BALTIMORE – The Latest on a man shot by police after he walked into a Baltimore TV station dressed in an animal costume and claiming to have a bomb: (all times local):
6 p.m.
Authorities say the “bomb” a man claimed to be wearing when he walked into a television station wearing an animal costume was in reality a red flotation device stuffed with chocolate candy bars wrapped in aluminum foil.
Baltimore Police Department spokesman T.J. Smith said a police sniper shot the man Thursday after he refused to put his hands up. Smith said that after a robot removed the suspicious garment, the man was taken to a local hospital, where he was in serious but stable condition.
Smith says the man walked into the lobby of WBFF-TV on Baltimore’s Television Hill about 1:20 p.m. wearing a panda costume, the red garment, and a surgical mask.
He says the man gave a flash drive to a security guard and said he wanted the station to broadcast it. Smith does not know what was on the flash drive.
Smith described the suspect as a 25-year-old white male from Howard County. He says he will not be identified until he is charged.
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5 p.m.
A man wearing a full animal costume and surgical mask and displaying what appeared to be an explosive device on his chest has been taken away in an ambulance after being shot by a police sniper outside a Baltimore TV station.
The suspect lay in the street for more than an hour Thursday afternoon, as shown on video from the scene near WBFF-TV on Baltimore’s TV Hill. Police sent a robot designed to detect explosives to the man, and the robot could be seen rolling away carrying a red vest with duct tape and wires. It could not be determined immediately whether the vest had active explosives.
Police spokesman T.J. Smith said the man walked into the lobby of a Fox television affiliate on Thursday and made a complaint about the government. He says the suspect then walked outside, and was shot after he refused repeated demands to show his hands. Smith says he doesn’t know how many times the man was hit or where on his body he was hit.
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4 p.m.
Authorities say a police sniper shot a man who walked into a TV station lobby wearing a full animal costume and surgical mask and displaying what appeared to be an explosive device on his chest.
Baltimore Police Department spokesman T.J. Smith says the man was alive and conscious and communicating with authorities Thursday through a robot designed to detect explosives.
Smith said officers and paramedics were not planning to approach the man until they could determine whether he had an explosive device and whether any such device had been neutralized.
Smith said the man walked into the lobby of a Fox television affiliate earlier Thursday and made a complaint about the government. He says the man then walked outside, followed by heavily armed officers. The sound of loud bangs could be heard on television broadcasts that later showed the man lying on the ground.
Smith says the suspect was shot after he refused repeated demands to show his hands.
