Wheelchair gunman surrenders to police robot

This is a detail from a larger photograph showing an alleged hostage-taker in rural Virginia who surrendered to a police robot. The Standard has the full photo and the rest of the story.

Best bit: "Police had negotiated with [Warren] Taylor by phone, but he made no demands other than a request for a pizza. He is reported to have told police he had a military background." The article doesn't say whether or not he got the pizza.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

MORE: News

More at Boing Boing

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Hackers prepare for first "national holiday" in their honor

phisrow

“Dead or alive, you’re coming with me.”

Second? :)
Xander Crews

On second thought, it’s kinda disheartening we skipped the entire monkey-cop generation of crime fighting and went straight to robots.
Anonymous

We didn’t skip it, Xander.

Zing!
mindysan33

Edgar Jomfru? Revengencers?
zikzak

Interesting that this is covered in a British paper, since it’s a pretty small-time story that you wouldn’t normally expect to see outside a local paper.

I guess the robotic law enforcement angle is especially meaningful in the UK – that whole “safer living through authoritarian technology” narrative?
- Anonymous
  
  Or it could be the whole Dalek “Exterminate” angle… Cue the spooky music – NOW.
Jason Rizos

Will this finally give Skynet the evidence it needs to proceed?
KeithIrwin

This story is from a couple of weeks back. There was a bunch of coverage at the time. I can tell you this from what I recall reading:
He did get the pizza and shared it with his hostages.

From the sounds of things, it also seemed like one of the hostages sort of established a rapport with him and helped talk him down as well.
- Xopher
  
  See?! I was right! Giving him the pizza was the right thing to do!
  
  I was thinking of the hungry hostages. Nine hours, what do you expect?
  
  So take THAT you stingy people! :-)
- stegodon
  
  at the risk of sounding flippant about what i’m sure was a serious/tense situation, i gotta say, getting hooked up with pizza would really help the stockholm syndrome along for me
  - Xopher
    
    I suspect that the hostages were saying they were hungry, and that that may be part of how one hostage built rapport. Once the pizza was there and they shared it, the gunman’s surrender was just a matter of patience. Fortunately it appears that someone outside the PO noticed that fact.
    
    Seriously, when I made my first post in this thread, I thought the joke was that OF COURSE you give pizza to the hostage-taker! That’s easy, and builds trust and goodwill, which is what you need in a hostage negotiation. I didn’t think that would be in any way controversial except among the drooling macho-fantasy types, who think you should gas the whole building rather than waste police time trying to save a few hostages.
    
    Fortunately they don’t show up here too often any more.
dexcox

i want a robot to arrest me too
justanotherusername

What a picture. It could hardly have been improved if it was staged.
dculberson

From the photo, I assumed the robot was armed and wondered how one of those clumsy things could threaten anyone – even someone in a wheelchair. Turns out it’s just checking him for explosives.. makes more sense.
RedShirt77

Was the robot programmed to call him a “punk” before taking him into custody?
Anonymous

It was a fairly small town. People knew the guy, and he wasn’t that bad a guy. They knew what had happened to him. They were sorry for him and they didn’t want him to get hurt; and they were reasonably sure he didn’t really want to hurt anybody.

Not so much establishing empathy as reminding each other of the empathy that already existed.
CANTFIGHTTHEDITE

Did the robot deliver the pizza first?

Do they ever put a flash grenade in the pizza box? Mmmmm… flash grenade pizza.
mypalmike

Nice software.
Hawley

obese bionic gunman surrenders to robot overlord
Anonymous

I remember this episode of Riptide.
mneptok

In the near future this headline will be Wheelchair Police Surrender To Robot Gunman.
Anonymous

For more information about the robot, read the story from the regional paper that covered the story. They did a special piece on the robot:

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/230806
GoDownMoses

My dream police robot is part vending machine, part entertainment center, negotiating snacks/drinks/dvds in exchange for hostages. Maybe throw in a foot massage and drop him a few Oxycontin.
A New Challenger

Mayor Mike Haggar was unavailable for comment at press time.
- twmbmf
  
  Wow. Just… Nicely done sir.
Anonymous

Actually, during the (first?) Persian Gulf war there was video of Iraqi soldiers trying to surrender to drone aircraft.
Anonymous

YOUR MOVE, CREEP
glaborous immolate

“Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply. ”

First? :)
Xopher

I will take a brave and politically unpopular stand: they should have given him the pizza.
- Brainspore
  
  That’s ridiculous. How many police departments have the budget for pizza?
  - Xopher
    
    OK, then they should charge him for it. Geez.
Xander Crews

Hey look it’s Tachikoma’s great, great, grandfather!