By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
The true crime documentary,
"Hold Your Fire," from director
Stefan Forbes ("Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story") and screenwriter/editor Sabine
Hoffman (“Passing”), arrives in theaters and VOD May 20.
Produced by Fab Five Freddy (TV's "She’s Gotta Have It"), Amir Soltani ("Skin of Glass") and Tia Wou ("Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story"), "Hold Your Fire" is an intense and compelling drama about the 1973 hostage incident in Brooklyn, New York involving a group of Sunni Muslims led by career criminal Shu'aib Raheem.
They went into a local sporting goods store to steal guns. However, NYPD surrounded the place, and the suspects took 11 hostages. During the standoff, a police officer was killed and one of the robbers wounded. The two-day incident is one of the longest hostage sieges in NYPD history.
This could have been a major blood bath if it weren’t for the quick thinking of officer Benjamin Ward—who later became the first African American New York City Police Commissioner—and Dr. Harvey Schlossberg, a police officer on the force with a degree in psychology.
They helped de-escalate the situation by talking to the robbers and using the simple phrase "Hold Your Fire." That may sound trite now, but it wasn't always a common approach for the NYPD to employ when faced with similar circumstances. The documentary reveals it was the department's 130-year-old policy to deliver an ultimatum, then respond with deadly force. Yet, the techniques used by Ward and Schlossberg ultimately paved the way for how today's police/hostage negotiations are managed.
"Hold Your Fire" uses incredible archival footage and features interviews with Raheem and other hostage takers, witnesses, survivors, as well as sporting goods store owner Jerry Riccio and Dr. Schlossberg.
Although policing and police reform remain hot button topics today, "Hold Your Fire," shows what can happen sometimes when you're willing to think outside the box.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays at 6:20 p.m. on radio station KFBK 93.1 FM and 1530 AM.
Watch This Trailer For
"HOLD YOUR FIRE"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
