Three Gateway Center is a 344 ft (105m)

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. It was completed in 1952 and has 24 floors. It is the 20th tallest building in Pittsburgh.

2012 hostage incident

On the morning of September 21, 2012, 22-year-old military veteran Klein Michael Thaxton (who reportedly had a criminal record, and was believed to be carrying a gun and two duffel bags) stormed into a 16th-floor office of CW Breitsman Associates and took a male hostage while letting at least two females go. Police believed a male hostage was targeted because Thaxton was believed to have asked for a particular male.

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, with the assistance of the

Allegheny County Sheriff The Allegheny County Sheriff's Office is a law enforcement agency that serves Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and is the largest sheriff's office in the state. The ACSO serves as a local arm of the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System in a nu ...

and

Port Authority of Allegheny County Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) is the public agency responsible for most public transportation services in the Greater Pittsburgh region in Pennsylvania. It is the second-largest public transit agency in Pennsylvania and the 20th-largest in t ...

police, closed off surrounding streets, as well as closing the buildings plaza and the Gateway Center Subway Station for the five-hour standoff, before successfully resolving the situation. It was confined only to one room in the suite, and no injuries or deaths occurred, as evacuations were minimal and people were still occupying other portions of the skyscraper. Thaxton communicated to friends, family (authorities had brought his mother to the scene), and others through his

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page during the first few hours of the standoff, the first documented case of such a hostage situation in history, before police had the page shut down to facilitate negotiations.

References

Official Site
*

* Office buildings in Pittsburgh Residential skyscrapers in Pittsburgh Residential buildings completed in 1952 {{Pittsburgh-struct-stub

2012 hostage incident

See also

References