Thomas Hodel / Reuters
The police involved in a hostage situation were faced with an interesting decision.
It wasn't whether to send in a robot or storm into a building, it was whether to have the hostage taker's Facebook page shut down.
Here's what they knew: A 22-year-old man in Pittsburgh had taken another man hostage and was holed up in a suite on the 16th floor of a high-rise office building.
And the suspect, Klein Michael Thaxton, had been on Facebook for hours.
"People were sending Facebook messages. We could see that he was paying more attention to Facebook than to the negotiating team, which was hampering our abilities to resolve the situation," Diane Richard, a spokeswoman for Pittsburgh Police Department, said about Friday's incident.
Richard said SWAT officers kept an eye on the Facebook page for at least two hours before making a joint decision with the district attorney to ask for the page to be shut down.
Facebook, through a spokesman, declined to comment.
Richard said not every message asked Thaxton to give up, that some encouraged him to keep going.
Detective Robert Shaw of the Pittsburgh homicide division said Thaxton was arraigned on Saturday and charged with aggravated assault, kidnapping and terrorist threats. Thaxton is being held on $1 million bail.
"Mr. Thaxton has expressed remorse for what has happened. However, at this time we do not wish to speculate as to why this alleged incident occurred.," his attorneys said in a statement. "Moreover, we are unable to discuss his mental health history or the role that a mental health disorder may have played in this matter."
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