A knife-wielding man interrupted an interview and started chasing two TV reporters and a city council candidate with a knife. The dramatic incident took four hours before the police authorities managed to arrest the man.
The man, who has been identified as Ray Gonzalez, disrupted a scheduled interview with Yakima City Council candidate Jason White in the street.
"He approached us. He was angry. He was walking towards us. He told us, 'What are you doing?'" reporter Maria Leal said.
One of the TV reporters identified as Leal gave an account of the strange occurrence about how the man approached her by throwing a bottle shortly before he drew a knife and started chasing the reporters down around 11 a.m.
"I'm speaking for myself, I seriously felt like he was determined, like he seemed angry," Leal said. "We left everything behind so he got our cameras and pretty much threw them to the floor."
The reporters trembled in fear after they realized that the man was not joking and they couldn’t help but run for their lives. "He wasn't messing around," White said. "It wasn't a situation to take lightly."
The bandit went to the extreme and started pushing down the cameras as he stormed towards the reporters, he then barricaded himself in a nearby home. That’s when one of the reporters called 911, and SWAT teams arrived at the scene to stop the attacker.
The attacker proved to be hard headed as he wouldn’t surrender, the SWAT team had to use tear gas and flash-bang grenades to lure him out, but he wouldn’t stop.
The SWAT team had to enter the house four hours into the standoff that’s when they managed to take Gonzalez into custody. One of the reporters, identified as Leal was traumatized but she was determined that no one was hurt in the incident.
"We're just here to do our jobs to the best of our ability and just give information to the public," Leal said. "Anything else can be replaced, but if he had stabbed any of us, that's not replaceable."
Source: http://www.waff.com/story/36723797/knife-wielding-man-interrupts-interview-chases-reporters
The insanity of some people