Pittsburgh Man Takes Hostage, Posts Updates on Facebook

Desperation at 3 Gateway Center, in downtown Pittsburgh.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

The hostage situation in Pittsburgh, PA has finally come to an end.

This morning, at around 9 a.m., 22-year-old Klein Michael Thaxton entered the high-rise 3 Gateway Center with a gun and, supposedly, explosives, and took a man hostage inside the office of CW Breitsman Associates, located on the building's 16th floor. Authorities sent negotiators in, and all the while Thaxton posted updates on his Facebook page

Thaxton said he'd "lost everything," including the will to live. In an update posted shortly after the scenario began, he wrote "This life im livn rite now i dnt want anymore ive lost everything and i aint gettn it back instead of walkn around all broke n shyt while niggas stunt on me n shyt."

Friends flooded comments section of his posts offering their support, and while Police Chief Nate Harper indicated that this could help because it shows Thaxton that people care about him, it was a distraction to hostage negotiators.

At 1:55 p.m., he surrendered to the police. He is in custody and his hostage is safe, unharmed.

Thaxton, a veteran, was sentenced to 6 to 12 months of confinement and three months of probation last year after pleading guilty to robbery, receiving stolen property, inflicting bodily injury and fleeing from police. He violated his probation in May, and had an outstanding bench warrant.

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[via Gawker]

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