The Standoff

From about 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM CST March 27, 2008, BOL listener N74JW twittered a live account of a gunman's standoff with police on Walt Whitman Bridge in Philadelphia. Listener Tales supplied a link to a live video stream of the event from a news helicoper. Several listeners monitoring the video feed also used Twitter to relay information to N74JW, who was only a few cars away using an iPhone. N74JW later blogged about the experience.
==News Accounts==
* Police standoff closes Walt Whitman bridge during rush hour Philadelphia Inquirer
* Standoff On Walt Whitman Bridge Ends In Arrest MyFoxPhilly.com
* Police Standoff on Philly Bridge Ends The Associated Press on Google
==Chat Log==
This is a partial log of WatchBOL from the end of the long standoff. Several mesages have been removed for focus on the event.
Nicknames 	Message
Saoirsa 	ooh action
phatemokid	oh shizz
Manitook 	just in time for a comerical
Saoirsa 	ya huh
Trojanbee7	That is a nice SWAT car
Matthew 	Back
Trojanbee7	Looks like a custom Hummer
Matthew 	WHat is up with teh swat?
Trojanbee7	Matthew: They just moved up to hand off a phone
Feld 	N47JW: "Gunman turned the headlights on in the SUV. Going somewhere?"
Matthew 	Did i miss anything?
phatemokid	oh man that poor little kid must be scared outa their mind
Trojanbee7	true
phatemokid	screw the adults
phatemokid	poor kid
Trojanbee7	Yeah- the rear lights are flashing crazy
DAKlives 	aye
Feld 	N74JW: "SWAT APC pulled up in front of the SUV, 50' off"
Saoirsa 	so true phatemokid
Feld 	N74JW: "APC is right in front of SUV"
DAKlives 	note b47619 hush about what to add to topic
Feld 	N74JW: "SWAT guys out the back"
Trojanbee7	"We often see them make requests."
Trojanbee7	Oi- can't they move a dash faster- or at least hand off real info to the media
Matthew 	"Officers have asked for a timeout so they may go get a doughnut"
Feld 	N74JW: "The two vehicles are nose to nose... The APC is in my line of sight"
Matthew 	I'm not getting any of his twitt updates
Manitook 	Matthew take a look at Twitbin firefox add-on it is working great for me
Trojanbee7	Someone Twitter this to Tom and Molly
Trojanbee7	And if you can do it- text them directly.
Matthew 	I have mobile updates- but have not been getthing them at all lately
phatemokid	oh shizz
Saoirsa 	ooh
Trojanbee7	Tense moment
Feld 	N74JW: "They have to do this before it gets black up here."
khaled 	btw, there's a woot off now
Feld 	N74JW: "Someone is coming out"
Matthew 	THEY CAME OUT
Matthew 	ok
phatemokid	hes got the kid
Matthew 	they are taking him into custody it seems.
Trojanbee7	Matthew: Keep your finger on the refresh
Feld 	N74JW:"He's out with the child."
Manitook 	oh man
Trojanbee7	I think we're back to the live feed
Matthew 	why have they not takin him into custody?
Feld 	N74JW: "They're on the median talking tovpolice"
Manitook 	he is being flanked
Manitook 	cop on right
phatemokid	he letting the kid go
Feld 	N74JW: "Looks like he is letting the child go"
Trojanbee7	I wonder what's happening
 	Feld on edge of seat.
Matthew 	I wonder who on the bridge has run out of gas
Trojanbee7	We need one of those old fashion short band radios- to listen to the Cop talk
Trojanbee7	The funny thing about this is
Saoirsa 	"Medical professionals are talking to the woman/child over median"
 	*** Trojanbee7 is now known as Trojanbee
Trojanbee 	This sort of thing happens every day
Trojanbee 	And now we watch- dragging on everymoment
phatemokid	your telling me! i live in la
Trojanbee 	The feed is getting progressively worse
phatemokid	land of retards
DAKlives 	lighting Trojanbee
Manitook 	darkness
iansltx 	?
phatemokid	someone get industrial light and magic on the phone
Trojanbee 	lol
DAKlives 	iansltx: http://mfile.akamai.com/25193/live/reflector:20985.asx
DAKlives 	live hostage drama
Matthew 	Trojanbee, I ahve noticed the same thing, but i thought that it was just me
Trojanbee 	I would agree that its the loss of light- but you can see the scan lines more clearly
DAKlives 	i mean where are thier production values??...jk sorry
Trojanbee 	And there are two semi-translucent bars on the left.
phatemokid	ok industrial light and magic on the phone are on there way
Trojanbee 	Maybe they're shifting bandwidth away from the helicopter shot
Feld 	N74JW: "Gunman has his hands up
DAKlives 	its purely an available light issue tro
Trojanbee 	I have a feeling the pilot is getting tired
Trojanbee 	Oooh
Trojanbee 	Night Vision
phatemokid	oh man
phatemokid	lol
Trojanbee 	oh man
Trojanbee 	yeah
Trojanbee 	I can't tell whats going on.
