Hostage situation ends peacefully

Final hostage released; suspect taken into custody.

Published November 30, 2007 11:18PM (EST)

ROCHESTER, N.H. -- The hostage situation at Hillary Clinton's campaign office here has ended peacefully with the release of a final hostage and the arrest of the man who walked into the office earlier today and claimed to have a bomb.

As police took the man into custody, a law enforcement explosives van pulled out of the Ben Franklin Crafts store parking lot, where it had been staged, and moved toward the presumably empty campaign office. A stack of Domino's pizzas arrived for police.

CNN is reporting that the gunman spoke to CNN employees by telephone several times during the afternoon, complaining that he was suffering from mental health problems. CNN passed along the information to law enforcement but did not report it on the air until after the man was taken into custody.

Update: Hillary Clinton, who canceled an appearance at the Democratic National Committee's fall meeting when the hostage crisis first developed today, just told reporters that she's "relieved to have this situation end so peacefully without anyone being injured." Clinton said she is headed to New Hampshire now to talk with her staff and to thank police. She said she spoke with the hostages' families during the day today as her campaign essentially came to a full stop. "Well, everything stopped and it had to," she said, "because we had nothing on our minds except the safety of these young people who worked for me."


By Michael Scherer

Michael Scherer is Salon's Washington correspondent. Read his other articles here.

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By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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