Police identify, charge man in weekend hostage situation
No one was hurt in incident in S.W. Baltimore restaurant
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Police have identified the armed man accused of holding four people hostage inside a Burger King on Sunday as George Johnson, 26, of West Baltimore.
His mother, Kimberlee Combs, said police allowed her to speak with her son after he surrendered Sunday afternoon. She said she asked him if a 7-year-old girl who'd been among the hostages was all right.
“He said, ‘Ma, I kept telling the little girl we're going to be OK,' ” Combs said.
Johnson is charged with taking hostages, reckless endangerment, firearm violations and car theft, police spokesman T.J. Smith said.
Sunday morning, officers tried to arrest Johnson on a rape charge, police said. He drove away and crashed his car at Washington Boulevard and South Monroe Street, police said.
Then he ran into the Burger King on Washington Boulevard, where police said he held four people inside hostage; he surrendered after more than five hours. Police said he has also been charged in the rape.
During those tense hours, his family and friends pleaded with Johnson to surrender, Combs said.
Some relatives were enlisted by police to help. Johnson called others on his cellphone while inside the restaurant.
“He was scared,” his mother said. “He thought if he walked out, he was going to immediately be shot.”
She said Johnson, who has a 4-year-old son, is a freelance documentary filmmaker and was working to earn a license to drive trucks. He has worked as a security guard and planned to return to the Community College of Baltimore County.
“He [fled] on impulse, and it ended up being this big fiasco,” Combs said. “It's just sad it escalated this far.”
He released the first two hostages one at a time, police said. Then he surrendered with his hands up and walked out of the Carroll Park restaurant with the last two; it was just before 5 p.m.
None of his hostages was harmed. Sunday afternoon, Combs sat among the negotiators working to bring her son out without gunfire.
“All they kept reiterating was, ‘We want a peaceful surrender,'” she said. “I have a whole new respect for police.”
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