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Questions remain in downtown Jefferson City lockdown

By Jeff Haldiman
jhaldiman@newstribune.com
Published: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 4:57 AM CST
Plenty of questions with few definitive answers. That's where Jefferson City police were Tuesday evening after what initially was reported as a hostage situation at the Governor Office Building.

"No one has come forward to indicate to us that an actual hostage situation took place," said Police Capt. Mike Smith.

Just after 10 a.m., Smith said it appears a woman riding in an elevator inside the building heard what she thought was an announcement of a hostage situation on the fifth floor of the building. This person then called another woman to check with the Sonitrol alarm company to see if there was such a situation. The alarm company then called the police department.

The Governor Office Building is not a state-owned property. There are a combination of private and state businesses located inside.

Police Capt. Doug Shoemaker was among the 60 law enforcement personnel who went into the building and actually heard an announcement over the building's public address system, saying there was a hostage situation on the fifth floor of the building.

"It was a human female voice that was coming over the speaker," he said.

"I appreciate your confusion because we have the same confusion," Smith said.

Responding officers from several different law enforcement agencies descended on the area. They shut down the streets around the building, and anyone who was walking along the sidewalks at that time was moved along to safe areas a block away on High Street.

Starting at 12:30 p.m., tactical teams armed with guns and bulletproof gear began a search of the building, going floor-to-floor and office-to-office checking the identification of the 155 personnel who had been locked down in the building. As each floor was cleared, workers were allowed to leave to a remote location. The last floor was cleared around 2 p.m., and authorities then opened up the streets to traffic in the area.

A former hotel, the 10-story Governor Office Building is located across the street from the governor's mansion, on the south side of the mansion's grounds. It primarily houses the staff of the Missouri Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities. It also is home to the state's consumer advocacy office, Missouri School Boards Association and a development finance board.

According to state documents, the Governor Office Building is owned by an entity listed as "Hotel Governor of Jefferson City." A report from then-state Auditor Claire McCaskill shows the owner as being located in St. Louis. The lease appears to end June 30, 2015, and the state has first right of refusal to buy the building if the current owner decides to sell it.

Neither Gov. Jay Nixon nor his staff work in the building. Nixon was in Dallas at the time for a meeting, but quickly returned to Missouri upon hearing of the situation, spokesman Jack Cardetti said.

Mike Reid, a lobbyist for the Missouri School Boards Association, said he was attending a meeting at the association's ground-level office when police approached the building with guns drawn.

Officers told meeting attendees to exit through a back door with their hands up and indicated there was a potential hostage situation, Reid said. After waiting for a while in a nearby restaurant, they were allowed to leave the scene, he said.

Mark Hughes, a staff adviser to Public Service Commissioner Jeff Davis, said the commission's executive staff and safety officers had been in contact with its employees throughout the building and nothing out of the ordinary had happened in any of the offices.

State employees who were in the building while it was locked down told The Associated Press by telephone that an announcement over the intercom directed them to remain in their offices with the doors locked.

"We have talked with the lady who thought she heard the initial message, but this is a very unusual situation, and we're leaving all our options open," Smith said.

"It looks like the system worked," Smith added. "We got the call, the building was locked down, and everyone was removed safely. You could not have had it happen any better."

Smith could not say how much it cost to have all the manpower, from all jurisdictions as well as emergency services, spend the time it took to bring the situation to an end. The investigation is continuing, officials said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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Thanks.

jeffcityguy wrote on Nov 18, 2009 3:52 PM:

" Totally overblown, overreaction. They look like a bunch of idiots. "

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Rockyv wrote on Nov 17, 2009 11:33 AM:

" Actually this was a great moment for local LE. Not only did the have the area under control, they did it within seconds of receiving the call. You all have to learn that people like sandhouse have an agenda against law enforcement. In my experience that agenda is usually derived from being on the receiving end of law enforcment. Kudos to local law enforcement and sham to the haters! "

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ts20 wrote on Nov 15, 2009 7:08 AM:

" it was good pratice 'for all of them 'if the city ;county or state ----------------needs money for serving the public----- oh well they can always raise taxes .........on you .right ????????? "

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Toots wrote on Nov 12, 2009 9:31 PM:

" There is nothing new to today's article on this. Sounds like emergency action planning and training is something in need of refinement at this operation. "

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gofish wrote on Nov 12, 2009 2:33 PM:

" Ah, thanks HMarie. "

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hmarie775 wrote on Nov 12, 2009 6:58 AM:

" Gofish the back of the Jeff Bldg and the back of the hotel governor face each other and share a parking lot. The windows in the back of the hotel governor look directly into the windows in the back of the jeff bldg. "

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gofish wrote on Nov 12, 2009 1:17 AM:

