#347: “Lover boy” Gives LIVE TV Interview While Holding 15-Yr-Old Girl Hostage for 100 Hours
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Yes, cool. Cool.

You can do more without spending more. Learn how to save at Cox.com slash internet. Cox internet is connected to the premises via coaxial cable. Cox mobile runs on the network with unbeatable 5G reliability as measured by UCLA LLC in the US to age 2023. Results may vary, not endorsement of the restrictions apply. 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 boop, 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 100 people and they are standing in front of the apartment building, just 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 was about 100 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 going to 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. 100 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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As always, full show notes are available at rottenminglepodcast.com. 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. Eloah 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 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. Hmm.

So she just has food attached to her bed sheets, 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 100 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's 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. Hmm.

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 got to 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 going to 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. Exactly.

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 going to 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 going to 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 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 two, 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. Why?

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. F-bomb. F-bomb. What do you want in 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 tried 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 going to 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 Aloha 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 Aloha'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 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 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 going to kill Aloha 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 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 fast.

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 to 30%, which is an increase of you just feel happy in this situation. You're likely to feel 70 to 80% 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 to baseline, it's going to feel horrendous. You're going to start sweating profusely from the increased anxiety. You might feel trembling and nausea, the amygdala, the brain's fear center. It's like a tiny almond-shaped panic button. It starts going off nonstop.

Non-stop the fire alarm the sprinklers inside your brain and technically your body because you're sweating a lot Is good you 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 and

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 want to 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%. Your brain is trying to work through 5 to 10 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.

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 U.S.'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

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 de-escalate. 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. 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 hostages' 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 Eloah 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 Aloha'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 going to get back together and it's going to 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 Lindenberg, Aloha's ex on the line right now. This is a live phone conversation aired on live television. Lindenberg, 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, Lindenberg, 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, maybe to verify that the cameras are still rolling, that they're still live. And she asks through the phone, Wait, Lindenberg, 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 is at the bus stop staring. I mean, everywhere Aloha went, Lindenberg 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 going.

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, Lindenberg, 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 Lindenberg 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 Lindenberg just standing there, staring at her.

Her eyebrows crinkle, she's holding on to 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 Lindenberg is now crossing the street and heading straight for her. Get back together with me. What? No. Aloha wasn't going to 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 Lindenberg loses his temper. He just starts yelling, threatening her, slapping 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 Douglas, Aloha's little brother, tries to knock on her door. Are you okay? Is everything all right in there? She doesn't respond.

Douglas has a pretty strong gut feeling, like a very bad gut feeling about this one. He thought Lindenberg 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 Lindenberg to his 12-year-old sister.

When Aloha's parents had gotten home, they were so enraged. They called Lindenberg 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 Lindenberg 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. Lindenberg 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 going to 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 going to kill you. And then Lindenberg would have a new change of plans. Either he was going to kill Aloha or he was going to kill Aloha's friends in front of Aloha so that Aloha could suffer or he was going to kill all of them.

He looks around and he spots Nayara, the other girl hostage, the only other girl in the apartment. Her. It's gonna be her. Nayara could feel it. He was gonna choose to kill her. Lindenberg always complained to Aloha that she listened to Nayara too much, that Nayara 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.

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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 does 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 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

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.

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 Aloa 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. Aloa 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, Ronixsons and Douglas. The whole family seems to know the hostage taker. His name is Lindenberg, likely introduced to the Pimentals through the little brother Douglas, the younger brother of Aloha. And Lindenberg, 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 Lindenberg 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 Lindenberg would meet in the parking lot and just scream fight in each other's faces.

And 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 Lois 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 going to 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, Lindenberg 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 Lindenberg is not there, why should Aloha be enjoying herself? Why should she be even talking at all? Family dinners? Same thing. If Lindenberg 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 Lindenberg, Lindenberg 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, Lindenberg, of course, did not abide by the same rules. One anonymous friend stated that Lindenberg was always at the club on the weekends without Aloha.

