Charlotte’s WSOC Evacuated After Woman Enters Building with a Gun

By Andrew Gauthier 

WSOC in Charlotte, NC went dark shortly after the beginning of the station’s 5:00 newscast as a woman armed with a gun entered the WSOC building (at left, a screen grab from WSOC at 5:05 p.m.).  At least one shot was fired and Charlotte police as well as the area’s SWAT team moved quickly to apprehend the woman.

Thankfully staffers were able to evacuate quickly and safely. Anchor-reporter Blair Miller has been tweeting regular updates.

Shortly after evacuating the building, Miller tweeted, “Not on air. Distraught woman with gun in lobby. Police have building surrounded. Employees evacuated.”

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WSOC has posted the following message on its website: “Channel 9 has to be off the air because of a police situation in our building.” WSOC went dark at 5:17 p.m following a commercial break.

>Update: According to Charlotte’s WBTV, the woman was taken into custody at around 5:40 p.m. The station went back on the air at 6:08 p.m.

Here’s raw aerial video from WBTV of the WSOC building as police moved in…

>Update: WSOC went back on the air at 6:08 p.m. and anchors Natalie Pasquarella and Blair Miller spoke with the station’s general manager Joe Pomilla, who offered an update for viewers. Pomilla emphasized that the woman was not angry with station…

Well, the best of my knowledge, this woman, mid to late 40s, came to the facility, wanted entrance into the facility but we have a secure lobby area. our security guard will then go out and talk to her. when he did speak to her, to find out what she needed, she pulled a gun and put it to her head. from that, she gained entrance to the lobby. But again the lobby is secured from the rest of the facility. So fortunately, the security guard was able too get out of there. Police were immediately called they came in and then they basically locked down the building. All of our employees were sent out of the building and that is one of the reasons we were off the air. We had no one here to man anything. from that, the police ascertained afterwards that she was distraught over some situation that happened in her life and wanted someone to talk to. So i guess she felt comfortable coming to the tv station to try to get a voice. She was not angry with the station in any way, but this was a vehicle for her to speak her mind.

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