Hostage Drama at McDonald’s Ends Safely

A gunman fleeing a robbery at a children’s clothing store in La Verne dashed into a nearby McDonald’s restaurant, where he held as many as 19 hostages--including several children--for several hours before sheriff’s deputies stormed the facility shortly after midnight today, authorities said.

The suspect was in custody by 12:15 a.m.--more than six hours after the incident began.

All the hostages were believed freed and unharmed. No shots were fired during the tense stand-off in a commercial district in La Verne, on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County. Police, however, apparently had initiated the assault with three diversionary explosive blasts called “flashbangs.”

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s special tactics officers moved into the McDonald’s less than a half hour after a dozen hostages, believed to be employees, managed to get free of the building. They apparently had hidden in a staff lounge for six hours, with the intruder unaware of their presence.

One SWAT member dressed as a McDonald’s employee had managed to infiltrate the restaurant late in the ordeal, swapping places with a hostage. When the assault began, officials said, he leaped over a counter and tackled the suspect.

Minutes later, officers inside reported that one suspect was in custody and a search was under way for a possible second; the remaining hostages began to pour out.

There were conflicting reports throughout the night whether one or two gunmen were holding hostages.

One young girl could be seen limping as she was escorted from the McDonald’s by a SWAT team member. Another little girl was carried out by an officer. None appeared seriously injured.

Another suspect had been arrested as he fled the Kids Mart clothing store in a shopping plaza at Foothill Boulevard and Fruit Street at 5:30 p.m., Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said.

Witnesses said a robbery victim ran out of the store after the holdup and flagged down a passing La Verne police motorcycle officer and pointed out the suspects.

No one was injured during the robbery, deputies said.

Investigators said they had not determined what happened in the clothing store, but it appeared that the robbers left with an undetermined amount of cash.

The first suspect under arrest was described as in his 30s with tattoos covering his arms. His name was not released.

As the other robbery suspect ran into the McDonald’s across the street, several people in the fast-food restaurant ran out, deputies said. Those who escaped said two employees and several children remained inside.

A sheriff’s SWAT team closed the shopping center, surrounded the restaurant, and contacted someone inside by telephone from a command post set up at La Verne Lutheran High School, said John Blickenstaff, mayor of the San Gabriel Valley city.

Sheriff’s spokesman Bill Wehner said, “The hostage negotiators are on the line. They are trying to make contact with the suspects.”

It was not known, however, if the negotiators ever managed to get through to the hostage-taker.

A large crowd of on-lookers converged on the shopping center throughout the night as officers attempted to piece together the situation.

Deputies using binoculars caught glimpses of hostages inside the restaurant, noting that the gunman--believed to be carrying a rifle and a handgun--had forced some to lie on the floor under tables. Children, however, could be seen seated at tables and playing board games.

Residents who live near the shopping plaza came out of their homes and stood in anxious knots along Fruit Street. They described the restaurant as a popular hangout for area children after school.

Rose Taton rushed to the scene because her son, Robert, 17, who has worked at the McDonald’s since July, was one of the hostages.

“The neighbors came to get me,” Taton said. “We thought it would be a controlled situation, but this is not the kind of control we were hoping for,” she said, looking around at the dozens of patrol cars and helicopter hovering above.

“I feel so sorry for him,” Taton’s neighbor, Amado Salazar, said of Taton’s son. “He’s such a quiet boy.”

Mark Freis, 18, of Upland, was driving up to the restaurant to pick up his brother in the parking lot when he saw “a bunch of cops with their guns out. They had me get behind a wall.”

Freis said he was forced to remain behind the wall for three hours, but that he heard no shots or screams from inside the restaurant during that time.

La Verne City Council member Tom Harvey said city officials and representatives from McDonald’s met with relatives of hostages in La Verne’s public safety building, the police and fire department headquarters.

“They’re acting very calm,” Harvey said. “They are very controlled. They feel like we’re handling it well. They have faith in how it’s going to turn out. I was impressed in how well they’re taking this.”

Tom Kirven of the Pomona chapter of the American Red Cross said 20 to 25 family members were at the public safety building.

When they heard the news of the release, “there was cheering and clapping and thanks, naturally.”

Kirven said that during the ordeal, the family members “seemed to be in good spirits,” because they were kept briefed of the situation by authorities.

Kirven said the Red Cross was arranging for food and psychological counseling for the hostages, who were brought to the public safety building for reunions with their families. McDonald’s restaurants have been the targets of other violence. On July 18, 1984, James Oliver Huberty killed 21 people and wounded 15 more at a McDonald’s in San Ysidro, a community of San Diego near the Mexican border, before he was killed by a police sharpshooter. It was one of the nation’s worst massacres.

In Port Arthur, Texas, one person was killed when a man opened fire at crowded McDonald’s last December.

Contributing to this story was Times Staff Writer Edward J. Boyer.