Glad to hear everyone is safe, and to join the expressions of gratitude and admiration for Pharos <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Pharos#A_barnstar_for_you!> and Fuzheado <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Fuzheado#Barnstar_for_heroism>, the two courageous Wikimedians who intervened!
For community members interested in more information, including about possible motivations of the individual involved, the New York Times' coverage is at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/nyregion/wikipedia-conference-gunman.html . On Fri, Oct 17, 2025 at 2:34 PM Maryana Iskander <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > We are writing to let you all know about an incident that occurred earlier > today during the opening ceremony of Wikiconference North America. > > The most important thing to start with is that everyone is safe and no one > was hurt. > > During the opening ceremony, a conference attendee entered the venue with > a gun and approached the stage, announcing an apparent suicide attempt. The > individual was quickly detained by conference participants and then removed > from the premises by law enforcement. Investigations are underway, > including internally and with law enforcement, to gather more information. > We are not going to be providing more information about the individual > involved while investigations are ongoing, and would ask others to not > share details in this public forum. > > Both of us want to extend our gratitude - to the individuals who moved so > quickly during the opening ceremony to respond, and to all of the attendees > for staying calm in the moment, following safety protocol, and supporting > one another. > > Folks here at the conference have had time together today, and plan to > resume the program tomorrow with more security onsite. > > Thank you to everyone who has reached out today offering support and > concern. We’ll share more information when we can. > > Maryana Iskander, > > Wikimedia Foundation CEO > > Pacita Rudder, > > Wikimedia NYC Executive Director > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/AB4CUW35JWZRGRY2NAWZLHSOXRSLFM5E/ > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
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