A Baltimore man was shot Thursday afternoon after he walked inside of a local Fox TV station and claimed he had a bomb strapped to his chest and threatened everyone inside.
The suspect, identified as 25-year-old Alex Brizzi, was shot three times. He was transported to a local hospital in serious condition, however he is receiving treatment and is expected to survive.
Thursday's incident began around 1:20 p.m. when Brizzi walked into the Fox 45 building in the Woodberry section of Baltimore. A security guard at the station says that Brizzi entered the station wearing a hedgehog onesie outfit and medical mask, declaring he had a bomb strapped to his chest, before issuing threats to everyone inside.
"He pretty much said he had a bomb on him and that he ... had a message that he needed to be heard," the guard said. Brizzi also had a flash drive containing files that had to do with astronomy. "It pretty much had to do with anything with astronomy ... black holes, the sun, about it being liquid and gas, and he just wanted to say that the government was wrong in thinking about the way they do when it comes to anything in space."
After Brizzi issuing some threats, the building was evacuated, but Brizzi stayed inside and it wasn't until a little after 3 p.m. that he left the building. Upon exiting, he was confronted by police who shot him three times after he refused to take his hands out of his pockets. While on the ground, authorities used a robot to communicate with him and remove the bomb-like device. This was when they learned that what was initially believed to be a bomb was actually a device made out of candy bars, wires, a motherboard from a fire extinguisher and a flotation device.
No one other than Brizzi was injured during the incident.
Ed Brizzi, Alex's father, revealed that there may be some insight about the root of the incident. Apparently, Alex had experienced a major shift in his attitude and had developed a doomsday theory which culminated with the world ending on June 3.
"We really didn't see this coming. This happened so fast. It's only been a couple of weeks. We were looking at him, trying to assess him, trying to figure out what to do. He's 25 years old, so I can't say 'You've got to go into the hospital,'" Ed Brizzi said.
However, that explanation still leaves more questions than answers, and now police are trying to sort it all out.
"What he wanted them to air, we're still investigating," police spokesperson T.J. Smith said. "We don't have the full answers to that."
No charges have been filed yet in the incident.
