PITTSBURGH — An armed suicidal man held a businessman hostage inside a downtown office building for more than five hours Friday and posted Facebook updates about it before surrendering to authorities without incident, police said.
Klein Michael Thaxton, 22, surrendered about 2 p.m. The man he took hostage was unhurt, said Police Chief Nathan Harper.
The hostage-taking on the 16th floor of Three Gateway Center prompted an evacuation while Thaxton wrote on Facebook that he had “lost everything” and people didn’t have to worry about him anymore.
His friends responded by urging him to end the situation peacefully, including one who asked him to think of his mother.
A police spokeswoman identified the hostage as Charles Breitsman, owner of CW Breitsman Associates. The firm runs employee-benefits programs, but it wasn’t immediately clear why he was targeted.
Police asked Facebook to take down Thaxton’s page early in the afternoon in hopes of steering all of his attention to negotiations. The Facebook exchanges were “a distraction,” Harper said. The Associated Press
