White Woman Held Hostage by Black Gunman Tried Talking Politics and History with Him

News OK
November 12, 2014

Jennifer McMinn, trapped Monday with a gunman in a law office inside the Nextep building in west Norman, talked politics and history with the man while periodically texting people on the outside that she was OK.

For four hours, McMinn remained calm, occasionally negotiating with the gunman on behalf of two police negotiators who were stationed in a separate room and also were talking to him by telephone.

Devin Rogers, 29, surrendered to police about 4:30 p.m. after first releasing McMinn. Another male hostage later was escorted by police out of the building unharmed. He has been identified as Daymon Capers. A third person, believed to be Tyler Christians, also was found inside unharmed.

Fifty-five others either were evacuated or ran from the building earlier after the gunman entered about 12:30 p.m.

The Nextep building is in the 1800 block of N Interstate Drive East and is a human relations firm that also rents space to other businesses, including the Farzaneh Law Firm, where the gunman ended up.

Employee Joe Steadman works in a web design office in the building. He said he believes the incident began when he was walking back to the Nextep building after lunch. A man ran up behind him, grabbed him by the collar and shoved a gun into his neck.

“Briefly, I thought maybe it was someone playing a joke on me. Then it got serious real quick. He started shoving me toward the building, and I asked him, ‘do you want money?” He said no, that he wanted more people,” Steadman said.

The gunman pushed him inside the building, where Steadman said he told a receptionist to call 911. He tried to get away but was forced into an elevator, he said.

The gunman kept repeating that he wanted more people, Steadman said, and when they got off on the second floor, the man kept going from office to office looking for people.

Most were at lunch, however.

Steadman said the man became frustrated and forced him into a stairwell, making him climb to the third floor. That floor has a key card entrance that the gunman couldn’t penetrate, so Steadman said he forced him back down to the second floor.

The Farzaneh Law Firm had people inside, Steadman said, so the gunman banged on the office’s glass door and began shooting into it when they wouldn’t let him in.

Steadman said he was able to wrench free from the gunman at that point. He ran to his office and hid on the floor for about an hour and a half until SWAT team members rescued him.

“It was terrifying. I begged him not to kill me, and he said ‘If I wanted to kill you, you’d already be dead,’” Steadman said.