 Oan woke Lock at dawn , convinced that an intruder was in the embassy . Lock was sent to investigate , but no intruder was found . Later in the morning , Oan called Lock to examine a bulge in the wall separating the Iranian embassy from the Ethiopian embassy next door . The bulge had , in fact , been caused by the removal of bricks to allow an assault team to break through the wall and to implant listening devices , resulting in a weakening of the wall . Although Lock assured him that he did not believe the police were about to storm the building , Oan remained convinced that they were " up to something " and moved the male hostages from the room in which they had spent the last four days to another down the hall . Tensions rose throughout the morning and , at 13 : 00 , Oan told the police that he would kill a hostage unless he was able to speak to an Arab ambassador within 45 minutes . At 13 : 40 , Lock informed the negotiator that the gunmen had taken Abbas Lavasani — the embassy 's chief press officer — downstairs and were preparing to execute him . Lavasani , a devout believer in the Iranian Revolution , had repeatedly provoked his captors during the siege . According to Lock , Lavasani stated that " if they were going to kill a hostage , [ Lavasani ] wanted it to be him . " At exactly 13 : 45 , 45 minutes after Oan 's demand to speak to an ambassador , three shots were heard from inside the embassy . 
