news as issues

komu, jefferson city news tribune

JEFFERSON CITY - Portions of downtown Jefferson City are shut down due to a possible hostage situation in a building.

Reporter Michael Amantea says a SWAT team is clearing each floor of the building. No one can confirm this is a hostage situation.

Not long ago, Capt. Mike Smith from the Jefferson City Police Department held a news conference saying a call came in around 10:00am from a female on the fifth floor of the Governor's Office Building on Madison St. saying there is a hostage situation. Officials have yet to confirm if there is or is not a hostage situation. Officials say they have called the fifth floor and talked to someone to see if everything is okay. That person said everything is fine but officials could not confirm if that person was being honest. Officials paroling the area have heard a PA announcement in the building saying that there is a hostage situation underway. But so far no one is able to confirm what is really happening on the fifth floor. No shots were fired during this incident.

State employees near the building say police officers are outside patrolling the area with assault rifles. The area is locked down.

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder sent accounts from his Twitter account saying police sharpshooters are on the roof of the Jefferson Building and negotiators are on the scene to speak with a suspect in the hostage situation. KOMU reporters say sharpshooters are also on other rooftops in the area.

High Street and parts of Capitol Street are shut down. SWAT team and a SWAT tanker is patrolling the area. There are at least 50 police vehicles out there.

The office building is the former Hotel Governor and not where Governor Jay Nixon has office space.

Sonitrol is the alarm company that manages the Governor's Office Building. Vincent Parker, a manager at the company says alarm operators receive a call from a woman named Dawn who said someone told her there was a hostage situation on the fifth floor.

The Governor's office released a statement saying Jay Nixon was attending a business meeting in Texas when the initial reports came in. He immediately returned to Jefferson City. Since then, he has monitored the situation from his office with updates from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.