The only reason that the relationship lasted three years was because Lindenberg is a master manipulator. He would love Bommalowa, 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 this crazy push and pull experience that Lindenberg 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 want to date anymore. I just want to focus on studying and focus on my friendships. Aloha 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 Lindenberg, 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.

They might introduce the main hostage negotiator, but they're still going to 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 going to 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 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 easygoing, 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 it makes people feel attacked. It's going to be very hard to reset your boundaries.

So the first two is good. Yes. The last one is 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 than 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 going to 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 Lindenberg 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 hostage negotiator has to let them know that they're listening and want to 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 want to introduce yourself by name. And Lindenberg picks up. They're screaming on the other end. And he freaks out. What? Why is there screaming on the other end? Lindenberg is out of breath. Oh, I'm just beating my girlfriend, this bitch. Aloha is screaming in the background. I'm not your girlfriend.

There's harsh like, "Dun! Dun!" 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 going to 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, right?

Steps out. Then another foot. And another foot. And another foot. The steps get quicker and faster in pace. 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 lyndenberg 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 there

cowering nayara aloha's friend is trying to reason with the mad gunman lindenberg 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

Loa 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 going to 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 and he would be very soft with us and say guys don't worry i'm not 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, right? 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 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. Lindenberg still has the gun in his hand and he uses the other to pick up the phone. "Hello?" "Hi Lindenberg, 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 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 Lindenberg. We'll talk to him again. Is he treating you well? Alois 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 Lindenberg. 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. Lindenberg 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?

"Lindenberg, 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 going to 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 Aloha. 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 Lindenberg, turns to the camera. And there you have it, folks. I'm journalist Louise Guerra. And that was an exclusive interview with Lindenberg, the hostage taker exclusively on READ 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've 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 Lindenberg. Journalists were able to find Lindenberg'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 Lindenberg know that these are journalist reporters? He knows. Okay. 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 into... We're getting a call.

She hops on the call with Lindenberg. Look, let me ask you something, Lindenberg. Are you afraid that the police are going to shoot you? Because that's not going to happen.

Why would you ask that? Like what a way to pique 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 going to 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 going to 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? 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. 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 100.

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.

Sonia would say, "It seems like you are willing to kill Eloah." And that's not true. I know you're not that kind of person, Lindenberg. 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 Eloah 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 Aloha'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, Lindenberg. 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, Lindenberg, 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 a low on the line for everyone to hear that she is okay.

Okay. Hello? Hello, Aloha. This is Sonia Abro. Earlier today, you talked to Louise, our journalist. Now we're live. We were talking to Lindenberg right now, and I wanted you to tell us if you're okay. Lindenberg says 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 Lindenberg? He said that you already talked about the breakup. Is Lindenberg 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, Lindenberg's sister, Susie, said that if she could talk to Lindenberg 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 Lindenberg 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. 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 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 journalist, 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, 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 Lindenberg. Like Aloha is nobody to anybody.

That was one thing that a lot of netizens were upset with. Like this whole conversation with Sonia, 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 Lindenberg 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 Lindenberg 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 Lindenberg 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 going to 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 journalist, 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.

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Lindenburg takes the phone back. When Aloha gets out, she's going to 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 going to 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 going to 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, Lindenberg would periodically force a lower 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 hour 30 in, and he's talking to these reporters saying that he's going to let her out and he's going to 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 want to 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 Lindenberg 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 hysteria philly 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, you know, 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. 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. Mm-hmm.

And it's like, of course, every girl wants to have someone who's so in love with her. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So really, the media marketing on this one is just foul. Fortunately, nobody got hurt, but things are quickly escalating. Lindenberg 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 like

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 Lindenberg's sister also arrives at the scene to try and talk to him. They brought an attorney to help negotiate for better conditions for Lindenberg 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 going to get out of there and his life is going to 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. Lindenberg 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, Lindenberg...

