By John Petrick
Herald News
PASSAIC COUNTY, N.J. — A hostage negotiator described in state court Wednesday the tense hours during which Willie Seabrooks II allegedly held his wife and two sons hostage in Paterson before a talk on the phone with his mother led to a “happy ending.”
“I put Mrs. Seabrooks on the phone. She was great. A lot of love and compassion and trying to get him to surrender,” said state’s witness Donald E. Giaquinto of the Paterson Police Department, who was assigned as hostage negotiator to the case at 6 p.m. on July 15, 2006.
Giaquinto was in phone contact with Seabrooks or his alleged victims until the situation concluded about 11:40 p.m.
Before allegedly taking his family hostage, an angry Seabrooks had showed up at his in-laws’ house and, authorities said, opened fire, wounding two relatives.
Seabrooks still had the gun with him during the hostage incident and, at one point, Giaquinto said, television coverage reported SWAT teams preparing to storm the building.
That led Tatiwana Boulware Seabrooks ? the defendant’s wife ? to get extremely upset on the phone with him, he said, as she feared for the lives of her two boys, ages 4 and 8 at the time.
“ ‘Forget about what you see on TV,’ ” he testified he told Mrs. Seabrooks before jurors and state Superior Court Judge Philip H. Mizzone in Paterson. “‘Throw the TV out the window. It’s not going to happen unless I say it’s going to happen.’ ”
Another tense moment occurred when the phone rang for five minutes without anyone answering. As it turned out, he testified, Willie Seabrooks was talking to a minister on another line. Finally, not long after the talk with his mother and the minister, the situation ended.
“He came out, ultimately, at 11:38 p.m.,” Giaquinto said, later adding, “He was tired. He wanted it over with.”
Seabrooks exited with his shirt off and his hands up, the negotiator testified ? “That was it. Happy ending,” he said.
Testifying later Wednesday was Vincent Wrice, Seabrooks’ brother-in-law. Wrice is also the husband of one of two people Seabrooks, of Bushkill, Pa., allegedly shot outside the Governor Street house before he entered it and allegedly held his wife and children captive.
Wrice testified that Seabrooks ? who others have said in court had long-standing resentments with his in-laws ? arrived at the house that day angry.
Wrice said Seabrooks confronted him about having taken one of the boys to Disney World the prior week without his consent. He testified that Seabrooks had been well aware of the trip before they left and had not objected.
Wrice said Seabrooks then started arguing with mother-in-law Priscilla Boulware, who lived in the Governor Street home where the incident occurred and was relaxing on the porch with family and neighbors.
Seabrooks eventually left, returning a short time later and opening fire, Wrice testified.
“He walks up the stairs, he stands over her, and he shoots down. I couldn’t believe it,” Wrice said, describing Seabrooks’ shooting of Vicki Wrice.
Boulware also was shot in the attack. Both survived.
Copyright 2009 Herald News