Gunman Holds Deputies at Bay, Tells of Killings : Crime: Man holds off officers at station for 90 minutes before his arrest. Bodies of his daughter, her boyfriend are found outside in car.

A “suicidal” armed man held sheriff’s deputies at bay for 90 minutes Monday night, after walking into the substation in the City of Industry and allegedly confessing that he had killed his daughter and her boyfriend who were found dead in a car he had parked outside, authorities said.

Jimmy Joe Gregory, 56, of West Covina, walked into the station at 5:30 p.m. with a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun down at his side, said Deputy Fidel Gonzales, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman.

As Gregory approached the counter in the lobby, a deputy standing behind an opaque glass partition behind the counter drew his weapon, Gonzales said.

“No, no, you don’t understand,” Gregory told the deputy. “I’ve just shot two people. They’re in my car, which is parked in the handicaped space in the parking lot.”

Deputies began about 90 minutes of negotiations with Gregory in an effort to persuade him to surrender, Gonzales said. The deputy held his gun on the suspect, and Gregory carried his weapon down at his side, never aiming it at deputies, Gonzales said.

Outside, in the late-model red Ford Tempo that Gregory had described, investigators found the bodies of Vera Nadine Gregory, 27, and Charles A. Franklin Jr., 40, both of West Covina. Gregory’s body was in the front passenger seat, and Franklin’s in the right rear seat.

Gregory gave no motive for the killings, deputies said. Investigators said the woman was Gregory’s daughter and Franklin was her boyfriend.

When Gregory walked into the station, someone had shouted, “There’s a man with a gun in the lobby!” said Sheriff’s Deputy Bret Lisle, who was in the station.

The unidentified deputy who talked to him from behind the opaque glass was “very persistent, telling him that his family needed him,” Lisle said.

The sheriff’s crisis negotiators and SWAT team were summoned to the substation at 150 N. Hudson Ave., but it was unclear what role they played in Gregory’s surrender.

Throughout the negotiations, Gregory made frequent trips to a water fountain in the lobby, Lisle said.

“He never really seemed to be a threat to us,” Lisle said. “He seemed to be coherent.” Lisle said Gregory looked as if he would have used the gun on himself if he were going to use it at all.

At 7 p.m., Gregory left his gun on the counter in the lobby as he went over to the drinking fountain again, Lisle said.

Several deputies then seized him and placed him under arrest, Gonzales said. Gregory was charged with suspicion of murder and was being held without bail at the City of Industry station.