Fox45 Baltimore offices evacuated after man in hedgehog suit makes bomb threat

A man who was dressed in a hedgehog suit was shot by a police sniper after threatening to blow up the TV station's Baltimore offices.

It was a harrowing experience for staff at a Baltimore TV news station on Thursday after a 25-year-old suspect from Howard County was shot by police after threatening to blow up the WBFF-TV news station in the 2000 block of West 41st Street in north Baltimore.

Reportedly the suspect was wearing the animal suit, described in the media as either a hedgehog or panda suit, with a hood, sunglasses, a surgical mask and a red vest that looked like a suicide bomb, but turned out to be made from chocolate candy bars.

The suspect first set his car on fire in the station’s parking lot before heading into the building, demanding the TV station air a story he had with him on a flash drive. While police wouldn’t confirm the contents of the flash drive, according to the station’s security guard, it related to government conspiracies and the recently released Panama Papers.

After being denied entry to the TV station’s lobby, the man then threatened to blow up the building. After spotting the red vest, which looked like a suicide bomb, security evacuated the building and called in the police. The suspect then managed to access the building.

#BREAKING: Man in Elkridge identifies son as suspect in bomb threat at FOX45: https://t.co/8ubUn609WO pic.twitter.com/xQWlj4woaP

— FOX Baltimore (@FOXBaltimore) April 29, 2016

Bomb squad and SWAT team arrive on the scene

Reportedly police, including the bomb squad and a SWAT team, arrived at the offices of the Fox affiliate at 1:20 p.m., after the suspect barricaded himself inside the building. A team of firefighters were on the scene to extinguish the flames coming from the gas tank of the suspect’s car and police officers barricaded the street before sending a negotiator into the building to address the suspect.

Matters became a little more serious when the man walked out of the building, followed by four officers. According to Baltimore police spokesman T.J. Smith, the suspect kept his hands in his pockets and there was a wire leading down his arm from the red “device” strapped to his chest.

Reportedly the man refused the officers’ orders to stop and remove his hands from his pockets, leading them to shoot.

"When you have a non-compliant individual, you have to do what you have to do," Smith said.

The man was shot by a Baltimore police counter sniper and went down in the middle of West 41st Street.

According to Smith, there were several shots fired but he couldn’t confirm exactly how many, and the suspect was still alive.

As officials feared the device strapped to the suspect’s chest was a bomb, they dispatched a robot to communicate with the man, who continued to refuse to obey police orders.

Reportedly after several minutes, the suspect was still lying in the street and medics were unable to tend to his injuries as he continued to refuse to take his hands from his pockets.

"He was described as conscious and alert, just uncooperative," Smith said. "He was saying no when we were asking him to comply."

Suspect disarmed and found to be wearing candy

When finally the man agreed to comply, the robot disarmed him of his vest, only to find it was not actually an explosive device. It turned out to consist of chocolate candy bars wrapped in aluminum foil, strapped to a motherboard and held together with wiring.

According to CBS Baltimore, while at the time the man’s identity was unknown, he was later identified by his father as 25-year-old Alex Prizzi. According to the Fox45 Twitter feed, the suspect has previously been seen in the same hedgehog suit at an anime event.

According to police, the investigation is still ongoing and Prizzi remains in a critical condition.

Source: CBSLocal Baltimore