Scary times for people working in the news. I am puzzled why the door to a building’s lobby is locked? Don’t people need to legitimately need to enter the building for routine business calls?
Glad everyone is ok. This guy is seriously disturbed. I had no idea a glass door could so easily be kicked in. The panel of shatterproof glass just fell out of the door.
…
Follow up report outside the building.
The news crews were just heading into work for the evening broadcast as this incident unfolded.
I hope there aren’t more incidents like this against the media.
http://www.fox5dc.com/news/367855060-video
Haven’t you ever encountered a business where you have to be buzzed in? Television stations are not typically open to the public.
I’ve never had to be buzzed into the lobby of a building. Didn’t know it was a thing.
I have had to get cleared at the front desk before taking the elevators. The security was at the front desk where people sign in.
I’ve never visited a tv station.
Visitors to the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp) radio station my wife works out of have to be buzzed in, and have for some time - at least five years, if not longer. Employees have swipe cards.
I’ll keep that in mind. It would have been an unpleasant shock to learn about this the hard way.
Umm,
maybe that?
CMC fnord!
Why? You press a button, someone contacs you through the speaker and asks if they can help you, you tell them why you’re visiting the building, you get buzzed in. It’s not particularly difficult. Schools are doing this now too, BTW.
Any single company building, which many TV stations are, may have this. The building I work in (7 stories) with multiple companies per floor has some of the companies having you either needing to be an employee with a badge or be buzzed in. Sadly, it’s good practice to not let people in anymore.
Typically, if a building has a vestibule (the double set of doors that keeps out wind and rain) there’ll be an intercom between the inner and outer doors for people to call up to their contact. If there’s no vestibule, the door opens into a little alcove or reception area, and you wait there for someone to let you in.
From a media perspective, I owned some newspapers for year. Not a week went by we didn’t get some threat from somewhere. It becomes a part of the background noise.
Scarier times for people breaking into news buildings.
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I walked right past the building as the incident was dying down. Not much to report: Cops standing around taking statements, TV news filming. I had to google what was going on.
I agree it won’t be a big deal. I just hadn’t encountered that type of security before.
The suspect has been identified as George Odemns. Age 38. Google shows a old Facebook with some paranoid postings.
He’s filed a lot of civil rights act cases in the past few years. I doubt they all have merit. But filing cases is better than kicking in doors at tv stations.
Odemns has been linked to violence before. There’s no telling what he hoped to do at the tv station. Some of his court filings were directed against the media.
I remember needing to get buzzed into television stations in the 1980s. And the radio station at the university where my father taught required people to get buzzed in to visit, as early as the late 1970s.
So this is not a new thing.