Gunman in standoff with police at Miami HeraldMiami police evacuated the The Miami Herald building this morning after a man claiming to be armed walked into the sixth-floor El Nuevo Herald newsroom and barricaded himself in the top editor's office, police said.
Employees identified the man as El Nuevo Herald cartoonist Jose Varela.
They said Varela appeared agitated and demanded to see El Nuevo Herald's executive editor, Humberto Castelló. He appeared to be armed with a handgun, employees said. El Nuevo Herald is a Spanish-language newspaper published by The Miami Herald Media Co.
While barricaded in the office, Varela twice telephoned Miami attorney Joe Garcia, who had represented him in a condominium dispute several months ago. Garcia said that Varela declared his motive is to take control of the newspaper. Garcia said Varela told him in Spanish that, "Now they're going to have to deal with the truth."
Garcia also said that Varela told him he had a gun, but said that he didn't intend to hurt anyone nor himself. When Varela called and said that he would demand that editor Castelló should be fired and that he was the new editor in charge of the newsroom, Garcia said he thought that the cartoonist was joking.
It is now being reported that he is armed with a sub-machine gun, so it's really not funny.
Ok, a cartoonist taking over his boss’s office and declaring himself editor in chief IS funny. He’s a cartoonist. With a sub-machine gun.
"Laugh, and I keel you..."
CNN Link...
Miami Herald Link 1, 2
UPDATE:
Armed cartoonist in custody, police say
The gun-wielding cartoonist who had entered the Miami Herald building, demanding to speak with an editor Friday, has been taken into custody without incident, police said.
Gun-welding cartoonist? Am I the only one who thinks this is hysterical?
And what type of gun do 3 out of 4 cartoonists prefer, you may ask? UPDATE #2:
2 comments:
I once got called out to a domestic violence incident where a guy had beaten the crap out of his girlfriend. He was a rodeo clown. I thought that was rather ironic. He got to go clown around in jail for a while.
I thought the irony of this whole story was just a riot! With every update it just got funnier and funnier. And then when the gun turned out to be a toy, I thought I would lose it. Maybe I was just in an easily amused kinda mood!
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