Trojanbee 	Cut to the other stream.
Manitook 	my screens bigger
phatemokid	gah! i like the raw feed better
Manitook 	ya think
phatemokid	more suspenseful
Alex66 	Hey, what's this hostage thing?
Trojanbee 	Hmm'
Alex66 	This Philly hostage live feed?
Feld 	N74JW (earlier): "The darker it gets, the less I can see."
Trojanbee 	It seems like they restarted the other stream- the volume bounced up.
Manitook 	N74JW (@ - W): Gunman has his hands up 1M Ago
Trojanbee 	I wonder whats causing the delay.
Manitook 	cool
iansltx 	compression is pretty bad on the new feed
phatemokid	ok the cop has the kid now shoot thje guy
DAKlives 	oooh
Matthew 	phatemokid, agreed
Feld 	N74JW: "Gunman just hugged the woman"
phatemokid	wheres lapd when you need them
Trojanbee 	They have him on the ground
iansltx 	heh SWAT teams
Trojanbee 	I wonder what caused the delay.
Feld 	N74JW: "Cops got'em , its over"
Saoirsa 	i was under the impression the lady and kid were kidnapped...were they with him?
Matthew 	FINALLY OVER
Trojanbee 	It seems like they gave up peacefully.
Matthew 	I found that tquite surprising.
Trojanbee 	What if it was the young lady that was holding the other two hostage?
Saoirsa 	heh
Trojanbee 	The stream is getting worse
DAKlives 	maype it was the baby....rolls eyes
Feld 	N74JW: "Now let us get" ... "outta here"
Trojanbee 	DAKlives: Ya never know
Alex66 	Is that the woman that just walked to the left in handcuffs?
Trojanbee 	I wonder what the situation was.
Trojanbee 	Alex66: I think so
DAKlives 	looked like it
phatemokid	it was the trucker with the candle stick in the study
Trojanbee 	I wonder how young the child is.
Alex66 	Fox 29's site refers to it as a baby, so it must be pretty young
Trojanbee 	Alex66: Except they have less and slower info then we have through N
iansltx 	through N?
Alex66 	?
Alex66 	N?
Saoirsa 	n74jw
Alex66 	oh.
DAKlives 	N= dude on scene twitering
Saoirsa 	his twitter feed
iansltx 	aight
iansltx 	link to the feed?
DAKlives 	http://twitter.com/N74JW
Feld 	http://twitter.com/N74JW
Trojanbee 	whatever else is on the web right now?
iansltx 	thx
Trojanbee 	What did she mean?
Trojanbee 	Back to the live camera feed
DAKlives 	well that was interesting
Trojanbee 	I wonder why they haven't turned off the car.
phatemokid	this was a doozie
DAKlives 	hmmm good q Trojanbee
Trojanbee 	lol
Alex66 	Seems everyone is walking away now
DAKlives 	mebbe for the light lol
Trojanbee 	Another copter just crossed through the shot.
Feld 	whew
phatemokid	poor n hes gonna be there for at least another hour
Alex66 	It's gone
Trojanbee 	lol
Alex66 	The stream's gone
phatemokid	lost feed
Trojanbee 	It flashed their camera
Saoirsa 	yup
Trojanbee 	Yeah- the feed looks dead
Alex66 	I just heard about this right now. lol
DAKlives 	well that was an interesting experince
DAKlives 	here in buzz town
Saoirsa 	very interesting
Trojanbee 	Yeah- the feed is really dead- both the link and the site stream.
Alex66 	Maybe I can use this to prove to Dvorak that Twitter has a use.
Trojanbee 	Who is going to write Tom and Molly about it?
DAKlives 	hehe Alex66
DAKlives 	thx fer bringing this to us Feld
Trojanbee 	Doesn't look like JaMoTo have seen this- only one Twitter in the last bit- Tom talking about Veronica
Trojanbee 	It looks like the story is going to be insane
Feld 	np DAKlives, would have been someone else if not me.
Alex66 	None of the Buzz Crew or any person I'm following (besides the citizens of BuzzTown) are twittering about the hostage thing
phatemokid	now what do i do with the couple minutes i have left at work?