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 Lindenberg 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 Lindenberg 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're using it as I will give you this for that. But 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 Lindenberg 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 going to start attacking these girls. The girls are going to suffer and pay close attention. Aloha starts screaming in the background of the call, begging him to stop. Lindenberg 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 is in danger if she doesn't do anything, on the other hand she knows that lyndenberg 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 made. An eye for an eye. Well, not entirely, but it's something. The negotiators will turn the lights back on and Lindenberg 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. 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 Lindenberg. Some saw it as a good sign. The two boys, Nayara, they're all out. Some say, that means Aloha's gonna be out. Others said, no, he went in there for Aloha. 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, Nayara would hear sounds of Lindenberg 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 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 Lindenberg 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 to 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 going to lie. And third, even if you pull it off, chances are they're going to 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 going to be to be trusted. And if that happens, you lose.

8.30 a.m. 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 surround her. Nayara'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? Nayara'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. Lindenberg personally requested Aloha's little brother Douglas as well.

Lindenberg had told the negotiators that he was ready to turn himself in and he was just really scared that he was going to get shot on sight the minute that he exited the door. He can't just use Aloha's body to shield him. It's not enough. So he wants Nayara to meet him at the front door. He's going to use both Nayara's body and Aloha's body to walk all the way down the steps. And because Aloha needs medical attention, he's going to throw Aloha 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. Okay. So the brother is to stand at the bottom of the staircase. Nayara is to go to the front door. Everyone is stationed and we're ready to go.

Nayara is 15. She has an emotional stuffed animal and she is on the phone with Lindenberg 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, Nayara called Lindenberg while 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 going to do what you said you're going to do this time?

yes i will do you trust me naira yeah i i trust you lyndenberg lets naira 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

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 Nayara that everything will be okay. They tell each other that they love each other, and Nayara gets back on the phone with Lindenberg, and he is guiding her to the correct position he wants her to be in, in front of the front door. Come closer, please. I don't see you, Nayara. Come, please. To the left. Nayara 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. Nayara could see how purple and bruised Aloha is. That's her first response is 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 Nayyara'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 Lindenberg 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 want to 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 Eloah, 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 a plate and it shattered on the floor. And maybe it felt good. Lindenberg and Neira, they both just stared at her.

Not once did Aloha ever give in to Lindenberg 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 going to 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 Lindenberg has a gun and she screams, I can't do this anymore. If you're going to 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.

Lindenberg tries to calm her down because he knows that if the officers think that there's a violent struggle inside, they're going to send in the tactical team and he'll probably get shot. But Aloha could not 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 Nayara'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 Nayara hard. This was the first time he was violent with someone other than Aloha. He didn't touch her the whole time. Wow. Aloha froze and her eyes were fixed on Lindenberg.

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 Lindenberg 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 naira 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 two minutes a different 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 he he's starting to lose it. And one of his last conversations with the negotiator was, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm not going to come out just to go straight to prison, man. If I go to prison, I'm going to 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 going to 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 going to 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 6.08 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 to 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 Lindenberg to turn to the two girls and open fire. He shot the girls. The authorities finally came and they shot Lindenberg 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 Lindenberg 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 going to 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 recovery. 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 Ana 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. An operation always has risk. Gate had previously conducted many successful outcomes of hostage crises. The bad outcome of this one was not because of Gate's actions, but Lindenberg'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 going to 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 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 going to 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 Lindenberg. It had nothing to do with us at all.

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, Nayara 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 Lindenberg was first taken to the police station, he had the audacity to keep asking for Aloha. 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 Aloha. 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 Lindenberg 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, Lindenberg is not a criminal. You jurors are good people just like Lindenberg. I ask that you see him as a brother, a father, a friend. He's not a criminal. He confessed that he shot Aloha. Lindenberg was in love with Aloha. She was the great and only love of his life. So much so.

So that in prison right now, he does not receive intimate visits because he doesn't want to have any other woman except Aloha. Lindenberg suffers for Aloha's 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 Lindenberg 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 going to 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 Nayara, 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. 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 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 Lindenberg, 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.