McDonald’s Hostages Free; 2 Held

Two former convicts were in sheriff’s custody today after a Los Angeles County special weapons team used a burst of diversionary explosives to end a tense, six-hour standoff with a gunman holding 19 hostages inside a La Verne McDonald’s restaurant.

Lobbing three “flashbang” grenades inside the restaurant entrance, police stormed the building at 12:04 a.m., freeing the hostages and arresting Douglas E. Girard, 32, of San Jacinto. Facing charges of armed robbery and false imprisonment, Girard was being held in La Verne City Jail on $500,000 bail.

A second suspect, Frank M. Teresi, 38, of Anaheim was arrested several hours earlier on the same charges and was held without bail, also in La Verne.

Except for the grenade blasts, no shots were fired by police. The hostages, who ranged in age from 3 to 85, were not injured during the anxious night of waiting.

La Verne Police Lt. Ron Ingels said the hostage situation began about 5:20 p.m. Monday when Girard allegedly entered a Kid Mart clothing store on Foothill Boulevard, flashed a .38-caliber pistol and demanded money from a cashier. Ingels said Girard got about $200 and then fled the scene with a second man, identified as Teresi.

The pair ran from the store toward a blue Volkswagen, parked in front of the McDonald’s on Foothill Boulevard, Ingels said. They never made it to the car, possibly because a police patrol car responding to the clothing store robbery had just arrived.

The men entered the McDonald’s casually, standing in line like the rest of the customers, witnesses said. “I think they felt the only way to get away was to blend in,” Ingels said.

Girard and Teresi ordered hamburgers and fries at the counter, Ingels said. It was only when a cashier noticed a gun in Girard’s waistband that anyone knew something was wrong, police said.

By that time, squad cars were surrounding the restaurant, witnesses said.

Teresi walked out of the restaurant and surrendered to police soon afterward, Ingels said. But Girard, still armed, remained inside, according to police.

For the next six hours, deputies, police officers, special weapons team members and hostage negotiators converged on the scene, reminiscent of the 1984 massacre at a San Ysidro McDonald’s in which James Oliver Huberty murdered 21 people and wounded 15 before he was killed by a police sharpshooter.

“I think that crossed everybody’s mind,” Ingels said.

A group of 11 employees and one customer found safety by locking themselves in a basement storeroom. Upstairs, while the gunman paced nearby, eight hostages sought cover on the floor under tables, police said.

Shortly before midnight, police gave the word to two young McDonald’s managers, Ramiro Gironas and Anis Hussain, to lead the group in the basement outside, using an emergency door that led to a stairwell.

At 12:04 a.m., sheriff’s deputies special weapons officers pitched their diversionary explosives into the restaurant.