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Hostage crisis plays out online

Stephanie Savas turned to Reddit when she witnessed a violent hostage crisis firsthand.

 

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Posted on Jul 15, 2011   Updated on Jun 3, 2021, 4:00 am CDT

 
When a hostage situation broke out in a small city near Trenton, New Jersey, late Thursday night, a terrified resident of a nearby apartment complex turned to the only place she knew could help calm her nerves: social news site Reddit.

The nearly eight-hour standoff began Thursday afternoon in Ewing, New Jersey, after the suspect, Wayne Voorhees, 50,  allegedly killed 24-year-old Timothy Rivella, then took another man hostage and holed up inside an apartment complex..

And it all took place just 50 feet from redditor Stephanie Savas’ apartment building.

Scrambling to take her mind off the situation, Savas posted a message on Reddit titled “I am currently holed up in an apartment complex where in the building not 50 feet from my bedroom window is a man with a high powered rifle who has murdered one man, and is currently holding a hostage, AmA! (I need distractions, so literally, ask me ANYTHING) (self.IAmA)

That post gathered over a thousand comments and quickly rose to the site’s front page.

Savas posted dozens of updates throughout the day, describing the scene in unique detail. The Trentonian, a local newspaper, even picked up on the redditors’ collective acts of journalism, contacting Savas by email and including her photographs in images of the event.

The standoff eventually ended when Voorhees tried — and failed — to take his own life, and was then promptly arrested by state police.

As for Savas, she had only one thing on her mind when it all ended: “I’m getting the hell out of here,” she wrote.

 

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*First Published: Jul 15, 2011, 12:11 pm CDT