Earlier this afternoon, Stranger staffers ripped themselves away from their desks, despite today’s harried deadlines, to check out the crazy action outside our building, on 11th Avenue between Pike and Pine. A dozen cops carsthe entire East Precinct’s on-duty staff?swarmed the street, even pulling up onto the sidewalks. One woman sauntered around in a jacket labeled “negotiator.” Another guy, in a bulletproof vest over a t-shirt, paced the sidewalk. Regular-looking cops milled around and conferred. They all seemed concerned with the loft building at the corner of 11th and Pike. But not too concernedofficers weren’t warning passersby to steer clear, nor were they in any sort of hurry. All one officer would say to this passerby was “some guy is having a really bad day,” declining to elaborate unless I lived in the building in question.

My theory? Given the timing and the weird cop attitude, I bet this was some sort of followup to today’s soon-to-be-a-Daily-Show-punchline Federal Courthouse shooting. Ten bucks says the the grenade-man lived in the building, and cops were looking to kick down his door to root around for anti-government propaganda.