Rotten Mango - #347: “Lover boy” Gives LIVE TV Interview While Holding 15-Yr-Old Girl Hostage for 100 Hours
Episode Date: March 28, 2024Teenage girls start rushing to the apartment building, jumping excitedly and shouting “Hey Lindemberg! Come to the window, I came here just to see you!” “We like bad boys!” - it’s like a c...oncert for a boy group celebrity. But Lindemberg is a ticking time bomb. He’s hiding away from the window in the apartment. The hollers, catcalls, hearing his name - ugh he can’t focus! He needs to focus right now. He stretches his arm out the window and waves his hand around wildly as a pulls the trigger on his gun. Pop! Pop! Pop! He shoots straight into the crowd that had formed below him - the groupies and admirers scatter - but Lindemberg is still fuming. He can shoot into a crowd of admirers but he can’t shoot the girl he came to kill. The one he had taken hostage just hours before. The one he had groomed since she was 12 years old. The love of his life. He’s still deciding if he should spare her or shoot her. Maybe he should give the big crowd below him what they came for - a show. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Badabing, badaboom.
They knew that this wasn't the sound of a firework.
I mean, from really afar, maybe you could confuse the two sounds a little bit, but if you're close enough
There's no way you're thinking that this is a firework. A firework sound, it lasts a lot longer
It's like a crack and then a fizzling pop afterwards
Like if you throw a piece of meat into a hot sizzling pot of oil to fry it, there's a sizzling
There's an echo. A gunshot on the other hand is a lot more
distinct. It is abrupt. It starts and then it ends. There is no middle. Just that's
it. A blip on the radar. They hear the gunshot. I mean it's just echoing off
the halls of this very dingy apartment complex. In the hallways, every single
door to each unit opens. People start popping their head out into the hallway
to see where the hell this noise is coming from.
Most of the heads peeping into the hallway,
they're not even neighbors.
They're not even residents of the building.
So what are they doing inside of this residential apartment complex?
They're journalists.
This is what they came for.
This gunshot.
This is the story.
They hear a whole crowd of people screaming from outside the building, like reacting to
the gunshot.
They're slamming their bodies onto the pavement to try and avoid being shot.
They were all here for apartment 24.
No really, there is a crowd of over a hundred people and they are standing in front of the
apartment building, just outside, outside surrounding it staring at this
singular tiny small rectangular window up in the building
This isn't even a nice building. So you're not getting those floor-to-ceiling glass windows or crazy views
It's just an old gray concrete building with these large stains on the walls
and then they have these tiny windows that are unevenly scattered around
and this is where in the parking lot there's about a hundred people trying to
break their necks
trying to peer into apartment 24. They're looking for him
he's a celebrity at this point. Some girls are even coming up to the building
taking pictures
they're trying to jump as high as they can to get a look inside, which really is not
that possible.
It's not like they're on the second floor, but they would be screaming, come to the window,
please.
We came to see you.
We love bad boys.
Show us your face.
People are pointing their phones at the window, seeing if he would react.
He did.
The window slams open and a soccer jersey is hung up. A soccer jersey.
Half the crowd outside, they start cheering full force. That's their team. He's repping their team.
The other half boo. This is the worst team in the world in their eyes. Okay, there's no middle ground.
Others, they start running back to their houses. They start running back to their cars to grab
their own soccer jerseys
to represent whose side that they're on in all of this.
There's dozens of police officers just standing there staring at the cheering crowd.
I mean, they look like they're just amazed by the situation.
Journalists are standing there as well, waiting for something just exciting to happen.
They keep calling his phone to see if the man in apartment 24 is gonna pick up.
Oh my god, here he comes!
All the cameras pan to the window.
They zoom in.
Everybody is tapping on their camera screens to get it to focus on the window because someone is about to pop their head out.
But it's not him. It's a girl. She sticks her head out the window a tiny bit.
She looks maybe 15.
And she sticks both of her thumbs up.
Like all good, thumbs up sign.
Both hands.
Both hands.
And it's very unnerving.
She's giving thumbs up, but her face is contorted.
It's splotchy everywhere.
I mean, it's clear that she's been crying, sobbing.
She's distressed, clearly.
Her shoulders are basically up to her ears, her body language is beyond tense, she looks like
she's in life-threatening danger but she's giving everyone a thumbs up and
behind her if you zoom closely enough on your phone or your camera you would see
a gun pointed directly at her. Then she disappears and another girl, another 15 year old, pops out the window and they're really young.
She's forced to wave.
Then she's dragged back into the apartment and then a gun is shoved out the window and a shot is fired into the crowd.
Directly into the crowd?
Into the crowd.
The man from apartment 24 was a 22 year old hostage taker.
There were four teenagers being held hostage in that apartment.
This is Brazil's longest hostage situation.
One hundred hours and by the end, three escape.
One will be forced back into the apartment after escaping.
Two will be shot and one will die.
And the whole nation would just watch it happen in real time almost like a live stream.
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A few brief disclaimers for today's case.
We had our Portuguese-speaking researcher
who resides in Brazil help gather data for this case.
However, as always, please let us know if anything is mistranslated or miscommunicated in the comments below.
We also turned to two professional FBI negotiators, Chris Voss and Gary Nessner.
They're both very well known in the work in their field,
so we tried to fill in any gaps in today's case. All patterns and behavioral speculations and analysis
were based on their highly educated, highly trained,
experience-based published works.
They have really great books.
The interviews between the press and the perpetrator
have also been condensed for clarity.
So with that being said, let's get into it.
Elola had just one shot for all of this to end.
Just one. That's it.
I mean, she's being held hostage, and if she doesn't get this to work, she's gonna be here forever.
I mean, who knows? She could die in this apartment.
She opens up the window, and she starts sliding down the bedsheets.
She had ripped them and tied them tightly to each other, and she's letting them hang down.
She's using both arms to, like, throw the torn sheets all the way until it reaches the ground and then she leans out the window as far down as she
can because this is her one shot at escaping. One shot. So why? Why are they
not? Aloha pushes her body just a little bit out more and still nothing. They
don't take the shot. She could feel
the gun pressing up against her back. She stands up, takes a step back into the
apartment and starts pulling up the makeshift rope. At the very end of the
rope is a paper bag tied to it. Food. Food the police had brought her to eat.
Oh so she's trying to bring up the food, not She's also she's trying to bring up the food not
Escaping no, she's trying to bring up the food
But she's leaning down as far as possible to give the snipers a clear view of her hostage taker
But they don't take the shot. This was her only shot
So she was trying to get that message across and they didn't do that. They did not
So she just has food attached to
her bedsheets, food the police brought because she's getting sick, she's throwing up, she
can't eat what's in the house anymore, but none of that matters because she lost her
only chance at leaving. It's not like she can try and escape out the window. There's
about a hundred people standing there that would probably start cheering when she started
scaling down the side of the building. They're watching the window of this apartment building like it's a TV screen.
Eyes glued but almost passive. They're not actually trying to help or get
involved. They're just watching in real time.
Aloha is not trying to escape. She's trying to bend down so that the police
could shoot her hostage taker. When Aloha was thrown back into the apartment with
the food, they
all sat in front of the TV to watch it all over again, her grabbing food from the rope.
And they would rerun it on every single news network immediately after it happened. She
would likely hope that the hostage taker did not notice in all of the reruns that she's
leaning down a lot more than she needs to.
Some people make horrendous hostage negotiators.
If you've ever uttered the words, like even in your head, yeah but it doesn't matter what
they think because what they think is wrong, you would probably not be hired as a good hostage
negotiator.
You need a high level of emotional intelligence to be considered by the FBI.
For example, there are three types of people, and next time you're at a party, you can test this out.
Pronounce a word wrong on purpose.
It's gotta be a hard word,
where it sounds like you're trying to sound
a little bit educated, but not condescending.
You pronounce that word incorrectly.
There's three reactions, three types of people.
The first type of person,
they're not even gonna notice that you mispronounced it.
Most likely, they're not even paying that close enough attention to you to even notice that you mispronounced it.
The second type of person, they're going to smirk and they're going to point it out directly in
front of the whole group and either intentionally or unintentionally, they're going to embarrass you.
The third person will smile genuinely and say something more along the lines of,
oh my god how funny.
I actually learned that it was pronounced this way recently, and funny enough, there
was a study done that found that avid readers often mispronounce words since they expand
their vocabulary through reading rather than watching movies or watching shows, so through
sound.
I thought it was just really curious.
What kind of books do you typically enjoy?
That's some very high level communication skills.
And that third one is going to be a hostage negotiator. You're correcting them. You're letting
it be known that that is not a correct thing. You're not shying away from the fact that they
mispronounced it, but you're doing it in a way where it gives them the opportunity to walk away.
Yeah. And you're complimenting them. Making them feel good about it.
Exactly.
It's all about saying the right thing.
You can say the same thing in two different ways
and get two different results.
So let's say you're in a hostage situation.
You are the hostage negotiator.
The purpose is to prep the hostage taker for some bad news.
You're trying to soften the blow,
something that they're gonna be upset about,
and you know it.
Do you say, one, look, I don't want you to be offended by what I'm getting ready to say.
Or two, what I'm getting ready to say is probably gonna offend you.
I think number two, right?
Yes. The first is almost in order.
I don't want, I don't want you to be offended by what I'm getting ready to say.
It centers the negotiator, but ready to say it centers the negotiator
But the statement itself assumes that the negotiator holds the power because they have the power to offend that is true
I don't know why the second just sounds better and I feel like that can almost be applied to in relationship
Maybe in just regular communication, right? Yeah, it's crazy
How subtle it is and then to it's it's like a preemptive measure
You need to say something and this is just to let them know it's not the
best news that you're bringing, unfortunately.
Also the natural reaction to option two is, okay, well, that wasn't that bad.
Let's try another one.
This can be used when talking to family members of hostages or
even the hostage takers themselves.
So when they're delivering horrendous news to them, do you say, one, you sound angry
or two, I know you're angry.
I know you're angry.
Yes.
One is going to get you the response of, yeah, you bozo, you're the one that pissed me off
or even, of course I'm angry, you idiot, you made me angry.
But with two, you're more likely to get a response of, yeah, and what are you going
to do about it?
That at least gives the hostage negotiator an opportunity to make it right.
Wait, can you say those two again?
You sound angry.
I know you're angry.
No, you're angry. Wow.
It's so subtle. It's crazy.
This is what the hostage negotiators from the FBI were talking about.
It's just switching a few words, and that makes or breaks a hostage negotiation.
Because in a hostage situation,
not talking about the anger does not make it go away.
Anger is the elephant in the room.
So you just need to address it in a way
that doesn't escalate the situation.
And last question, before we get started,
do you know what the F-bomb is in negotiations?
It's like the one word that you cannot abuse, but it is incredibly overused in almost all negotiations.
Business, relationships, friendships, colleagues, everywhere.
It's been used too much?
Used too much.
And it's not good?
No.
The F-bomb.
F-bomb.
What do you want in a negotiation?
Think even business negotiation.
What do I want? a negotiation? Think even business negotiation. What do I want?
What do both parties want?
Okay, so it needs to be a win-win.
It needs to be a fair. Fair.
Fair. Fair is the F-bomb.
Hostage negotiator Chris Voss said that there are three types of ways to use the word fair,
and only one of them is correct.
Can you guess which one?
One, we just want what's fair for everyone. Fair for you, fair for us. We want both parties to be happy and
healthy. Two, we've given you a fair offer. This is the best we can do. I really
try to get the best deal for you. I really did. Three, I want you to feel
like you're being treated fairly. So please stop me at any time if you feel
like I'm being unfair. Yeah, yeah. The third one sounds so much better.
Yeah, so he said that don't even use that word unless you're using it so correctly like the third one.
So for one, it's wrong because the implication of like, I want what's fair for both of us,
whoever utters those words is already admitting loss.
They've already got the short end of the stick.
That means they already feel like you're scamming them.
Two is wrong because it's almost condescending.
Trust me, this is a fair deal. This is the best you're gonna get.
It's like you don't know it, but I'm letting you know this is the best.
Three is the best because it disarms someone.
It makes you seem like a person of integrity and very reasonable to work with.
Because at the end of the day, everyone wants to be treated fairly.
They want what's fair.
But what is fair when you've taken four teenage hostages
by gunpoint?
It's 1 p.m. on a Monday.
15-year-old Alola and her three best friends,
Nayara, that's her best best friend, okay,
she calls her Barbie, because of her blonde hair,
and then two guy friends from school.
They're over at Alha's family apartment,
and they're just finishing up their geography homework.
It's not chaotic, but there's like a nice, lively energy
in the place.
There's music playing in the background.
They were hungry, so they just ate lunch,
and the smell of food is lingering.
Aloha is going around doing some chores around the house.
Her little brother and parents won't be home till later,
so she's trying to get as much done as possible. She's making the bed, putting clothes away, running the laundry, running the house. Her little brother and parents won't be home till later so she's trying to get as much done as possible. She's making the bed, putting clothes away,
running the laundry, running the dishes, and suddenly the door flings open and
there is a man standing in the doorway. He's just standing in the doorway
staring at them. Aside from the fact that he just burst into the apartment
uninvited, his body language is unsettling. His posture is unnaturally
rigid.
He's scanning the room like he's looking
for something or someone, but most unsettling of all,
he's got a gun in his hand.
And he was looking for Aloha.
He is Aloha's stalker.
And for a split second, everybody's frozen.
I mean, the stalker is in the doorway,
and finally he opens his mouth and he says,
oh boy, you're all in the wrong place finally he opens his mouth and he says Oh boy
You're all in the wrong place at the wrong time. I came to kill aloha
The man jumps into action. He flings his body across the room and he slaps the two teenage boys across the face
He slams the butt of the gun down on their heads sit down on the bed sit down
He grabs aloha by her arm and in front of her school classmates
He just starts beating her viciously excessively kicking her punching her slapping her her three friends are just sitting on the bed terrified
They're screaming for help and then he fires the gun at the door and they go silent because this man is not joking around
His eyes are bulging out of his face and he's whipping the gun around like it's just like a bandana or like a flag that
You would wave around in the air. I'm gonna kill Alola and then myself and
With that the clock has started it is time for negotiations
The first hour of a hostage situation is the most crucial if you were to see the state of emotions during a hostage situation
is the most crucial. If you were to see the state of emotions during a hostage situation over time, one of the highest peaks would be at the first hour. Highest emotion, highest risk, highest
consequences. The hostage taker in the first hour usually feels a massive surge of adrenaline. It's
almost euphoric. The feeling of complete power and control. Adrenaline levels will shoot up 500% above
baseline. 500% of like what you and I feel right now times 500% in adrenaline.
To give you an idea, our levels only increase 500% in severe life-threatening situations.
Like if a shark is swimming straight at you with their teeth showing,
or if you're in the middle of an earthquake and the building is collapsing.
That is when your adrenaline peaks 500% above baseline.
Your senses are so alert, so heightened,
you almost feel like you have super hearing,
like you became a superhero.
You can hear three apartment units down from you,
every creek, things seem brighter in color.
Your brain tricks you into thinking
you've never been so clear minded.
Your brain might even trick you into becoming blind
to the reality of fatality to death.
It said dopamine levels can increase by 50%.
That's your brain's feelings of reward, motivation, and sense of power.
Your serotonin levels, your happy chemicals, rise 20-30%, which is an increase of… you
just feel happy in this situation.
You're likely to feel 70-80 percent more self-assured than usual as
a hostage-taker in the first hour alone. Now the dangerous part of all of this is
what goes up must come down and it comes down really quick. It's not even in the
first hour. Sometimes it comes down in 10 minutes and once you're back down a
baseline it's gonna feel horrendous. You're gonna start sweating profusely
from the increased anxiety. You might feel trembling and nausea. The amygdala, the brain's fear
center. It's like a it's like a tiny almond shaped panic button. It starts
going off non-stop. Non-stop. The fire alarm, the sprinklers inside your brain
and technically your body because you're sweating a lot is going- you can't catch
your breath. It feels like you ran a marathon. You can hear thumping in your
ears. It sounds like there's a drum playing in your chest.
Your whole body is just slick with sweat.
Your hands are shaking
and you're trying to hold your gun steady,
but it's about to fall out
because you're so sweaty and you're shaking.
You keep rolling your neck
because the tension is so, you just feel so sore.
It feels like you've been carrying a heavy backpack
of rocks all day long.
The tension starts leading to headaches
and you just wanna scream, shut up, shut up everyone.
Let me think for a second.
Even when nobody's talking.
Attention span decreases 25 to 35%.
Field of vision narrows 20 to 30%.
Working memory decreases by 20 to 30 percent.
Your brain is trying to work through five to ten potential plans or possible outcomes per minute.
Because your brain is trying to anticipate the reaction of the hostages, the police,
the negotiators, because at the end of the day, even if you're an evil person,
your brain is trying to protect you. Any little mistake, any little oversight, life or death.
is trying to protect you. Any little mistake, any little oversight, life or death.
Now there are three sides to each hostage situation. The hostage taker, the hostage, and the hostage negotiator. And the power will actually ebb and flow between the three parties.
Sometimes it changes on a daily basis or even a minute by minute, second by second basis,
who holds the power. And unfortunately, the person with the most power is the one with the least to lose. In Brazil there is a special tactical
action group called GATE so they focus on hostage situations. It would be
comparable, I don't know if comparable in skill and training, but comparable to the
US's FBI hostage negotiation team. 70 GATE officers they would show up
surround the apartment building and set up HQ at the school nearby, headquarters.
The command center. The school that Aloha and the three others went to. That's the command center.
The hostage negotiator's job is to understand all the emotions, the power plays from what's going on
inside that apartment, and try to get everyone to walk out alive. They're focused on strategy and mind games.
But Gate also called on a tactical team.
They're focused on trying to get in
and disarm the hostage taker
whenever they see an opportunity.
Strategy and snipers.
Very different teams that have to work together
to deescalate.
Their motto for Gate is time, patience, and calm.
Then you have the hostage taker, armed, dangerous, and usually mad, sad, and mentally mad.
That's how they describe them.
Mad, sad, and mentally mad.
Mentally ill.
Yeah.
And all they want is something.
Demands for money?
Give me $100,000 and I'll let your daughter go.
Give me a getaway car and a duffel bag of untrackable hundreds and I'll let the bank tellers go. Do they want
release or exchange of people? Let inmate John Doe go from Rikers prison and I'll
let my hostage go. Or maybe it's religious or political. Air my sermons on national television
and I will release the kids. That was a real demand from a religious cult leader. The prime
minister steps down or else someone's getting shot.
And then you have the hostages.
Every day, both hostage taker and hostage negotiator
will argue about the value of the hostage's life
with none of their input.
But their power is in their existence.
They're as powerful as as much as the hostage negotiators
think their life is worth, which is a very scary situation to be in.
But in this case, there's actually a fourth group, the press.
This is the case of the very first almost live streamed hostage situation broadcast on live television in real time with a live audience outside the apartment building,
watching in real time, cheering for one side or the other,
like they're watching a baseball game.
The press seemingly right off the bat,
they knew that there was a hostage situation.
They rushed over to the apartment,
they ran through the same process
the hostage negotiators did,
which is identify the hostages inside.
This is Aloha Pimentel's apartment,
so likely the hostage taker came for her specifically.
Their next course of action, same with Gate, was to track down every single person that was ever in Aloha's life
to get exclusive interviews with them to air in real time that potentially even Aloha herself would be watching from inside the apartment.
They could even ask, do you want to say something to Aloha? That would be good TV. So journalists, they managed to track
down Aloua's ex-boyfriend, which was likely the most interesting person in terms of news
coverage. I mean, forget a classmate, forget a teacher, ex-boyfriend. And they start spinning
together this whole story. Star-crossed lovers. But once she gets out of there, once this
whole thing is over and she's no longer being held hostage they're gonna get back together and it's gonna be the wedding of the century
hostage freed, freed hostage bride
think about that
they will have this realization, the both of them
that they miss each other, that they cannot live without each other
that was the story that the news was spinning
one expert media attorney stated on air
i'm very optimistic
i hope it all ends well and i hope that there will be a wedding for him and Aloha,
his passionate ex-girlfriend somewhere in the future.
I really hope that this all has a happy ending,
and I'm certain it will.
Is that the right time and place for that kind of statement?
No.
Well, we do have Lindenburg,
Aloha's ex on the line right now.
This is a live phone conversation aired on live television. Lindenburg, how are you feeling? What do you want to tell the people about yourburg, Aloha's ex, on the line right now. This is a live phone conversation aired on live television.
Lindenburg, how are you feeling?
What do you want to tell the people about your ex, Aloha?
What's going on?
People might not believe me, but right now, I'm not thinking about me or anyone else.
I'm just thinking about Aloha's life.
I believe that. You really liked her.
She's your girlfriend for a very long time, right?
That's right. Two years and seven months. The media is a circus, you know, they make up a lot of things that aren't true. But regardless,
Aloha's ex-boyfriend Lindemberg was very helpful over the phone. He said, I'm positive that this
is going to end in the best way possible. The journalist smiled and tried to sympathize with
him so that she could keep him on the phone. And near the end of the phone call, she pauses,
to sympathize with him so that she could keep him on the phone. And near the end of the phone call,
she pauses maybe to verify that the cameras are still rolling,
that they're still live.
And she asks through the phone, wait, Lindenburg,
before you hang up, can you let me speak to Aloha
for a little bit?
One minute, you get one minute.
Talk, Aloha.
The journalist looks hesitant. Aloha?
And then the call cuts.
Aloha's at the bus stop staring.
I mean, everywhere Aloha went, Lindenburg went.
And this is before the hostage situation.
This is when he was just her stalker, not her hostage taker.
If Aloha was getting out of class,
he would ride his motorcycle very slowly near her school
until he spots her in her little backpack.
Then he would speed up and then slow down
only when he gets so close enough
that he's basically riding his motorcycle
while she's walking and he doesn't even talk to her.
He just stares her down the whole way through,
refuses to leave.
Even if she starts running,
he steps on the pedal a tiny bit.
He just wants to ride right next to her, staring her down, going two miles per hour, never
saying a word.
Aloha naturally was terrified.
She would find all these new routes to take home so that she would try to escape him,
that he wouldn't come and see her out of school.
She would sneak around the alleyways trying to find busy pockets where he can't even
ride his motorcycle into.
It was absolutely utterly miserable.
Everywhere she went, she felt like she had eyes tracking her.
She would start second guessing every word that she said, every facial expression that
she made.
She felt the need to analyze things.
And to him, that's not even enough.
The phone at home would start ringing.
Aloha's mom, Anna, would pick up, Hello?
If your daughter does not see me, I will take desperate measures.
Desperate. Anna, Aloha's mom, would just hang up the phone.
Aloha's ex-boyfriend, Lindenburg, he was just always had a flair for being dramatic.
He would say these things, he just really liked attention, and worst case
scenario, maybe he would harm himself. And that's a big problem, but she doubted it.
But even if he did, is that really her problem?
Her priority is her child, and he's a full grown adult.
Aloha, she felt like a hostage
before she was even taken hostage.
A few weekends before Lindemberg walked into the apartment
and slammed the door shut, she was standing
at a bus station scrolling on her phone
when she feels something weird.
She feels watched.
She looks up and down the other side and then across the street she sees Lindenburg just
standing there staring at her.
Her eyebrows crinkle, she's holding onto multiple textbooks, heavy textbooks in her
arms and she's waiting for the bus or at least she thought, okay, maybe this will be a good
shield because Lindenburg is now crossing the street and heading straight for her.
Get back together with me.
What? No.
Aloha wasn't gonna do that.
I made a lot of mistakes, but I love you. You know that, right?
Aloha tried to ignore him. She didn't want to talk to him or see him ever again.
She thought, okay, I thought I made this very, very clear, but Lindenburg loses his temper.
He just starts yelling, threatening her, slapping her her across the face throwing her books all over the floor and Aloha just stands there shocked
This is the first time he's been violent with her and she runs back home crying
She runs in through the family door slams it shut the picture frames on the walls are probably shaking
She books it straight for her room. Her face is red. It's swollen from crying and
She books it straight for her room. Her face is red. It's swollen from crying and Douglas, Aloha's little brother, tries to knock on her door.
Are you okay? Is everything alright in there?
She doesn't respond.
Douglas has a pretty strong gut feeling, like a very bad gut feeling about this one.
He thought Lindenburg was the one doing this to his sister.
So he decides to camp outside the apartment building to make sure that he doesn't show up until his parents get home.
And Douglas would sit on the curb angry with himself because he was the one that introduced 20-year-old Lindenburg to his 12-year-old sister.
When Aloua's parents had gotten home, they were so enraged they called Lindenburg and they demanded an apology and he just told them well, I could do a whole lot worse
Trust me
Now in the tiny little apartment Aloha is squeezed onto the bed with three of her friends
She's trying to calm Lindenburg down initially very briefly
She does try to tell him what he wants to hear or at least what she thinks he wants to hear
I mean, she doesn't really know for sure what to do in this type of situation
hear or at least what she thinks he wants to hear. I mean she doesn't really know for sure what to do in this type of situation. Lindenburg is... a lot of people use the word manic translated to describe
him. I try not to use that word lightly but it's said that a lot of hostage takers do display signs
of mania during the first few hours. There's a sense of barely contained chaos that's just ready
to burst out. They become almost to an unseasoned negotiator they seem a thousand percent
entirely unpredictable i'll get back together with you it's gonna be okay we can try to figure
this out calm down and we can talk about it just you and i no now i don't want that anymore i don't
want you anymore i came here to kill you and i'm gonna kill you." And then Lindenberg would
have a new change of plans. Either he was gonna kill Aloha or he was gonna kill
Aloha's friends in front of Aloha so that Aloha could suffer or he was gonna
kill all of them. He looks around and he spots Nyara, the other girl hostage, the
only other girl in the apartment. Her. It's gonna be her. Nyara could feel it. He
was gonna choose to
kill her. Lindenberg always complained to Aloha that she listened to Nyara too
much, that Nyara was a bad influence that always told her to break up with
Lindenberg, but none of that was even true. But it's not like he cares, right?
He makes them all lay down, he grabs shirts from the laundry, ties them
together, uses them to tie up the hostages legs and arms, and then they
wait.
Do you know one of the first rules of hostage negotiations?
Chris Voss once said, me making you dumber than me will always hurt me. But that doesn't mean you should know nothing,
or you should know everything, right?
Or at least as much as you can,
but never make the hostage taker feel like you know something that they don't know,
that you know a lot more, that you're smarter than them.
You need to use every piece of information to your advantage
and reveal it piece by piece, bit by bit,
by calculated controlled ways to the hostage taker.
If you reveal too much information at once, you've shown them everything you have,
and you're putting them on the defense. They feel threatened, which is never good.
If you don't know much at all, well, you're just flat out at a disadvantage.
The first things hostage negotiators typically go for? Profiles.
Profiles of the hostage taker and all the hostages and floor plans.
What is the inside of that apartment look like?
I need that information now.
How was Gate alerted of the hostage situation so early on?
There were four hostages in the apartment, all teenagers,
Aloha and her three friends.
One of the hostages, the guy ones, was named Victor.
Victor told his dad that he'd be coming home at around 5 p.m.
after spending the day at Aloha's doing homework.
He never made it home. Victor's dad being protective came to Aloha's Victor told his dad that he'd be coming home at around 5pm after spending the day at Alois doing homework.
He never made it home.
Victor's dad, being protective, came to Alois to see if something was keeping him.
He walked up to the apartment door.
Knock, knock.
Nothing.
He was about to turn and walk away, but he heard weird noises coming from the other side
of the door.
It's unclear what noises he heard, but it was enough to make him pause and go,
that's a bit strange.
That's what he said.
It just sounded strange.
He thought something wasn't right.
So whether he heard screaming or sounds of beating, I don't know, but he wanted to get
into that apartment.
So he tries to break down the door by kicking it in and someone on the other side of the
door screams, who's out there?
Don't come near the door.
Don't try to do anything or else I will kill everyone in this room room Victor's dad runs downstairs fumbling with his phone trying to call the police
but there happened to be a police car sitting at the complex he flags down the
officer Sergeant Valeriano we're gonna call him Sergeant V he gets out of his
patrol car makes his way to the apartment door hoping that he's gonna
de-escalate the situation but instead he hears the same voice get away or I'll kill them all. Sergeant V pauses he's like I need a
moment to think because I can't act too rash.
Perpetrator fires in the direction of the door. Thankfully nobody was hit.
Sergeant V gets on the radio to call for urgent backup.
Perpetrator hears the radio, is agitated, fires again through the door.
Thankfully, he missed once more.
However, neighbors heard the commotion.
They start coming out of their units to investigate.
They call their friends from other apartment buildings,
their buddies and their sisters and brothers.
Some call the police, some call the journalists,
and now they're forming a small group
at the base of the building to try and see
if they can get into the unit or see into the unit. It is a live crowd watching a hostage situation
So who's the main hostage in this case?
That's what the police need to know when they get on the scene and what did the hostage taker come for?
15 year old Aloha Pimentel her classmates say that she's bright happy, but incredibly shy. She doesn't talk much
She's closest with her mom. They're practically joined at the hip before this. Favorite activity
was shoe shopping. Aloha would be allowed to try on high heels and walk around the department store
like a little fashion show. Family dynamic. Parents, Anna and Aldo. Two younger brothers,
Ronixins and Douglas. The whole family seems to know the hostage taker. His name is Lindenburg,
likely introduced to the Pimentels through the little brother Douglas, the
younger brother of Aloha. And Lindenburg, the hostage taker? Short-tempered. He
likes to play soccer, but neighbors say that all of his games are cut short
because he would get into a fistfight at the end. He works two jobs, one as a
delivery guy during the day and at night he does pizza deliveries. And right now?
Dangerous, armed with a giant plastic bag of ammunition,
he came prepared. It appears he went in with the intention of staying a while.
It is likely that this situation was triggered by a breakup between the two of them.
And when I say those words, I'm not saying that's a reasonable reason. Like, that's not what I'm
saying. I'm saying Lindenburg likely felt that this is why he had to do what he had to do.
That's what the hostage negotiators are also picking up on.
But some neighbors would report to the police
that they saw this coming.
They said that every night Aloha's parents weren't home
or they were asleep in their apartment,
Aloha and Lindenburg would meet in the parking lot
and just scream fight in each other's faces.
It was just always a strange pairing
to begin with, the two of them.
Aside from the eight-year age gap, they just weren't a pairing that made sense
in everybody's mind. They were opposites, but not in like the cute, oh my god,
they're each other's halves. No, in like the, she's way too good for him, what does
she even see in him? She's incredibly sweet and he's just obnoxious and
aggressive and just kind of vile. And he's 20 and she's 12?
Exactly. Like that, again, that's just aside from the alarming, alarming age gap.
Obviously, Aloha's parents hated this relationship.
They were disgusted by it.
I don't even think that they were thrilled that their son Douglas had a 20 year old friend.
But apparently they played soccer together and that's how they all met. But this is their daughter and at first they thought absolutely not we're
gonna do whatever it takes to make sure she's not dating a 20 year old. But it's not that easy. When
is the last time you told a 12 year old to stop doing something and they stopped doing it? Loa's
parents ran through all the different outcomes in their head and they're thinking, okay, this is probably the safest.
We're gonna let her date him, but there's gonna be a lot of rules.
Curfew's at 10, you only meet in the house when you're on a date if it's just YouTube.
If you ever leave the house to go on a dinner date, a lunch date, a bowling date, you take
Douglas with you.
And the door always stays open.
That is the only way this is allowed.
Because they didn't want her sneaking out
and doing these things.
So for the next two plus years,
Aloha's parents actually start seeing Lindenberg
as one of their own kids.
He was just always around.
But there was this very unsettling incident.
Aloha's mom decided to have lunch
with Lindenberg's mom one day.
And you know, the kids are close,
but the families aren't that close.
And it's like she was giving Aloha's mom a warning.
She said, he can be an altered person.
He likes to play the role of head of the house.
And unfortunately, Aloha's parents didn't know this,
but from the very beginning of their relationship,
obviously it was all about power.
I mean, Lindenburg is eight years older than Aloha. You don't date someone who's 12
when you're 20 unless you're sick in the head, but also you have a weird strong
yearning for power. That type of power dynamic is just bizarre. It is almost
complete and total power that you're chasing. And the rules were as follow.
Aloha was never to speak to a friend without him present,
even if it's a girlfriend.
So long as Lindenburg is not there,
why should Aloha be enjoying herself?
Why should she be even talking at all?
Family dinners, same thing.
If Lindenburg isn't invited, is it really a family dinner?
Why would Aloha need to attend?
If she wanted to do anything other than study, sleep,
or just sit there staring at the wall thinking about Lindenburg,
Lindenburg should know about it, approve it, and better yet, be there for it.
Aloha was not allowed to do anything without his presence.
Those are some insane rules to even try and enforce, which ironically, Lindenburg of course did not abide by the same rules.
One anonymous friend stated that Lindenburg was always at the club on the weekends without Aloha.
The only reason that the relationship lasted three years was because Lindenburg is a master manipulator.
He would love bomb Aloha, break up with her, make it seem like she was the horrendous one
and that she had broken his heart. Then the next day he would come back begging for forgiveness
or sometimes he would just talk to her the next day as if they didn't break up last night.
And she would just be so confused. This constant back and forth was the,
this crazy push and pull experience
that Lindenburg had complete power over
until one day, Aloha was over it.
She's like, I'm not doing this anymore.
She went to her mom's room one night
and her mom's like, what's wrong, sweetie?
Mom, you were right.
I don't wanna date anymore.
I just wanna focus on studying and focus on my friendships
Alou did not tell her all of these other details these would come out later so
once the police they gather all this information then they're working to calm
down the press the public the families and anyone else that could be watching
the police from the news every word that the agents even deliver to a journalist
has to be super calculated likely the hostage taker is listening, the family members of the hostage taker and the hostages are listening.
Everybody's involved. It's very delicate.
The police stood in front of the press.
We have a lot of different tactics that could be used in this case,
and if there are signs that the hostages' lives are in danger, we will take more drastic measures.
But in our current situation, the best we can do is move on with the negotiations
We are optimistic that we will solve this situation
That is all. Thank you
Sergeant V is going to be the one primarily talking to Lindenburg not because he's a hostage negotiator
but because a lot of the times interesting rule rule of thumb is
Regardless of ranking the first one to have contact first law enforcement officer to have contact with the hostage taker is usually handling a lot of the vocal conversations
they're heavily involved
really?
they might introduce the main hostage negotiator but they're still gonna be giving calls and saying certain things
that's so interesting.
I guess that's the first person on the scene.
So there is a little bit more of a...
I wonder if it's subliminal.
A little bit of trust.
Subconsciously, like, since the beginning, not just some rando big shot that was called
in.
Even if they're not trained in hostage negotiations, it's just a level of trust.
It's very interesting but he would have
the hostage negotiators just instructing everything that he's doing word for word
they probably went through rigorous training hopefully at one of the top
two hostage negotiation training centers in the world the bureau is one the FBI
training center for hostage negotiations and Scotland Yards in London so
apparently those are the most reputable, most rigorous programs.
Because if they had gone, they would have gone through very intense high-stakes trials.
60 seconds or she dies.
That's the exercise FBI hostage negotiators will go through during training over and over again.
60 seconds or she dies.
They're taught every phone conversation, every word has weight in a hostage negotiation
A negotiator has to know how to convey the message they want in the quickest most effective way
They might go in ready to say things like I want to see you survive this, you know, whatever else goes with that
Let's pick a point in the future
Five years from now a year from now that we're both good that we're both happy and then let's work our way back
Why because people make their decisions based on their vision of the future find out what their vision of the future is and then remove
Yourself as a threat they might continue
We're on opposite sides of the fence right now
But that's not gonna stop us from being together on the same side in the future the biggest differences between conversations and negotiations are
Conversations are about exploring. There's no set goal.
Negotiations are all about closure and resolution.
There is a goal and there's a ticking time bomb.
Do you know the most powerful tool
in any verbal communication?
Your voice.
The literal sound and inflections
and how you draw out your words and your cadence,
the tone, all that plays a role in being a good hostage negotiator.
Some of them, you listen to them on podcasts, they have such a soothing voice, or it's almost
a slightly authoritative but not too overly powerful voice.
It's like right in the middle.
It's not too overly powerful voice. It's like right in the middle. It's not too soft.
The three voices of negotiations are as follows.
Late night radio host, positive playful friend, and assertive direct communicator.
The key identifiers in the late night radio host voices being the voice of calm and reason.
I'm your host for this midnight show.
It sounds like that.
I'm just, it's a soft down inflection at the end of every sentence.
It's authority without triggering defensiveness.
But you don't go without triggering defensiveness?
Then there's the playful positive friend voice.
This should actually be your default voice.
It's easy going, good natured.
Outside this situation, I'd be a fun person to share a beer with, okay?
Even after all of this, maybe we'll be drinking buddies. I can take a joke. Come on, let's hear it.
Say something wild. And then the last one, assertive direct communicator. You would think that this is
what most hostage negotiators operate in. It's not. They say that this voice is almost always
counterproductive. It's like slapping yourself in the face while trying to make progress.
FBI negotiator Chris Voss said,
it's like getting hit in the face with a brick and that is never a great idea.
Which it's kind of hard to get out of because most law enforcement officers are trained only in this voice.
So to learn that this voice is actually bad,
loud clear commands are actually bad and and it makes people feel attacked,
it's gonna be very hard to reset your boundaries.
So the first two is good.
Yes.
The last one's bad.
The last one is very rarely, you need to set a boundary,
set it with this voice, but it's only when you need
to set incredibly firm boundaries.
And then you should kind of ebb and flow
between the other two.
Sometimes you need to be a little bit more light going,
then sometimes you need to calm them down
and keep them at a place where you know
what you're talking about and just trust me,
this is gonna be okay.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
And another key important point is 73855 rule.
7% of messages are conveyed through the words.
38% tone of voice.
For example, I'm really impressed by how much you've learned in a short amount of time.
I'm really impressed by how much you've learned in a short amount of time.
One is seems a little more genuine.
One is like, I don't know if they're patronizing me or not.
I don't know if this is like condescending, but that still leaves 45% of the percentages.
What is that? Body language. Now, how do you do that when all you have is a phone?
Focus even more on tone, because once you have a set tone, close your eyes.
Hi, everyone. Did it sound like I'm smiling? Yeah. You can almost picture
someone's body language through the way that their voice sounds and their tone.
Oh and one more thing. Veteran negotiator Voss said along the lines of,
silence? Silence is good. Sit there in silence with the hostage taker. Why?
Because you don't sit in silence with people you don't know. You try to fill
the silence. You sit in silence with people that you're intimate with. There
is a level of intimacy and you need to manufacture it sometimes. So now they
know who's in the apartment, they know the floor plan, they know Aloha and her
relationship with the hostage taker, they know who Lindenburg is, they just need to
know what the hell he wants. The first call in the hostage negotiation is
everything. Two things have to be done. The first call in the hostage negotiation is everything.
Two things have to be done.
The hostage negotiator has to let them know
that they're listening and wanna help.
And then they have to figure out
what the hostage taker wants.
So the Sergeant V puts the phone up to his ear.
He's getting ready to introduce himself
because you wanna introduce yourself by name.
And Lindenburg picks up,
they're screaming on the other end.
And he freaks out.
What, why is there screaming on the other end? Lindenburg is up, they're screaming on the other end, and he freaks out. What? Why is there screaming on the other end?
Lindenburg is out of breath.
Oh, I'm just beating my girlfriend, this bitch.
Alowa is screaming in the background, I'm not your girlfriend!
There's harsh like, dung, dung from the other side of the line, and he's screaming.
Lindenburg is screaming, shut up! Shut up! Shut up!
Aloha's mom would get involved and try to reason with Lindenburg that she could
try and talk to Aloha, get her to see his side and get back together with him.
Clearly she's just doing that to get him to release them.
But Lindenburg tells her and the authorities, I don't want her back anymore.
I want to kill her.
That is what he states he wants in the first phone call.
To kill the hostage.
One former FBI negotiator states, if it's an impossible ask from the hostage taker from
the beginning, your hostage is going to be in bad shape.
They've made a demand that even if you want to, you can't do.
It's not going to work.
It didn't seem like gate agents had control over the situation.
They didn't even have control over the media.
They're all camped outside trying to get zoom lenses to peer into the apartment.
There's random crowds of people just gathering outside to see like, ooh, is something gonna
happen?
It's a live show.
I don't know what they're expecting.
People to be released for them to cheer.
And then the door to the apartment opens up.
They see a foot.
A foot steps out.
Then another foot and another they see a foot. A foot steps out, then another foot, and another foot, and another foot.
The steps get quicker and faster and pace, steps, steps, steps, steps, steps, steps,
run down the stairs.
The two boys have been freed.
Out of nowhere.
They were released.
The gate agents did not negotiate their release, so how the hell did they get released?
This happened like very early?
Day one, first like 12 hours.
Inside the apartment, it was a very messy scene.
Lindenburg is standing there waving his gun around,
staring, eyes bugging out at the four hostages.
Victor, one of the guys is on the ground, he's collapsed.
Aloha is fanning his face trying to get him to wake up.
The other guy friend is in the corner,
pale as somebody can get,
like sickly pale just standing standing there, cowering.
Nyara, Aloha's friend, is trying to reason with the mad gunman, Lindenburg.
Look at them, they're getting pale, you don't even know them, they never did anything to you, so just let them go!
He pauses.
Are you sure that you girls want to be alone in here with me? Without them? You want me to release them?
This is a tricky question. Lindenberg lightly did not want the boys
there or any guys near Aloha so it's speculated that he let the boys go
because he straight up just does not want boys near Aloha. Aloha stood up
though. Yes I want them gone let them leave and the door swings open and it
was the investigators very first win but it was not a negotiation that they even
made. The agents surround the two boys.
What did Lindenberg say?
What did he say he wanted?
How is he behaving?
They're trying to get all the intel.
The boys look at the officers.
He's very unstable.
He goes from being calm and then assuring us that everything's going to be okay to being
aggressive and violent with Aloha.
He switches back and forth at like the drop of a hat.
He switches back and forth.
He keeps changing his mind on his game plan.
What he wants out of this, what he's gonna do next.
At first he said he wanted to kill Aloha.
That's all he said he wanted to do.
Then he said, no, I'm gonna make her suffer by killing all of you in front of her.
Making her witness all of this.
And then the next second, he would change his mind, and then he would scream at the top of his lungs at us,
Nobody's getting out here alive, understand?
And then two seconds later, his demeanor would shift shift and he would be very soft with us and say,
guys, don't worry, I'm not actually a bad guy.
I'm gonna release all of you.
Don't stress out.
Nobody's gonna get hurt.
Then he would immediately turn around
and start violently beating Aloha,
leaving red and purple marks all over her skin.
How is Aloha holding up?
She's obviously scared, but she's standing her ground.
She told him straight up to his face multiple times
that she was never getting back with him.
Not the best news, not the worst news either.
I mean, obviously it's bad.
Aloha is being assaulted physically,
but authorities were hopeful because Lindenberg's decision
to release the two boys was likely Lindenberg
trying to resolve the situation sooner rather than later.
Maybe he's letting them go one by one.
He realizes that this is not what he wants it's not worth it he's just having a
what they call a quote mental health crisis and as an upbeat reminder hostage
negotiations are successful 93% of the time 93 and usually that 7% is
because the bad guys they were never there to make a deal in the first place
they just need to play their cards right and this is all gonna blow over okay so 7% is because the bad guys, they were never there to make a deal in the first place.
They just need to play their cards right and this is all going to blow over.
Okay, so the main thing to remember for the gate agents and another famous negotiator,
Gary said, is contain the situation.
Contain the scene.
Put a bubble around it, but inside that bubble have open communications.
Contain but open.
Open in a contained environment. That is key.
Two parties talking openly back and forth with each other. Hostage
negotiator, hostage taker, sometimes the hostage, nobody else. The phone rings into
the apartment. Lindenburg still has the gun in his hand and he uses the other to
pick up the phone. Hello? Hi Lindenburg, is everything alright in there? Yeah I'm
okay man. How is Aloha? Everything okay in there?
Let's talk.
I want to help you.
What I want to tell you is, the captain is reassuring you that you will not be harmed.
Be sure of that.
Do you understand?
How's the situation between you and Aloha?
We're unraveling things here.
I don't want anything to do with her anymore.
Tell me something.
Why did you decide to do this?
Were you desperate?
Jealous?
Was that it?
Lindenburg starts getting agitated.
Desperate?
Desperate?
If I was desperate, I would have shot myself in the face and been done with everything.
No, no, no.
Don't do that.
What are you thinking about right now?
I have no feelings right now.
I'm cold-hearted as fuck.
No, but be calm.
I know it's hard, but be calm.
Is Aloha with you?
Is she calm?
How is she?
She's okay.
Hold on. She'll talk to you. Yes, put her on the phone, please. Hello? How with you? Is she calm? How is she? She's okay. Hold on. She'll talk to you.
Yes, put her on the phone, please.
Hello? How are you?
I'm okay. Is everything okay in there?
Yes, everything's okay. I want to eat.
Do you want to eat lunch?
Yes, I'm weak.
Be calm. We talked to Lindenburg. We'll talk to him again.
Is he treating you well?
Aloha starts crying.
Yes, he's treating me well. So trust him. Make him feel relaxed. Do you want to say
something to your mom? I just want to know, how is my family? I just want to say to my
mom that I love her and my father too. I love him too. Be calm. Talk to Lindenburg. He's
willing to end things peacefully.
Yeah, he said that he will let me go. Yes, he will
release you. Be calm, think about God, and pray.
Lindenburg takes the phone back from Aloha. He seems agitated. He keeps asking how they
got his number. I'm asking you and you won't respond because I asked you first. Please
don't make me nervous. How did you get my phone number? Don't be nervous. We got your
number through our managing team. Just
say who gave it to you. I just want to know. Why can't I just understand? We got
it from some of your relatives, okay? Lindenburg, are you still there? I wanted
everything to happen naturally. That officer shouldn't have been doing what
they were doing. What did that officer do? I told them I didn't want anyone to
come upstairs, but an officer did and he rang the bell We were sleeping and I jumped up scared and I almost shot her
No, no, no be calm man. Okay, we trust you. We know that you're a good person
We know that you don't want to do anything bad. We trust you
I don't want anyone getting close to the building because I'm telling you if anyone comes near that guy that officer that came here the captain
I don't know
He rang the bell and I almost shot the girl thinking that he was gonna break into
this place if he did that now she and I would be dead okay what do you want
right now what are you requesting for now I'm just thinking about her she
wants to eat something for lunch because she's weak and you will release Alola are
you planning on releasing her today yes I plan to I do but what happens is that
the captain is doing everything wrong.
He's doing bullshit. I just want everyone to know that I have a bag full of ammunition here.
And if anyone comes close, I will shoot.
I understand.
The line cuts and the man on the other line, the one that was having this conversation with Lindenburg,
turns to the camera.
And there you have it, folks. I'm journalist Louise Guillera, and that was an exclusive interview with Lindenberg, the
hostage taker exclusively on ReED TV.
That was a journalist?
He called in to an active hostage taker situation to interview the hostage taker and air it.
Is that okay to do?
No, but he's doing, everyone's doing it.
I don't know if they just didn't have the appropriate laws and the police could not control the journalists.
If that happened in America, it would be crazy.
Yeah, it might have happened in America, I feel.
Because crazy things do be happening.
But yeah, that was an interview with a journalist.
He actually works under an even bigger journalist who has her own TV show called Sonia Brow.
She ends up doing another exclusive interview
with Lindenburg.
Journalists were able to find Lindenburg's number.
They would bribe or ask relatives or former friends of his.
And even though they knew it was highly unethical,
they would call and interfere with hostage negotiations.
Because remember everything I said
about being a hostage negotiator?
These journalists don't have that kind of training.
Even the questions that he was asking, if you listen back, they're instigating him.
They're making him get riled up.
Why would you do that?
So does Lindenburg know that these are journalists, reporters?
He knows. And he knows that they're being aired.
And he actually quite likes it.
Journalist Sonia turns on the camera.
The last information that we're getting here is that he is about to surrender to the police.
We just talked to them and he said that he will turn himself in, he will release the girls,
but he wants the TV cameras from all the channels to capture that moment so that he feels safe
and knows that nothing bad will happen to him.
In the next minutes he will come out and tell-
Oh!
We're getting a call.
She hops on the call with Lindenburg. Look, let me ask you something, Lindenburg.
Are you afraid that the police are gonna shoot you?
Because that's not gonna happen.
Why would you ask that?
Like, what a way to peak someone's anxiety and not do a whole lot to calm them down.
Are you afraid of being shot on sight?
Don't worry, it's not gonna happen.
Even though there's armed officers everywhere pointing guns at you, even I just showed a montage of it on my news network
of snipers being pointed at you, but don't worry it's not gonna happen, okay? But are
you scared? Tell me how scared you are. Lindenberg responds, no I'm not scared because before
coming into this I already knew the risk. I was aware of what could happen to me. Now
explain something to me Lindenberg. I think the whole nation watching, you know, wants to know.
You told the other journalists that you want nothing to do with Aloha anymore.
So why did you go in the apartment? What did you want from this? Is this revenge?
I wanted to resolve things with her. I tried to sit with her to talk things through,
but she always turned her back to me and didn't want to listen, so I had to use force to make her listen.
I understand. But did you talk to her? Did you tell her everything?
You've been in there for more than 30 hours now.
I think you've had enough time
to tell her everything that you wanted, no?
Aloha is not cooperating.
Among the four people who were here with me,
everyone was cooperating, but Aloha.
She's just starting to cooperate now.
How did she not cooperate?
Was she too nervous to do so?
Yes, and one time she came up and tried some bullshit
trying to take the gun out of my hand.
The gun went off inside the apartment.
Wow, good Lord.
Wow.
If she tries to take the gun from my hands, I will shoot.
What did you want to say to Aloha?
Can you tell us?
I don't think so.
This is between me and Aloha.
I understand.
This is a very intimate thing between the two of you, right?
Did you already tell her everything that you wanted to say?
So now she's cooperating?
Were you able to clear things up about the breakup?
I had this conversation with her,
and before you called me here, we were talking things over.
But every time we sit down to talk,
one of us always ends up stressing out about things,
and then we have to take a break for things to not get too heated.
I think it's all just very difficult right now.
I know, but what do you want from Aloha now?
I want her to be calm.
I want her to make me feel calm.
And then I will accept anything that the negotiators stay
for her to get out of here alive.
So what day is this now?
Like still first day, second day?
30 hours in.
30 hours in.
Out of a hundred.
And the police are okay with them calling in?
They're not doing anything about it?
They try to get them to stop,
but they can't really control every single journalist.
And I guess the journalists are not scared of any legal repercussions.
I mean, even in the end, the journalists, they just get slapped with a fine.
That's about it.
And this is crazy. I mean, their ratings were through the roof.
Whoever had these conversations with Lindenberg, whoever had exclusive footage, through the roof.
Sonja would say, it seems like you are willing to kill Alola and that's not true.
I know you're not that kind of person, Lindenburg. You're not understanding this.
For her to get out alive, I have no intention of killing her. I'm not trying
to kill her. No, I'm not saying that you are trying to kill her. I said that when
you say it like that, like if Alola needs to get out alive, the police need to do this,
people might misinterpret it and I know that you don't mean it that way.
You're not that kind of person. We both want both of you unharmed, correct?
People might not believe me, but right now I'm not even thinking about me.
I'm thinking about Loa's life. I believe that. I believe it. I really do.
And have you been sleeping? Did you manage to rest?
No one is telling me about my mother. I want to hear from my mother.
I want to take this opportunity to tell my mom that everything that's going to happen is the best possible way now.
Aloha is going to get out of here, I'm going to get out of here, and everything will be fine, but it depends on the officers down there.
They must not pull that shit again. I don't want anyone to come near this apartment.
What if I open the door and there's just one of them waiting for me outside and shoots me?
I know how they are.
They're smart, I'm scared.
No, Lindenburg, no, don't be scared.
Unfortunately, I just don't trust the police.
You can be rest assured that the whole nation
is praying for you too, not just for her, but for you too.
Everyone is worried about you, Lindenburg,
because all the information we got
is that you're a good person.
So no one understands why you're putting yourself and this girl in this dangerous
situation. But now that you've said that you wanted to talk to her and already did and
you've cleared things up, that's it. That's enough. You already got what you wanted, didn't
you? I will put Aloha on the line for everyone to hear that she is okay. Okay. Hello? Hello,
Aloha, this is Sonia A.
Bro.
Earlier today, you talked to Louise, our journalist.
Now we're live.
We were talking to Lindenburg right now, and I wanted you to tell us if you're okay.
Lindenburg said now that you're more relaxed, you are cooperating.
Did you eat lunch?
Yes, I ate.
And how are you?
Your voice sounds better.
And how is Lindenburg?
He said that you already talked about the breakup.
Is Lindenburg hearing us right now? Yes, he's hearing us. Does he know about
his sister's message? What message? We heard it just now. We heard that his sister, Lindenburg's
sister, Suzie, said that if she could talk to Lindenburg right now, she would ask him
to turn himself in as soon as possible because their mom and his other sisters are suffering
a lot. She said that you two had always gotten along just fine.
She said that she has nothing bad to say about him.
He doesn't drink or smoke.
She even thought that the two of you would eventually get back together.
She told us that Lindenburg is the youngest of the siblings, only 22 years old.
And he had dreams about getting married, having a family, owning a house one day.
And she wants to talk to him if possible she wants to put an end to
This quickly because it's a lot of suffering
You know, so it's like a lot of talking but the message is unclear, right? It's not like
Moving this into like a solution. It's just a lot of like, oh my god
family sister mother like
a lot of like, oh my god, family, sister, mother, like, is that what's happening? They just want to like create a story? Well, what's going on? They want to create a story. The message is very unclear
and it's kind of crazy that even with the journalists, they have the opportunity to talk
to the hostage and just on a human-to-human level, okay, I understand that they're trying to do their
jobs, right? And maybe their livelihoods are on the line, but on a human-to-human level, okay I understand that they're trying to do their jobs right and maybe their
livelihoods are on the line, but on a human to human level, would you not want to know
how the hostage is doing and ask questions about them or give them things that reassure
them?
But even in this opportunity, she's still talking about Lindenburg.
Like Aloha is nobody to anybody.
That was one thing that a lot of netizens were upset with, like this whole conversation
with Sonyia,
the fact that she's able to get Aloha on the phone, which hostage takers typically do not let you talk
to hostages often, and you're still talking about he had dreams of a family. It's like everything is
painting Lindenburg to be a good person who did something bad. Yeah, but I think that that is trying not to triggering him to do more bad things.
Yes, but it actually backfired.
Let me tell you how. So all the press, they're going around painting Lindenburg as a 22 year old star-crossed lover, correct?
Now a lot of the older general public, because they didn't know the outcome, they didn't know better, they didn't know the full story.
They're just seeing little snippets on the news and what the hosts are telling them. They believed
that is also true. The police said because of that they could not be more aggressive with Lindenburg
because it would backfire on them because if everybody has the perception that this is a young boy,
they kept using the word boy in all the news stations, A young boy who just loves a girl and is having a breakdown
and is going to regret this and they shoot him on sight out the window.
Who's gonna get fired?
Who's gonna get fired?
Yeah, so that's what the police argue later.
So they're saying it was like this very toxic cycle of like
nothing was getting done by anybody at this point because of how publicized it
was in real time the police even asked the journalists get all the footage you
want just air it when we resolve it like immediately after air everything
unedited uncut raw footage whatever but there's nothing they can do to stop
them no that's crazy.
Yeah, it's just so bizarre.
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Lindenburg takes the phone back when Aloha gets out
She's gonna take the two guns that I have and no ammunition and I will come out with my hands up if someone shoots me
No one's gonna shoot you for God's sake. Don't think that way. We want a happy ending to this story. And it's not just me. Everyone
out there, the police have no intention of taking anyone's life. On the contrary, they
have no reason to take your life, Lindenburg. Don't think like that.
So you have family members of the hostages, press, journalists, camera crew, trying to
get better positioning near the building to get a slightly better shot,
gate hostage negotiation teams, tactical teams, local police departments, neighbors, just any other passerby that just wants to be there,
just a few floors down in an open space right underneath the building
where a mad gunman is armed with two guns and a baggie of ammo,
there's just no way that this is gonna end well. And it doesn't.
So whether it was for show
or show proof of life or to get media attention on this case, Lindenburg would periodically force
a Lowa to wave out the window. He would use her head to cover his head so a sniper could not get
a good shot. He would hold her in place by her neck with a gun pointed at her back. He would
force her to stick her head out the window and wave Sometimes it was a thumbs up and it was almost always clear that her condition was degrading over time
It was getting worse. She's yeah, she looks bruised. She looks abused. She looks mentally exhausted
She looks emotionally traumatized to the fullest extent
So you're saying our 30 in and he's talking to these reporters saying that he's gonna let her out and he's gonna walk out.
He doesn't want anything. There's no demands.
That's it.
But he's never doing it.
Yes, and a lot of speculation is because he really enjoyed the media coverage.
He wanted more and more interviews.
Actually, when he starts negotiating again with hostage negotiators
is when journalists
are kind of sick of the same interviews over and over.
They want new information, they want new developments,
they don't wanna hear the same thing from him.
That's when he starts going back to the negotiators.
So it's just absolute chaos.
It's just so messy,
and Lindenburg is becoming increasingly unhinged.
After hour 30, there were girls that were coming up to his window saying like,
we love bad boys, we love you.
But then another group of girls saw that got really upset and they came next to the window and said,
you're a freaking monster and you deserve like punishment.
He opened the window, stuck out his gun and opened fire.
He was irritated. Yeah, very irritated.
How is there like girls even
allowed to go there and why are they saying that like I love bad boys so okay
we did research into it and I was thinking maybe it's the and I'm gonna
mispronounce this word okay it's like hysterophilia it's when um serial
killers have wives in prison it's like there is an attraction to the dark
criminals because you feel like they're gonna kill other people,
but they're not gonna kill me.
I'm different, I'm special.
It's definitely something is not,
it's not a normal feeling to have.
Maybe it's also the media coverage.
Yes, so I was debating like, is it that?
And I was trying to look into it and cross-reference
like what they were saying with what a lot of these people
feel and their symptoms and it wasn't matching. And I was trying to look into it and cross reference like what they were saying with what a lot of these people feel in
Their symptoms and it wasn't matching so I think it's more so with the media coverage
They really marketed him as just like this boy. That's so in love
And it's like of course every girl wants to have someone who's so in love with her
Yeah, yeah, so really the media marketing on this one is just foul
Fortunately nobody got hurt, but things are quickly escalating.
Lindenburg is opening fire on innocent people.
I mean, it's truly mayhem.
At this point, he just randomly decides
to throw soccer team jerseys outside the window.
Nobody knows why.
The crowd is cheering when there's shots fired,
there are crowds cheering, there's girls screaming,
I love bad boys.
It's
Chaos the soccer coach for that team that national team shows up and is like, hey, can I help negotiate and they're like, um,
I think we're okay Like it was just incredibly messy and this sounds like there's nobody's taking charge of this
No, and Lindenburg sister also arrives at the scene to try and talk to him
They brought an attorney to help negotiate for better conditions for Lindenburg if he gets arrested
They also tried to tell the press my brother is a very nice and calm person
He just got depressed after the breakup. I think he's making the biggest dumbest mistake of his life and she's not worth it
Nobody is she's gonna get out of there and his life is gonna be ruined
She's not worth it. Yeah
Yeah his life is gonna be ruined. She's not worth it? Yeah. Yeah.
That is crazy.
So everything is escalating out of control.
The negotiators realize the biggest mistake that they have
is that they can't see in the apartment,
they can't get a clear view.
The whole apartment is blocked.
The windows, when they're not open, they're blocked.
They can't get a camera in there, they can only call.
Lindenburg picks up sometimes,
and they hope that when he picks up he wants to talk.
He wants to tell them what's going on.
Meanwhile, Lindenburg can see everything going on outside.
He can see what the police are saying, what they're prepping, how they're stationed around their building,
who they're investigating, what their strategy is, how they think.
He can see what the public wants the authorities to do.
Is it time to storm in? Do they want Lindenburg to be freed and given a slap on the wrist because you know he's just
a boy, he's just a boy in love? They can't see but Lindenburg can see them.
There's one easy way to fix that. Everyone has their cameras pointed up at
the apartment hoping to get another money shot of Aloha out the window and
then it goes dark. The power was shut off by gate agents. In most hostage
situations this is a tactic that
is frequently used. It's just to make their lives more inconvenient, forces them to negotiate.
And it's interesting, sometimes you take away something, give it back, but with enough mind
games, you actually make the hostage taker feel like you're giving them something. But in reality,
you took it away and you're just giving it back. You you're using it as I will give you this for that. Yeah, but you they already had that it's crazy
Yeah, so that's why they do that, but it seems like for this situation
It's they turned it off so that he can't watch the news and Lindenburg is pissed
He calls the turn the fucking lights back on I will but let's talk turn the fucking light on
Otherwise, I'll start hitting the girls. I'm gonna start tagging these girls,
the girls are gonna suffer and pay close attention.
Aloha starts screaming in the background at the call, begging him to stop.
Lindenburg is literally assaulting Aloha while on the phone with negotiators.
Now after the power goes out, Aloha's mom gets another call, this time from Aloha.
She almost drops her phone trying to answer it as quickly as possible.
Honey, honey, are you okay?
Mom, do you trust me? Of course I trust you. I always trusted you.
So please tell them to turn the power back on.
Aloha's mom didn't know what to do or even what to say because on one hand she knows Aloha's in danger if she doesn't do anything.
On the other hand, she knows that Lindenburg is forcing her to call her right now. If the power is back on, if he gets what he wants, is
Aloha's mom helping prolong the situation? Is Aloha's mom helping him win?
Before she can respond, her husband, Aloha's dad, grabs the phone and screams,
no honey, they can't turn it back on, they can't! And the line goes dead. At the
hour 32 mark, an exchange is is made an eye for an eye
Well, not entirely but it's something the negotiators will turn the lights back on and the Nenberg will open the door to the apartment
Someone is seen running down the hallway to the stairs. The pacing gets faster and faster
Down the stairs and into the crowd of people surrounding that person outside
down the stairs and into the crowd of people surrounding that person outside her family surrounding her, smelling her hair, making sure it's her
they're scanning her entire body looking for any serious wounds
journalists are trying to squeeze through each other trying to get the best angle, best shot
the police need to rush her to the hospital
Nayara was freed
meaning the only one left in the apartment now was Aloha with Lindenburg
some saw it as a good sign.
The two boys, Nyara, they're all out.
Some say, that means Alowa's gonna be out.
Others said, no, he went in there for Alowa.
That's what he went for to begin with.
That's the only one he cared about
when he took them hostage.
His words in the beginning were, I'm gonna kill her.
10 p.m., the lights turn back on.
11.30 p.m., the door opens, Nayara runs out
of the complex. She's rushed to the hospital with minor injuries. She is processing a lot of trauma.
The hostage negotiators talked to her for six hours after her release and they just want to
know everything. They want to be filled in for the past 34 hours. He kept the girls apart. Every day
he would put one in the bedroom, one in the living room. They were both tied up, blindfolded. They couldn't see anything
but the back of the blindfold. Throughout the day, Nayera would hear
sounds of Lindenburg beating Aloha and Aloha would scream for help. He was
screaming at her, punching her, kicking her, and then it would stop and in a
split second, not even a full second, he would be like, please kiss me. Kiss me
right now. What? He would go from beating Aloha to being be like, please kiss me, kiss me right now.
What? He would go from beating Aloha to being like,
can you kiss me?
But she kept denying him, and it got to the point
Nayara, the best friend, just screamed,
just do it, Aloha, please just kiss him, you're gonna die.
But she refused.
He was having severe mood swings.
In the middle of a casual conversation with the girls,
he would just start threatening them.
But it's not like he was on drugs or anything. He just he had a lack of sleep. He almost never slept.
He would take sporadic cat naps really light. Every morning he was oddly very full of energy.
It just didn't make any sense. He was very erratic.
Also, after he lets Nayara out,
briefly the news was talking about how the police stated it was an exchange for the power being turned back on. Literally an exchange of power. But
Lindenburg really did not like that. He would call up the journalists and let it
be known that is not why he let out Nayara. He said he let out Nayara
because Nayara has a very bad relationship with her father. Her father
had walked out on the family years ago, had no contact with any of his children.
He found out that Nayara was being held hostage, so he drove all the way back into town and
was waiting outside.
And he thought perhaps they could be reunited.
Perhaps this would teach Nayara's father what it means to be a good dad, to value your child.
It's an experience of you didn't know what you had until you lost it. That is why he let her out. It's not for the power that he
really desperately wanted to be turned back on. No. It was because he related to
her story. He just wanted the family unit to be strong. He said my mom was my mom
and my dad for me. I didn't grow up with my father but there's still time for
Nayara's father to mend their relationship. I looked at her and she was
crying so I told Nayara that I was gonna give her a chance I'm gonna let her go
and give her father a chance to be there for her. Just you know bringing her into
this world does not make you a father. A father has to care. So these you know
they still want to be a hero. Yeah, and the police are like,
that's not true at all. And even the journalists are calling him out on it because they're like,
and it didn't touch you when Aloha talked about her family on the phone and she said, Mom, I love
you, Dad, I love you. Don't worry about me. It'll be okay. At that moment, they're desperate too.
That didn't touch you. Your sisters are desperate for you to be let out. None of that touches you.
Like it doesn't make any sense. So that's a narrative he's trying to push they also ask him how the police are doing with him and negotiations
And he's just really upset
He feels like the police are constantly lying to him now lying to a hostage taker as a negotiator is one of the worst things
That you can do even if it's unintentional
So the reason he feels like they're lying is because he told them nobody is allowed
to approach the apartment.
At one point, a police officer did approach the apartment.
He was very upset about that.
But according to Chris Voss, the FBI negotiator,
he said, first of all, there is a chance
that the hostage taker is a really good liar,
a far better liar than you will ever be,
and they will spot it right off the bat.
Second, they could be luring you into a trap to
test if you will lie to them. They already know the truth, they're testing to see if you're gonna lie.
And third, even if you pull it off, chances are they're gonna find out before the situation has
been resolved. And now, not only will this hostage taker not trust you, the next one won't either
because I'm sure they do their research, you know? your reputation is not gonna be to be trusted
and if that happens, you lose
8.30am the next day, Nayara almost screams when her grandma comes into her room to wake her up
the police want to talk to you
this is already after her six hour interrogation, well, interview
Nayara hurries to get dressed, she rushes to the command center, which is just their school
and the gate agents around her. Niara's mom is there and they're all really concerned like what do the police even
want from her at this point what more can she provide? She already told them everything that she knows
we need you to go back in there. What? Niara's mom's eyes, Niara's mom's eyes are just like bulging out
of her excuse me this is a 15 year old we're talking about that just went through something traumatic.
What are you asking of her right now?
This is the only way to save Aloha's life, but Nayara will be secure the whole time.
She's not actually going back into the apartment.
She's not going to be alone.
Lindenburg personally requested Aloha's little brother Douglas as well.
Lindenburg had told the negotiators that he was ready to turn himself in and he was just
really scared that he was going gonna get shot on sight the minute
that he exited the door. He can't just use Aloa's body to shield him. It's not
enough. So he wants Nayara to meet him at the front door. He's gonna use both
Nayara's body and Aloa's body to walk all the way down the steps and because
Aloa needs medical attention he's gonna throw Aloa on the ground and then use
Douglas's body to shield him.
Douglas and Nayara's.
And then eventually I guess the police will handcuff him, they don't need to shoot him
to kill him, and everything will be okay, he will survive.
So he wants two more people, the brother and Nayara to be back.
So the brother is to stand at the bottom of the staircase, Nayara is to go to the front
door. Everyone is stationed andaira is to go to the front door
Everyone is stationed and we're ready to go
Naira is 15 She has an emotional stuffed animal and she is on the phone with Lindenburg while she is physically walking
Putting one foot in front of the other back to the place that she was just held hostage 12 hours ago
Wow, oh Naira called Lindenburg as she's walking up the steps.
Hi Nayara. Everything okay over there? Are you okay already? Yeah I'm okay. Are you
calm? Everything calm? Everything is okay. Are you gonna do what you said you're
gonna do this time? Yes I will. Do you trust me Nayara? Yeah I trust you.
Lindenburg lets Nayara talk to Aloha to let her know that he's serious this time. Hi love. How are you doing?
Aloha says are you gonna come up? Yeah, I will I am at the front door soon
Don't let any of the police officers up. Okay, okay
No one please
Is Naira calm and yeah, she's calm. That's
Is Nayara calm and... Yeah, she's calm.
That's crazy brave for her to do this.
Yeah, she doesn't have to do it.
Yeah.
She could say, I'm sorry, I can't.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know how a 15-year-old can go back to a situation like this.
But she's calm. And she says, okay, well, let me speak to him now, love, because I'm at the front.
Aloha reassures Naya that everything will be okay
They tell each other that they love each other and naira gets back on the fun with lindenburg
And he is guiding her to the correct position
He wants her to be an in front of the front door come closer, please. I don't see you naira
To the left naira is literally right in front of the front door
What do you mean? He doesn't see her because that doesn't make sense
But before she can respond the door swings open naira could see how purple and bruised Aloha is. That's
her first response. She's purple all over. She tries not to look too shocked because she doesn't
want to stress out Aloha. And before she can even register what happens next, she's brought back in.
She's back in the apartment. In like two split seconds, he grabs her wrist, throws her back in the apartment, slams the door shut.
So he's not leaving?
No. He just wanted her back. On national TV in real time, Nayara's family watched her get kidnapped once more. Her grandmother fainted.
The police made the judgment call to put Aloha's friend Nayara's life at risk. They took a gamble and they lost.
They didn't even prep her on what to do
in case something went wrong.
They just trusted Lindenburg for whatever reason.
He's calling the shots.
He tells them what he wants, they do it
without questioning it a single time.
He's the one setting the rules.
In situations like this, there's always the question of,
well, when does it end?
Which side gives up first?
Because when does a negotiator decide to walk away?
One former hostage negotiator said,
when the bad guys feel like they've gotten everything
they can, that's when it ends.
And this, this feels like that.
It is now approaching the 100 hour mark.
So they just like, Nayara goes back in
and they go quiet for a while.
Nothing crazy happens.
Well, I don't wanna say nothing crazy.
It's crazy, but in the sense of
there's no new developments progressing them to a resolution. do you know what happened in there?
yeah so it's just back and forth. he would go from being crazy to beating aloha to screaming at her
to trying to talk to them in a nice calm manner. they would be allowed to watch tv. sometimes they
would be allowed to sit next to each other, but it just was that on end.
100 hours is enough time to watch all eight Harry Potter movies five times back to back.
It was 100 hours of high stress, life or death, assault, mental manipulation, and threats
for 100 hours straight.
Aloha was starting to lose her mind.
Aloha threw a plate.
She was in the kitchen, and she threw threw a plate and it shattered on the floor and maybe it felt good.
Lindenburg and Nayara, they both just stared at her. Not once did Aloha ever give in to Lindenburg this whole time. During their relationship
he had the power. He was eight years older. She was a minor. He was gaslighting her, manipulating her, isolating her.
And now she refused to give him what he wanted.
She doesn't want to tell him that they're gonna get back together. She would rather be beat than
kiss him. She would rather scream and fight and smile out the window when she doesn't want to than
give him what he wants. She aims the plate for him, it shatters on the ground, and she starts
grabbing random objects and throwing them on the ground. She does not care anymore that Lindenburg
has a gun, and she screams, I can't do this anymore. If you're gonna kill me, just do it. Just
kill me already. I can't do it anymore. Kill me, okay? I can't stand being here anymore.
Lindenburg tries to calm her down, because he knows that if the officers think that there's
a violent struggle inside, they're gonna send in the tactical team, and he'll probably get
shot. But Aloa cannot care less. She's over it. She's got nothing to lose.
Lindenberg is red in the face. Do you want to see your friend dead?
Aloha is still frantic. She's not calm but a lot less angry.
No, I don't want to see anyone dead. Just me. Just do it already.
Lindenberg puts the gun to Nyera's head. He's been doing this to Aloha for the past 90 hours.
He's bluffing.
He's not gonna shoot her.
She knew it.
So Aloha keeps screaming, she grabs another plate, and then it shatters onto the ground
and then SLAP.
It's like a gut punch straight to Aloha's stomach.
He slapped Nyera hard.
This was the first time he was violent with someone other than Aloha.
Really?
He didn't touch her the whole time?
Wow.
Aloha froze and her eyes were fixed on Lindenburg and she realized she had nothing to lose but
her best friend.
And she's not gonna lose her best friend.
October 17th, 2008, Friday.
Aloha's mom gets a call from Lindenburg and she's begging him,
please, please, please release my daughter, she loves you, so please,
I'm not gonna let her go, she will only get out of here dead,
and I don't care anymore if she says she wants to come back to me,
I don't believe her.
Things were not looking good.
That morning, Aloha and Nayera are sitting down on the mattress with him,
and he's going through even more intense mood swings.
If earlier it was like every 10 minutes, now it's like every 2 minutes, a different tone,
a different message, a different goal.
At one point he even just like, he's sitting there watching TV, zoning out, and his arm
is resting next to him.
The gun is in his hand.
He lifts it up and just shoots through the wall.
It goes straight into apartment 23 where the police are
set up and they just see a bullet just thankfully it doesn't hit anyone but
they just see a hole in the wall they see a bullet case they see a bullet on
the ground yeah it was um he he's starting to lose it and one of his last
conversations with the negotiator was I'm gonna be honest with you I'm not
gonna come out just to go straight to prison man if I go to prison I'm gonna
die there
It's like a little demon and a little angel are whispering in my ears right now
The demon is talking louder and he's telling me what to do and that demon is gonna make you very very sad
That little demon is telling me to kill both the girls
Then listen to the angel isn't that better?
I don't know what's better a million things are going through my head right now. Or just break into this shit already.
No, no, there's none of that.
Okay, I guarantee that's not, you're not gonna be harmed.
Life continues.
Life is beautiful.
I want you to break in.
I'm asking you to do it.
So he's basically trying to die either by them or have that be the catalyst for what
he is maybe too scared to do right now.
And he says, a lot of people out there are just going to pay a lot.
People will suffer.
They're going to cry.
I'm going to end this.
Let people know that this is coming to an end, man.
Everything that I have is nothing anymore.
I don't have anything.
Give me some time.
I have to be alone right now.
I don't want to see anyone.
He hangs up.
He drags the coffee table in front of the front door of the apartment and lies down
on the mattress to sleep.
And the two girls, they likely heard all of this and knew things are likely not going to end well. So they sat together on the couch, pulled a blanket over them, and watched TV together side by side.
Around 6 o' 8 p.m., around the 100-hour mark, police stormed through the front door of the apartment.
And side note, this is very controversial, but the police claimed that they only stormed the unit because they heard a gunshot go off.
So they had to act fast. They said that they didn't have time to get someone to come in through the window simultaneously because
because that is the normal protocol for a hostage situation.
You go in through all the entrances to disorient the hostage taker.
It gives you so much more opportunity to disarm them, which by the way, like the
SWAT teams, they're trained to disarm a hostage taker in a, I think in like less
than a second or two. So this is all part of the training. They never just go
through one entrance unless it's impossible. But most netizens and press
and even the victims will argue, there was no gunshot.
Because the police are arguing we didn't go through the window because we had to act fast
there was a gunshot sounding off.
But everyone said there was no gunshot.
In fact, the police were the noisiest.
They blew open the entire apartment door with a tactical bomb.
It's purposefully loud and bright to startle, disarm and momentarily blind the perpetrator.
So they run in, they're going gonna tackle him, but they're stuck.
The bomb did not get through the coffee table
that was pushed up against the door,
so they have to go through that.
And that was enough time for Lindenburg
to turn to the two girls and open fire.
He shot the girls.
The authorities finally came and they shot Lindenburg
with rubber bullets.
While the hostages were shot with real bullets, the police used rubber bullets so that they
could preserve his life.
The intent was to incapacitate, not kill, the hostage taker.
It is alleged though that the authorities were pretty rough with Lindenburg.
When they did finally get him to the ground to handcuff him, it said that they were just
really jumping him at that point. Neighbors and press had to intervene
screaming at the police, don't kill him, don't kill him, and oh my god what's
going on? Because they were just like taking out their frustration on him is
what it seems like. The journalists downstairs they start fully freaking
out. Most of them are on air telling the public that the hostage-taker had agreed
to turn himself in. Literally while in the middle of that sentence they hear that boom the break-in happens everything
goes dark there's ambulances rushing to the scene it was i don't know what the press were thinking
i don't know if they genuinely believed the whole idea that they were selling that there was gonna
be a wedding of the century after this but Two bloody bodies were rushed out of the apartment and taken directly to the hospital
Nayara had blood just pouring out of her face like a sink faucet
Meanwhile, Aloha is being carried by a police officer and when he accidentally bumps into a man, a medic, with a white coat on
His whole coat turns blood red. She was also bleeding from the head profusely
There are journalists
trying to run after the ambulances, trying to stick their cameras right up against the
ambulance windows. They really look like vultures, it's unsettling. They tried to race the victims
to the hospital, just so that they could get the best shots. Both girls were taken to the
operating room to have surgery. Nayara was shot in the face near her jaw, a bullet was
lodged in her jaw, and Aloha was shot in her private area and her head.
The bullet had gone through Aloha's brain and it said that she went through three hours of surgery, but they could not remove the bullet.
But even if they could, the damage to the brain was extensive. Neurological damage was, in this case, irreversible.
Aloha was placed into a coma and she was brain dead, unable to
breathe without life support, no chance of recovering. Aloha had passed and the
last memories of Aloha her family had were of her leaning out the window of
the family apartment crying and trying to give her family a thumbs up so that
they don't worry and it was just not the last memory that they ever wanted of her
and this doesn't make it any better that she passed
The doctors approach Aloha's mom and they ask if she wants to donate Aloha's organs and Anna did not want that
Not after everything Aloha had already gone through for the past 100 hours. No, like we don't get to break her apart even more
But Douglas would tug on her little sleeve and tell her mom
That's what Aloha would have wanted.
And so the last memory that they have of Aloha now is,
in her very last moments,
she tried her best to save her best friend, Nayara,
and ultimately she would save five people with seven organs.
Her heart, lungs, pancreas, liver, and kidneys.
Nayara would make a full recovery. One of the biggest pickles netizens had with GATE, the police during this operation, actually
there's a lot, starting with not forcibly securing the perimeter and not forcing the
journalists out, but also Nayara being sent back.
In response to that, one officer went to a journalist and said, I have three sons.
And I thought of Nayara as my son.
And I would put my son in her place.
See, it's a decision that only the ones who were there could make.
I just ask that you respect the professional skills and ability of the team that was there.
And operation always has risk.
GATE had previously conducted many successful outcomes of a hostage crisis.
The bad outcome of this one was not because of GATE's actions, but Lindenburg's.
GATE didn't kill anyone. We did everything to not put those three
lives at risk. Furthermore, another good question was brought up which is why did
they not shoot to kill Lindenberg when Aloha gave them the chance at the window?
When asked about that a police officer would say, we could have shot him but he
was a 22 year old boy with no criminal record going through a love crisis. If we
shot him you would be questioning me right now for why we didn't try to negotiate more. Why shoot a 22 year old boy who is doing
something that he's going to regret for the rest of his life anyway?" Another officer just bluntly
stated that they were under direct orders from the governor to protect the victim and the
perpetrator because again, the thing with the governor, a lot of netizens suspect because
they're elected, the public, the press, the media, they're all kind of pumping out this message that he's a
lover boy. So maybe they feel scared it's gonna backfire on them if they kill
lover boy. Also, nobody believes that there were gunshots before the agents
stormed in, so that was like a really bad break-in of a hostage situation. There
was footage from around that time, it was analyzed, there were only
gunshots after the authorities broke in that door.
Also, why did it take them a whole 15 seconds to get the coffee table from blocking the door? It's just too much time.
It's kind of ridiculous. To that, a gate agent was just like, you don't know because you've never been there,
but if this had gone successfully, you would be praising us right now.
Which is a very odd response
it's just kind of weird
but gate, they ultimately blamed the media
they claimed that lindenberg had actually made a deal to come back in
before any of his exclusive interviews with journalists
he made a deal that he was gonna come out with all the hostages
and then after his interviews he seemed to want to talk to the negotiators less and want to talk to the journalists more and he got
spiraled away into that he got swept away into becoming this main character
in the news that's why a lot of people think that he would do these crazy
things like shoot open fire at the crowd because it's not like he hit anyone ever
it doesn't ever seem like he's intentionally trying to kill the crowd.
I mean, it's clear that he's homicidal, but it doesn't seem like he was trying to kill someone in the crowd per se.
It just seems like he's doing it to get attention and to reignite people's obsession with the case.
Some people didn't even blame mainstream media, they just blamed the individual journalists working on the case,
Sonia being one of the main ones and she just said at no time
Did I act wrong?
I would do it all over again
Just the way we did it the cruel thing is to want to push the blame for the tragedy to us
Her murder happened three days after my conversation with Lindenburg. It had nothing to do with us at all
Yeah, wow a lot of media outlets were fined by the government for obstructing official police work
And it was just like a tiny little slap on the wrist and nothing else happened.
Oh also, one deputy officer, side note, was quoted because he went to go search or like
go through the crime scene afterwards and go through all of the different things that
were going on in the rooms in the apartment and he wrote in his report that the two girls,
Aloha and Nayara, were not concerned with the tidiness of the house, meaning that there were dishes in the sink.
What?
Basically, he's insinuating that even if you're being held hostage,
if you're a girl, you should at least still care about keeping the house tidy.
Like, he did not say the house is messy.
He did not say that the house was in disarray.
He said they were not concerned with the tidiness of the house, Nyara and
Aloha.
What?
Yeah.
And people are pissed about that?
So mad.
So mad.
Yeah.
So mad, yeah.
What is that language?
What is that thought process even?
I would just write dishes in the sink because that's what I see.
No one asks for your opinion like that.
That's crazy.
When Lindenburg was first taken to the police station, he had the audacity to keep asking for Alowa.
He said, and I quote, I want her here beside me.
He shot her twice, aiming for her head and her private parts.
He told authorities the only motive for his crime
was that he wanted to spend as much time
as possible with Alowa.
He said, I just wanted to enjoy every minute
with her by my side.
He reassured everyone he never did anything sexual with her.
He said, and I quote, only kisses on my cheek.
During the trial, his defense attorney argued
that Lindenburg should be charged with manslaughter
instead of first degree murder,
because if the police did not scare him so much
with that door bomb, he would have never shot the girls.
The defense attorney would also tell the jury,
Lindenburg is not a criminal.
You jurors are good people just like Lindenburg. I ask that see him as a brother a father a friend. He's not a criminal
He confessed that he shot Alola Lindenburg was in love with the Loa
She was the great and only love of his life so much so that in prison right now
He does not receive intimate visits because he doesn't want to have any other woman except Alola
Lindenburg suffers for Alois death. I
Don't know his defense attorney was crazy.
She at one point straight up told the judge
that the judge needs to go back to school
because you don't know what you're talking about.
Aloha's mom remembers seeing Lindenburg during the trial
and he had looked at her and Douglas multiple times
and laughed like he was mocking them.
It was like, yeah, and so what are you gonna do about it?
That kind of smirk. He was sentenced to 98 years and 10 months in prison. He was
found guilty. But it's not that simple because right now he's allowed out for
work. He has work leave, work permissions, and he also gets one day subtracted from
a sentence when he works three days outside the prison. So he gets a little
bit of freedom and less time on a sentence. A memorial service was held for Aloha.
30,000 people, many of them strangers, showed up to support Aloha's family.
As for Nyara, she had to have many surgeries, was not able to make it to the funeral, but
she visits Aloha on her own.
She was interviewed about her decision to go back and obviously, you know, technically
she admits she didn't know that she was going to be held hostage again. And maybe, maybe that'd be a different conversation, but maybe not.
She said, even knowing everything that's happened, she would do it all over again.
Yeah.
Aloha's mom said to Aloha in a moving speech, in a moving interview,
I'm sure that someday we'll meet again.
I keep on my path because Because of that certainty I know that anywhere you are you're okay, and I will walk in your direction until we finally meet again
And that is the case of the longest hostage crisis in Brazil and it was basically live-streamed
Who do you think has because this is a
Conversation with netizens that they have, and I just want
you guys to know that Brazilians are very upset with this case.
It's, who has the most blood on their hands?
I mean, obviously, Lindenburg, but would you say that one or two journalists?
Is it mainstream media?
Is it the police?
Is it a combination of everyone?
Let me know in the comments.
Please stay safe, and I will see you guys on Sunday.
Bye.