" It was a good opportunity for LE to test the coordination of multiple agencies responding to a potentially large scale event. However, one of the tests also shows how misinformation was quickly blown out of proportion and escalated to the highest level of security. Bomb threats at the High School generally have a lesser response. I just don't get it...the misinformation, the radical escalation, etc etc. Hopefully, no one chooses in the future to exploit the value of misinformation and use it to deter LE away from what may be an actual crime scene in a different part of the city while LE is heavily armed and distracted. "

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gofish wrote on Nov 12, 2009 1:12 AM:

" Hmarie, I thought the Jefferson Bldg is on a different block. Isn't the parking garage across from the Hotel Governor? "

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online_editor wrote on Nov 12, 2009 12:31 AM:

" Sorry for the inconvenience of a batch of comments going missing. We've struggled with how the system handles comments on stories posted to the Breaking News section. It's different under the hood than the other sections. I'll spare you the boring details, but it's a tech issue we're trying to tweak. "

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AMAZED wrote on Nov 11, 2009 9:16 PM:

" Of course LE did and AMAZING job. Nothing to be AMAZED about there. They responded based on the information they had. To characterize it as a "Keystone Cops" moment is reflective of the poster's opinion, not the reality of LE actions. "

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HBIC wrote on Nov 11, 2009 5:39 PM:

" :o( You can't comment on that link anymore. I wanted to respond to Rickster. "

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hmarie775 wrote on Nov 11, 2009 5:07 PM:

" I too feel like LE did an AMAZING job! Imagine the ramifications had the "possible" threat been REAL and had not been taken seriously? All involved did exactly what they should have done and if anything a real life drill was done and we should all feel safer for this having happened!

The only thing I don't understand about yesterday is why the Jefferson Building was NOT locked down? People were roaming in and out and wandering around in the alley between the Jeff Bldg and the Hotel Governor. They of course were confronted with officers with very large rifles and chased off..but still. I would think capitol police protocol would be to lock down the bldg when-a-building-that-directly-is-next-to-it-has-a-perimeter-set-up-with-SWAT-and-helicopters-and-lots-of-firepower-running-around!! "

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misshoneybee wrote on Nov 11, 2009 4:41 PM:

" To me, it is comforting to know that, if there ever is a hostage situation or any other dangerous incident, that local LE will pull out all the stops get things under control. I personally think LE did a GREAT job. It's not the fault of LE that this was a false alarm. I'm sure a whole LOT of people would have been pretty miffed if LE had simply ignored this, false alarm or not. "

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Travelin_Rose wrote on Nov 11, 2009 4:41 PM:

" I think we should all sleep a little better tonight knowing the JCPD and Sheriff's Department all worked together on this scary event. I work downtown and felt very safe knowing they had the situation handled. Kudos to all of them! They did a magnificent job protecting all of us. "

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cinnamon wrote on Nov 11, 2009 4:35 PM:

" All those comments are there now, thanks NT webmaster! "

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NT webmaster wrote on Nov 11, 2009 4:23 PM:

" cinnamon-
Please refresh that page as well. You should be seeing all the comments. "

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cinnamon wrote on Nov 11, 2009 4:18 PM:

" NT webmaster, I think what Sandhouse is referring to is your homepage. Under "Most Commented", the #1 story with 57 comments is "UPDATE 6:10 Police unsure what led to hostage report". When you click the story, there are no reader comments whatsoever. "

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Parrothead911 wrote on Nov 11, 2009 4:15 PM:

" Keystone Cops? I'd say t his is more of a Curly, Larry and Moe moment. The eyepokes are deafening, and I think I saw someone grabbing Smmith's nose with a pipewrench.

But seriously, either this was either huge miscommunications or a brilliant hoax. In eeither case, it is comforting to know had this been an actual emergency, a swift and thorough response can be expected. "

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NT webmaster wrote on Nov 11, 2009 3:53 PM:

" sandhouse-
There have been no postings removed from this story, including your own. If you are having issues with posting I suggest you use the F5 key (refresh or apple +r on a Mac), clear your cache or update your browser (anything after explorer 5 will work). Lastly you can close your browser completely and restart it.

Hopefully this will solve any issues with posting that you or anyone else may have. "

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sandhouse wrote on Nov 11, 2009 3:45 PM:

" So essentially this was a huge LEO flop and twitch over......nothing.

Classic.

The Keystone Cops would be proud.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY7N1jr9csM "

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sandhouse wrote on Nov 11, 2009 3:34 PM:

" I see the powers that be have been busy scrubbing their reader comments.

Gee....what a surprise.
LOL "

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aswell wrote on Nov 11, 2009 2:50 PM:

" My god how much will it cost ?if this was a hoax someone will talk and someone will listen,they need to put a bounty on this one ,it be a nice christmas reward. "

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