Armed cartoonist in custody, police say

from cnn

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- The gun-wielding cartoonist who had entered the Miami Herald building, demanding to speak with an editor Friday, has been taken into custody without incident, police said.

No injuries were immediately reported, and police spokesman Delrish Moss said authorities believed the man was isolated on the newspaper's sixth floor, which houses the Herald's Spanish-language publication, El Nuevo Herald. Officers set up a perimeter around the downtown building.

The man came through the front door with what appeared to be a machine gun, Moss said.

It wasn't clear whether employees from other floors were being evacuated, but about 60 people were gathered outside the building.

The Miami Herald reported on its Web site that the man walked into the sixth-floor newsroom, appeared agitated and demanded to see El Nuevo Herald Executive Editor Humberto Castello. About 12 to 15 employees inside the newsroom were present, employees said.

It was the second situation involving a gun at the newspaper in the past year and half. In July 2005, former city commissioner Arthur E. Teele Jr. fatally shot himself in the Herald lobby after asking to speak with columnist Jim DeFede. Teele had been under investigation for corruption and was just indicted by a federal grand jury on fraud charges.

DeFede was fired for recording his telephone conversations with Teele just before the shooting without the politician's permission.

El Nuevo Herald is one of the nation's largest Spanish-language newspapers and is published by The Miami Herald Media Co.

wow.