A distraught man wearing what appeared to be a bomb walked into a Hillary Clinton campaign office and demanded to speak to the presidential candidate about access to mental health care. The hostage drama dragged on for nearly six hours until he peacefully surrendered.
Shortly after releasing the last of at least five hostages unharmed, a man who police identified as 46-year-old Leeland Eisenberg walked out of the storefront office, put down a homemade bomb-like package and was immediately surrounded by SWAT team with guns drawn. Clad in gray slacks, white dress shirt and a red tie, he was put on the ground and handcuffed.
Authorities said Eisenberg was strapped with what turned out to be road flares and demanded to speak to Clinton, who was in Washington during the day but traveled to New Hampshire on Friday night to meet the hostages, their families and police.
Police said the drama began shortly before 1pm, when the man walked into the office and peeled back his jacket to reveal what appeared to be a bomb duct-taped to his chest. He took several hostages, but let a woman with an infant go immediately.
Eisenberg had a hostage call CNN three times and he spoke to network staffers during the standoff, CNN reported after the ordeal was over and all the hostages were safe. Eisenberg said he wanted help getting psychiatric care, but had been turned away because he didn't have the money.
"I need to speak to Hillary Clinton," CNN quoted him as saying.
"Something's got to change. Ordinary people need help" with their insurance, he said.
The network described Eisenberg as "well-spoken, articulate and impassioned about his cause" but increasingly agitated.
His third phone call was laced with profanities, CNN said.
About two hours after Eisenberg let the woman and baby go, at least one other woman escaped from the office. Two other hostages made it out later, the last about half an hour before Eisenberg surrendered, police said.
Eisenberg entered the office about a half-hour before he was scheduled to appear in Strafford County court for a domestic violence hearing, the Foster's Daily Democrat said.
Eisenberg served time in prison in Massachusetts, records there show.
Diane Wiffin, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Correction, would not give details about the nature of his offense or length of his sentence.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS