PITTSBURGH — A Pittsburgh mom tells Channel 11 she’s grateful her kids are safe after they were held hostage at knifepoint on the North Side on Tuesday afternoon.
There was a heavy police and SWAT presence on East Ohio Street at Allegheny Commons on Tuesday afternoon because a man was holding a 21-month-old boy and a 7-month-old girl hostage inside an apartment.
The man is now in custody. Our crews saw him taken out of the apartment in handcuffs surrounded by SWAT officers.
The children’s mother Yvonne Vire could be heard screaming and crying on the sidewalk across from the apartment complex as flash bangs were being thrown inside her bedroom window.
“I was scared that he were [sic] killing them,” Vire said. “I thought that he was killing my kids.”
The kids are safe and uninjured. Officers carried them out of the apartment.
Channel 11 spoke with Vire right after she was reunited with her kids.
“I’m very emotional,” she said. “I just had my daughter, and he threatened to kill us. I’m just really in fear for my life.”
He was able to get into the apartment and then began making threats to hurt the kids.
Vire said he grabbed a steak knife and came at them.
“He grabbed my baby boy for like ransom,” she said. “He’s using him as a hostage and say he was going to kill us if I leave him, he was going to kill me and the kids.”
The kids’ mother was able to escape the apartment.
For almost two hours, negotiators tried communicating with the man. It wasn’t until SWAT officers used flash bangs that he finally came out.
“They were on the phone with him almost the entire time,” said Cara Cruz, the Pittsburgh Police public information officer. “He was making statements he was going to come out and surrender. They were carefully trying to navigate that, and everyone was safe in this scenario.”
The mother was emotional but grateful to the police who rescued her children and brought them to safety.
“My daughter has glass all in her hair. Everybody seems to be safe,” Vire said. “We’re just safe. I just want to stay safe.”
Jason Zenmon Jr., 28, was arrested and faces charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, terroristic threats, endangering the welfare of children, unlawful restrain of a minor, recklessly endangering another person and defiant trespass. He is being held in the Allegheny County Jail.
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