ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office has identified and charged a man who held a woman and two children hostage in hotel room Wednesday at the Drury Hotel At the Arch.
William Gourley, 43, was charged three counts of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, one count of unlawful possession of a firearm, and five counts of armed criminal action.
At 5:15 a.m. Wednesday morning, police were dispatched to the Drury Hotel at 4th and Market after reports of Gourley was holding women and children hostage the hotel.
According to St. Louis Metropolitan Police, at 5:15 a.m., one of the two children called police telling them that they and their sibling were trapped and locked in a hotel bathroom and that Gourley was fighting with their mother.
Gourley allegedly seized the phone from the child and told dispatch that he was armed.
Guests on the floor of the incident and in the hotel were safely evacuated from the scene and the children were safely released at around 10 a.m. Wednesday, but the woman is still being held against her will until the situation ended at around 6 p.m., ending around a 12-hour standoff.