By Yaron Steinbuch
A homeless Georgia man has been charged with making terroristic threats for allegedly holding two TV station journalists hostage for 90 minutes – and threatening to shoot them if they called cops or refused to order him food.
Atlanta News First reporter Asia Wilson and photojournalist Lauren Swaim were about to go live from a sheriff’s office parking lot in Jonesboro late Monday when they say they were corned by a drunk man claiming to have a handgun.
Despite raising the alarm, it took more than 90 minutes for police to respond and arrest the suspect, Brandon Logan, according to their outraged station.
During that time, Logan “made verbal threats to shoot the victims if they did not order food” or “if they called law enforcement,” Judge Latrevia Kates-Johnson said at his initial court hearing Tuesday, WSB-TV reported.
“The victims attempted to leave the property but due to Brandon Logan’s threats, and bodily movements acting as if he had a weapon, the victims felt as if they were being held hostage,” she added. A gun was not recovered after his arrest.
Despite the alleged threats, Wilson managed to discretely text her newsroom, Atlanta News First said.
“They were terrifying, bone-chilling messages,” ANF anchor Allen Devlin said. “Things like, ‘We need help,’ ‘He’s gonna shoot.’”
The newsroom initially tried calling the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office, where the pair were filming, then called 911 after not getting any help, the station said.
“A cop called me back to say that my crew was safe,” said assignment editor Gary Stilwell — but telling him he’d “made contact with a man and a woman,” not the all-female crew he feared was in danger.
“There shouldn’t be a man in the equation,” Stilwell said he told the cop. “If you don’t see two females, then I’ve lost a female — please go back!”
Alarmed at the lack of response, three ANF colleagues decided to race to the scene, flagging down a police car on the 20-minute drive.
That officer then found the suspect still with the journalists — with full backup only arriving some 90 minutes after they said they were taken hostage.
The station is still investigating “what took so long,” ANF general manager Erik Schrader said.
“What made this last seemingly a whole lot longer than it needed to last?” he asked of the “breakdown” in police communication.
ANF said it has yet to get answers from the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office, the Jonesboro Police Department or the Atlanta Police Department.
“We really want answers to why it took so long to get them extricated,” Schrader told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Logan was charged with terroristic threats, false imprisonment, public drunkenness, obstructing/hindering emergency phone call, simple battery, simple assault and loitering or prowling.
Bond was set at $11,000 and a preliminary hearing is scheduled on Jan. 24.