Ex-Student Holds 70 Hostage in Classroom : He Fires Two Shots, Then Is Disarmed by Captives After Half an Hour

A young man armed with an assault rifle invaded a San Gabriel High School classroom Tuesday, firing two shots and holding about 70 former classmates hostage for more than half an hour before he was overwhelmed by students, police said. No one was hurt.

Alhambra Police Lt. Richard Duffy identified the gunman as Jeff Lyne Cox, 18, a San Gabriel student who apparently had not attended the school for some time. He was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment.

Police said they do not know what triggered the incident. But during the ordeal, Cox told his hostages that “urban terrorism is fun,” and said he wanted $1 million in ransom.

“He’s a joking-type person and we didn’t know if he was serious or not at first,” said class member Jason Burke, 17. But, Burke said, he quickly made up his mind after Cox fired a shot into the classroom wall. “Then I was scared like everyone else.”

According to Duffy, police received a call at 11:34 a.m. that shots had been fired at the 3,200-student school at 801 Ramona St., on the border between Alhambra and San Gabriel. During the incident, Cox held students in the combined senior English class hostage with a Korean-made .223-caliber assault rifle, which he had bought at a local gun shop last week.

School Principal Jack B. Mount said Cox apparently carried the weapon onto the campus in a long box.

“We were in the middle of class, and he walks in and says, ‘We have a problem here,’ said Scott French, a senior who said he is a friend of Cox. “We thought he was kidding, because he kids around a lot.”

Cox then ordered the teacher, Julie Rivera, out of the room and fired a shot when several students attempted to escape. The bullet struck a wall near the door, witnesses said.

Cox, whom class members described as being calm throughout the incident, ordered the remaining students to block the doors with desks and file cabinets. He also ordered them to put their wallets and keys in a trash can.

The assailant then called the principal’s office, demanding $1 million and refreshments and cigarettes for the hostages, class members said.

“He said he got the idea from the hijacking of the Kuwaiti airliner and from Stephen King’s book ‘Rage,’ ” French said.

When school officials called back and said they might be a little late in delivering the sodas, food and cigarettes he had ordered, Cox said there was a 7-11 store 10 minutes away and he would start shooting people in nine minutes and 40 seconds if they didn’t deliver in time.

“He told us (that) when he started killing people he was going to start with people he didn’t know,” said one student, who asked not to be identified.

But other students said he had tried to put them at ease. “He said, ‘I don’t have any intention of killing anyone. I don’t think I can do it,’ ” Burke said.

Classmates said Cox also told them he had recently been under psychiatric care.

Cox was arrested when a student, identified by classmates as Ruben Ortega, jumped him as he was talking on the classroom phone. Five to 10 more students joined in, wrestling Cox to the floor. During the struggle, the weapon discharged a second time, but no one was injured.

Alhambra police then rushed into the classroom, taking Cox into custody. He was being held Tuesday afternoon on $100,000 bail, authorities said, and was expected to be arraigned Thursday in Alhambra Municipal Court.

Mount said he sought to maintain order during the incident by not revealing the crisis to the student body at large until Cox was arrested. Students, teachers and other staffers were informed at a 1 p.m. assembly, he said.

“We evacuated some classes around the building, but others were in session while this was going on,” Mount said. “There were some classes that didn’t know what happened.”

Bill Volkov, the owner of Wolfe’s Gunshop in San Gabriel, said Tuesday that his records show that a Jeff Cox, age 18, bought a semiautomatic rifle April 21, for “probably close to $400.”

“He (Cox) said he was going to buy the gun for his father and seemed like a normal kid,” Volkov said. “The salesman said he was in here before and was waiting to turn 18 years of age.”

Times staff writer Craig Quintana contributed to this story.