Band fan standoff ends outside KISS
A purported fan of the shock rap group Insane Clown Posse — armed with an arsenal of “edged weapons” and with a song request for KISS 108 — held cops at bay for three hours outside the radio station’s studios in Medford yesterday.
A report of the 38-year-old man flashing knives in a maroon sedan with New Hampshire plates brought cops to the office park that houses the studio about 1:30 p.m., Medford police Lt. Joseph Casey said.
“The initial reports we got was for a vehicle in this Cabot Road business development. The operator of the vehicle was driving around wielding several edged weapons,” Casey said. “He refused to stop for the officers ... until he was boxed in.”
What followed was a threehour standoff that involved state police and SWAT officers from the North East Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council, as well as a crisis negotiator.
Dylan Sprague, vice president of programming with iheartradio. com, which owns KISS 108, said employees outside the building could overhear the man saying he wanted to hear a song.
“He definitely was talking about requesting a song,” Sprague said.
Witnesses told media outlets that the man wanted to hear “My Axe” by Insane Clown Posse, a white hip-hop duo featuring Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, known for their clown makeup and their provocative lyrics.
“My Axe” includes the lryics, “My axe is my buddy, and when I wind him back/Me and my axe will give your forehead a buttcrack.”
Sprague said the man never actually contacted the studio requesting a song. Casey said the man, whose name was not released, eventually surrendered peacefully and was hospitalized for a mental evaluation. It is unclear whether he will be charged.
“He was obviously undergoing some sort of crisis,” Casey said.
At one point during the standoff, the man got out of the car, only to get back in. Casey said police tried to use nonlethal weapons to subdue him.
“We had less-than-lethal weapons that we deployed to attempt to subdue the subject, but those efforts were not successful,” Casey said. “There was a Taser. And we did have a less-thanlethal beanbag shotgun weapon on hand, as well as long-armed weapons in case the situation became more volatile.”
Insane Clown Posse fans, known as “juggalos,” have carried out attacks in the past, apparently mimicking the band’s lyrics.
In one of the most notorious cases, Jacob Robida used a hatchet to attack three men in a New Bedford gay bar in 2006. The self-described juggalo then drove across country, picking up his online girlfriend in West Virginia.
In Arkansas, Robida shot a cop to death, then killed his girlfriend and himself.
Although Robida was a selfidentified ICP fan, band manager Alex Abbiss at the time repudiated any link to his crimes.
“The perpetrator of this crime may have thought that he was a juggalo. But clearly, after further review, it’s quite obvious that this guy had no clue what being a juggalo is all about,” Abbiss said then.