U.S.

Man Holding Wife Hostage

May 5, 2000 / 11:25 AM EDT / AP

An armed man entered a medical clinic Friday, argued with his wife and took her and at least one other person hostage, police said. One woman was later freed.

By late morning, police said only one hostage was being held. But a clinic doctor said five other employees were unaccounted-for.

The man entered Mecklenburg Neurological Associates on the ninth floor of the Metroview Building near Presbyterian Hospital about 8:30 a.m., just before the office opened, said Dr. Fred Pfeiffer, a physician who was in the clinic at the time but didn't see the man.

"This morning before the office got going the husband of one of the employees in the business part of our office came in. My understanding is that they had an argument," he said.

Pfeiffer said the clinic, which also occupies the 10th floor, employs about 60 people, and the gunman ordered one person to bring everyone from the 10th floor down to the ninth floor.

"She wisely did not do that. Instead, she called the police," he said.

Pfeiffer said five clinic employees besides the gunman's wife were unaccounted-for among the workers who left the building, but police spokesman Denny Crowder said only one person was a hostage. Crowder wouldn't say whether the captive was the man's wife.

Pfeiffer said one woman held hostage suffered an asthma attack and was released. Television footage showed a woman being carried out on a stretcher.

Charlotte SWAT team members and police negotiators were on the scene, and the nine other floors in the building were evacuated, Crosby said.

Witnesses said the man was armed with a handgun, dressed in fatigues and carrying a gym bag.

Carl Craddock, owner of Metroview Pharmacy on the building's first floor, said a building maintenance worker got a case of bottled water at the pharmacy to take to police at the scene.

He said there were "a few terrified people, but to my knowledge no shots have been fired and nobody is hurt or wounded."

The Web site for Mecklenburg Neurological Associates said it has 35,000 patients, treated for problems ranging from headaches to strokes.