Andrew Scipione, Police Commissioner for the New South Wales police department, just gave a briefing to reporters on the ongoing hostage situation in Sydney.
But unfortunately, Scipione wasn’t able to clear up any questions regarding the motive of the hostage taker or the exact number of hostages.
Some excerpts:
Commissioner Andrew Scipione: "We have an armed offender holding an undisclosed number of hostages." #MartinPlace
— NSW Police Force (@nswpolice) December 15, 2014
Commissioner Scipione: "We are very contained and have tight controls and restrictions around the area." #MartinPlace
— NSW Police Force (@nswpolice) December 15, 2014
Commissioner Scipione: "There are well trained officers on the job who I'm sure will bring this to a peaceful resolution." #MartinPlace
— NSW Police Force (@nswpolice) December 15, 2014
Commissioner Scipione: "My advice is we haven't had contact with the armed offender at this stage." #MartinPlace
— NSW Police Force (@nswpolice) December 15, 2014
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione says the motive is unknown in the hostage situation in… https://t.co/zDIetBkCOl pic.twitter.com/bwEEBON7pT
— [ Police News ] (@InsidePolice) December 15, 2014
"We are still determining what may well be the motivation" says Andrew Scipione, NSW Police Commissioner http://t.co/7385iB2pTw
— Globalnews.ca (@globalnews) December 15, 2014
Scipione: ‘It's a flag that we've had people looking at. We're working with partner agencies to better determine what we're dealing with.'
— 7NEWS Australia (@7NewsAustralia) December 15, 2014
Scipione: "There are hundreds and hundreds of officers involved in that very tight location right now." #sydneysiege
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) December 15, 2014
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And this was the strangest part of the briefing as he said the incident is and isn’t being treated as a terrorist event:
Scipione: "We've moved to a footing that would be consistent with a terrorist event." #sydneysiege
— BreakingNews.ie (@breakingnewsie) December 15, 2014
Comm of @nswpolice Andrew Scipione seems confident #sydneysiege will be resolved sooner than later. Described it as a "terrorist event".
— Brian Carlton (@Spoonyman) December 15, 2014
And then Comm Scipione unconfirms #sydneysiege is being treated as a terrorist event.
— Brian Carlton (@Spoonyman) December 15, 2014
Commissioner Scipione can't confirm siege is terror attack but says situation is consistent with one #SydneySiege pic.twitter.com/IzDf3t7CJ3
— Nova 96.9 (@nova969) December 15, 2014
"As I said, we have not yet confirmed this is a terrorist related event." – NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione #SydneySiege
— Maria Lewis (@moviemazz) December 15, 2014
Some clarity please.
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Related:
Twitchy coverage of #SydneySiege.
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