One person is now out of a job following the security breach that put a stranger face-to-face with Today co-host Craig Melvin inside NBC's Rockefeller Plaza studio. A security guard was fired after the Thursday incident, according to sources who described it as "a sad situation all around," per People. Prosecutors say the intruder, identified as Andrew Truelove, slipped in behind an employee who scanned into an employees-only area before confronting Melvin, allegedly using a racial slur and asking for Al Roker.
NBC says Melvin alerted security and that the man was quickly detained. It notes no one was hurt, but that its security procedures are now under review. Melvin and Roker have since obtained temporary restraining orders. The stars, who are both Black, each posted on social media to assure fans they're OK after the unnerving incident, per the AP. "It's moments like these that serve to pull us together," Roker wrote on Instagram.
Truelove, said to be in his early 40s, has a prior record. A woman who says she's Truelove's sister and hasn't seen him in more than 10 years tells the New York Daily News that her brother was raised by their "racist" father—a man she says took her sibling to see David Duke speak and denied the Holocaust, despite being Jewish. She adds that her brother has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
The woman says she spoke with her brother about a week ago and that he didn't mention the Today show. "I'm just glad no one was hurt," she notes. Truelove is charged with third-degree burglary as a hate crime and third-degree menacing as a hate crime, offenses that could carry up to 15 years in prison, per People. His next court date is set for Wednesday. Melvin told viewers the following day that everyone at Studio 1A is "safe and sound."
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