GOP & fans.

Apparently the 'radicals' are just now starting to get restless. First the WTC suicide and now this?

[newyawker99]

2. Hi Us vs Them!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Us vs Them]

4. Cheers

Thanks!

[rinsd]

5. Actually the WTC suicide seems to have more to do with love life....

Apparently he left a note and it said nothing about the election

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/33757.htm

Damn shame regardless.

[noonwitch]

3. I feel bad for cops when they have to shoot someone

They had to do it-there was some video of this on the "Today Show" this morning. The cops distracted him, and the sniper cop got him from behind.

This is why totally closing down all long-term, state operated mental health facilities was a bad idea. There may have been people who didn't need to be in them, but there are plenty that do need to be under 24 hour locked supervision. It's better to treat them medically than to wait for them to commit a crime, especially a violent one, while under the influence of their delusions, and then lock them up in prison. It's a little too late at that point for the person or people that were victims of the crime.