Hostages Taken At Clinton Campaign Office

Volunteers at Hillary Clinton's Rochester, New Hampshire campaign office are being held hostage by a man with a bomb duct-taped to his chest. The man is demanding to speak to Hillary. The standoff is continuing.

A man walked into the office at about 1 p.m., Maj. Michael Hambrook of the New Hampshire State Police told CNN affiliate WMUR-TV. Hambrook and Clinton campaign officials said two people were believed to be inside at the time.

Shortly before 2 p.m., police officers were gathered across the street from the office, some kneeling behind police cruisers with guns drawn.

Witnesses described the man as in his 40s with salt-and-pepper hair, WMUR reported.

A woman and her baby were released by the hostage-taker, the woman told workers at a nearby business, according to the WMUR Web site.

Clinton, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, is in the Washington area. She was scheduled to speak at 3 p.m. at a Democratic National Committee event, but canceled the talk because of the situation, DNC Chairman Howard Dean said. (H/T -CNN)

I am by no means a fan of Clinton's, but no one deserves this. Certainly not the good people who volunteered their time to help with the campaign. I realize that the Rochester Police Department is not trolling the blogs for suggestions, but here are a few things that they absolutely must consider:

• Take your time. You have plenty of it, so think everything through before you act.
• Attempt to talk to the offender and calm him down. A nervous hostage-taker is a dangerous one.
• Get the media as far away from the office as possible. This man wants to be on television. Take that away from him, and he may negotiate.
• Finally, DO NOT under any circumstances allow Hillary Clinton to talk to this man. In fact, when interviewed, she should not even address the situation until the standoff is over. Hillary is not a hostage negotiator, and one wrong word may cost someone their life.
  

Some may think that Hillary doesn't care about the hostages if she refuses to speak to the man. Those people are dead wrong. If this were my crime scene, the last thing I would do is let the man have an audience with Hillary. Hopefully, the Rochester P.D. is thinking the same thing.

UPDATE: The offender has been arrested:

(CNN) -- Police took into custody a man they say walked into Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire, and took several people hostage Friday.

The man, Lee Eisenberg, claimed to have a bomb strapped to his chest, police said.

"I am very grateful that this difficult day has ended so well. All of my campaign staff are safe," Clinton said outside her Washington home. "I want to thank them for their extraordinary courage and coolness under some very difficult pressures and dangerous situations." (H/T - CNN)

Thankfully, no one was injured in the incident.