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Security guard talks about televised hostage situation
Raymond van Gog, the 35 year old security guard who managed to keep a cool head when Tarik Z. forced his way into the NOS building on January 29th, says he did not have a plan on what to do, but acted spontaneously.
Van Gog said this in an interview with Dutch newspaper AD on Tuesday.
On January 29th Tarik Z. showed up at the NOS building with a firearm. He took Van Gog hostage and instructed the security guard to take him to a studio so that he could proclaim his message on national television. Van Gog led him to an empty studio an millions of viewers watched as the police easily overpowered him. Z. was arrested and nobody got hurt.
During the media frenzy that followed, Van Gog stayed out of the limelight. "But I got a lot of compliments on social media", he said to AD. "And though my name was never mentioned, I know that it was me."
Van Gog did not want to say much about the bizarre incident, only saying that he acted spontaneously, without a thought of a plan or protocol. Z. had lingered in front of the NOS building for a while before approaching the guard. He gave him a note stating that he was armed and that he wanted to go inside. "I won't shoot you if you walk in front of me", he said to Van Gog. The clear headed security guard secretly pressed the alarm button and said something like "Okay, let's go then" to Z.
Van Gog told the newspaper that he only knew one thing: I will not take this man to the studio where the news was being recorded at the time, where people are. The idea to lure Z. into an empty studio came spontaneously. "Everything you do in such a situation, you make decisions per moment."
The spontaneous plan turned out to be a good one. Z. was arrested without anyone being injured.
Five months have gone by and Van Gog is going on with life as usual. The incident is often mentioned, especially now that Van Gog is set to appear in court on Friday. Van Gog and his wife will be at the trial. His wife wants to see Z. in person. And both of them want to know exactly what he was thinking when he tried to hijack airtime.
