SWAT Team in our parking lot

Late in the afternoon (yesterday), around 3pm or so, I was awakened from sleep working and heard the sounds of multiple helicopters hovering over our building. As you might imagine this is not a normal occurrence. I went out to investigate and saw five helicopters. Four news copters and one police helicopter. They were actually a block away and it just sounded like they were overhead. I realized they were right near the MetroRail stop at Okeechobee Road which is just under two blocks from my office. I went to the CBS local affiliate to see what was going on. There was some sort of carjacking in progress with a hostage at the local MetroRail station. Quite exciting stuff.

I went to the "executive conference room" for a "meeting" and was washing my hands when I heard a lot of sirens coming down our street. There's a window so I peeked out and the SWAT team was flying down the block along with all the support vehicles. Just before quitting time at around 430 or so, I learned that the car, the child inside the car were safe but the suspect escaped. As I was going to my car this was evident because there were lots of uniformed police, SWAT members in fatigues searching our parking lot and behind the building, as well as our neighbours' buildings. Like most news stories, as facts emerge, the story changes. The final report is here.

Plenty exciting, really.