Coverage Of A Shooting In Atlanta On NBC

Radio Digest
July 30, 1999

Another Crisis, Another Stern Prank
Caller Breaks Through Again During TV
Coverage

By Jason Jackson

For the second time in two weeks, a Howard Stern fan called a
television station in the midst of a breaking news story, said he was
somebody else, got on the air, and paid homage to his favorite
shock jock.

This time, the story was a shooting in an Atlanta financial district
that left nine dead and 12 others injured in the worst murder spree
in the city's history.

Thomas Cipriano, the same "Captian Janks" that made his way
onto the airwaves of three television networks during breaking news
coverage of John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s plane crash, called WXIA-TV,
an NBC affiliate in Atlanta. At the time of the telephone call, the
cable channel MSNBC was broadcasting WXIA's coverage to a
nationwide audience.

Posing as a man named Marcel, Cipriano said that he was in one of
the office buildings where the shootings took place and was
interviewed on the air by anchor Wes Sarginson.

Sarginson: "Are you still in the building, sir?"

Cipriano: "No, I evacuated the building around a half-hour ago. I
was in the building when the person came in, and he had the gun. I
believe him to be someone who used to work there. His name's
K.C. I believe he's angry over a jealous dispute with a gay lover."

K.C. Armstrong is an intern on the Howard Stern radio show at
New York's K-Rock (WXRK 92.3 FM). Cast members of the
Stern program often joke that Armstrong is a homosexual.

Sarginson immediately terminated the conversation, declaring, "This
guy's a nut."

"This is the same nut that called us the last time we had an episode
like this," announced Sarginson during the newscast. "This guy is a
prankster who is not to be believed. I think that's despicable. We
have a horrible situation going on here, and some jerk would call in
like that and think he is funny."

Upset about stock-market losses, 44-year-old Mark Barton walked
into two brokerages in Atlanta's Buckhead District and shot 21
people, killing nine of them. Later, authorities discovered the bodies
of Burton's wife and two children, who had been beaten to death,
at Burton's home in Stockbridge, 35 miles south of Atlanta.

Burton, who was the primary suspect but was never charged in the
1994 murders of his first wife and mother-in-law, later shot and
killed himself when he was surrounded by police at a gas station in
suburban Austell, Ga.

On July 17, Cipriano played similar pranks on three news agencies
during their coverage of the plane crash that killed Kennedy, his
wife, and his sister-in-law. Posing as a Coast Guard official,
Cipriano was interviewed live by Dan Rather of CBS News, Peter
Jennings of ABC News, and Soledad O'Brien of MSNBC. Each
time, he was able to make a Stern-related reference before he was
cut off.

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