Hostage

The event came and went in the daily cycle of news of Sept. 4 - man with rifle holds three people hostage in a house off Belair Road, near the Baltimore City-Baltimore County line, leading to a 14-hour standoff with police. This time, the Obviously Troubled Individual (OTI) is 38-year-old Roger Shifflett. He breaks into the house about 4 a.m., allegedly gunning for his estranged girlfriend. The girlfriend flees, leaving three other adults behind. After a few hours, Shifflett releases one of his hostages; the remaining two walk out of the house two hours later.

A 14-hour standoff ended peacefully yesterday evening when an Overlea man gave himself up to Baltimore County police, several hours after releasing three unharmed hostages, authorities said. A tactical police unit "coaxed him out voluntarily" about 6:30 p.m. yesterday, said Cpl. Ben Yohe. "Charges have not been determined at this point," he said. The man's name will be released today, he said. The man entered the home in the first block of Walnut Ave. about 4 a.m. looking for his girlfriend but didn't find her, said Bill Toohey, a county police spokesman.

Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown's cousin was fatally shot in Gaithersburg on Saturday night by her ex-boyfriend, who was then killed by Montgomery County police officers responding to the domestic dispute, officials said yesterday. Catherine T. Brown, 40, a teacher at Beauvoir National Cathedral Elementary School in Washington, was pronounced dead at the scene after being shot in the garage of her home in the 9400 block of Vineyard Haven Drive in Montgomery Village, police said. The lieutenant governor flew back to Maryland yesterday morning from Denver, where he was participating in the Democratic National Convention.

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombian soldiers tricked leftist guerrillas in a jungle camp into freeing 15 hostages, including a former presidential candidate and three U.S. military contractors, officials said yesterday. Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said the military rescued former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three Americans employed by Northrop Grumman Corp. and 11 soldiers and police officers held for years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. "This was an unprecedented operation," Santos told reporters.

If you had to list your biggest fears when moving to a new home, what would they be? You might be worried about something valuable or sentimental breaking. Or you might worry that a box would get lost along the way. Or that the movers won't show up on time - or perhaps at all. But the one thing you probably aren't worrying about may be the biggest concern of all: that the moving company you hired is a scam company, and they're holding your stuff hostage until you fork over a wad of cash.

Oct. 23 2002 Gunmen seized a crowded Moscow theater, taking hundreds hostage and threatening to kill them unless the Russian army pulled out of Chechnya.

A man suspected of holding a woman hostage in North Point State Park on Sunday afternoon has been charged with multiple offenses, including assault, Baltimore County police said yesterday. About 5:30 p.m., the woman told police that she had escaped from the man and that he had fired shots as she fled into the woods. Police blocked off North Point Road and other roads leading into the park and searched for the man. Scores of motorists in the area were forced to wait until the search was over.

The frantic phone call had the potential to be deadly dangerous: After discovering that his wife had cheated on him, a Marine who had served three tours of duty in Iraq shot a hostage and barricaded himself in a Severna Park home. He wanted flak jackets sent to all troops in Iraq and demanded to speak with the president. He said he was ready to die if police didn't comply. After closing roads and bringing in a special-response team, police determined that the elaborate scenario was a hoax.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- Taliban kidnappers freed two South Korean female hostages yesterday, a move the fundamentalist militants described as a gesture of good will while they negotiate the fate of the 19 other Christian aid workers they still hold. The two women were released into the custody of Afghan elders and then handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in a rural roadside exchange just west of Ghazni province, where they were abducted while traveling with a group of 23 South Korean volunteers July 19. The Taliban have killed two male hostages, including the leader of the church group.