NBC interviewed Samantha Helstrom, the 57-year-old woman who barricaded herself in a room at the Crown Hotel on Friday afternoon and surrendered eight hours later. Helstrom, who is being held in a special unit at the jail, told NBC that she was intoxicated and does not remember brandishing a weapon, but said she did have a fake weapon.
“I just saw them aim weapons at me,” she said about the Friday standoff that lasted about seven hours. “It was like a firing squad.”
Police responded to the scene after a call from Helstrom’s building manager. The manager told police Helstrom pulled a gun on him and a pest control worker and then refused to come out when police arrived.
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Helstrom said she was intoxicated and doesn’t remember pulling a gun. She admitted that she owns a fake weapon. She said when officers fired nonlethal weapons at her, she got angry.
“I did say, ‘Shoot me, shoot me.’ It wasn’t like kill me. I don’t know if I said kill me because they were shooting at me,” Helstrom said. READ MORE