Firefighters talk about being held hostage by former firefighter at PA firehouse
The firefighters of the La Mott Fire Company in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania are talking about being held hostage yesterday (Tuesday) by 25-year-old Paul Jordan, who had been kicked out of the fire company the day before.
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Fire Company President Mark Logan of the La Mott Fire Company tells us, “He pulled his gun out, and when he pulled his gun out a few of us got away. The one’s that didn’t he made us sit against the wall and empty out our pockets. He was just pacing back and forth.”
The standoff lasted an hour, and may have been longer had several firefighters not ran when Jordan allegedly pulled the 9mm handgun and said “This isn’t a game.”
One of the firefighters tells us, “I was like, someone has to make it out of this basement to get to safety and have the cops called.”
Another firefighter said, “He was dealing with a lot of issues in life. And sometimes when you’re dealing with issues and you don’t know how to reach out or deal with the issues, sometimes they can be overwhelming.”
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KYW:
Logan says he was among four firefighters ordered onto the floor by Jordan, who fired a shot into the wall, six inches away, telling his hostages,”next time I won’t miss.”
“He could have killed us if he wanted to,” Logan explained. “It was an intentional miss.”
As Logan and fellow firefighters tried to reason with Jordan, a Lieutanant, who had a gun held to his head, darted out a door, made his way to the street and called “911.”
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“He wasn’t himself,” said Mark Logan, president of the La Mott Fire Company. “He didn’t look like himself. He didn’t act like himself.”
Hostage negotiators got in contact with Jordan by phone then in person after police cleared the ground floor of the building, said investigators.
“We heard SWAT upstairs,” Logan said. “I’m moving around so we knew it was coming to an end in some kind of way.”
After about an hour, officials say Jordan decided to surrender.
“I grabbed a gun from him and even then our guys that were remaining hugged him,” Logan said. “They hugged him while I went upstairs to surrender the gun to SWAT.”
Logan says the men walked out with Jordan to prevent him from getting hurt.
