Student Tells How He Barely Escaped Pub Hostage Scene

A 21-year-old Ventura resident said Friday that he narrowly escaped being taken hostage at Henry’s Publick House & Grille near UC Berkeley when he left to use the restroom shortly before a gunman seized the popular pub.

“I guess I was just under a lucky star,” Kin Jung, an English major at UC Berkeley, said in a telephone interview. “I don’t know how else to explain it.”

The gunman, authorities said, taunted 33 patrons after killing one student and injuring nine people. After a seven-hour standoff, he was shot and killed in a short gun battle with police.

Jung said he had been celebrating a friend’s birthday at the Durant Hotel when he left to find a restroom in the lobby just after midnight Thursday.

He said he heard two shots as he was returning to the pub.

“I saw everyone jump to the ground, so I dove back into the lobby,” said Jung, a 1987 graduate of Thacher School in Ojai. “I didn’t even think about it. I just dove. I just wanted to get out of there.”

Jung said he ran across the street and told people to get back. Within minutes, police were on the scene and shuffled him away to safety at a nearby college dorm.

He said he spent the next seven hours watching police outside the bar and worrying about his friends who were still inside. Shortly after 7:20 a.m., authorities tossed a “flash-bang” grenade into the pub, permitting patrons to escape out the back and side doors.

Health officials said the gunman, Iranian-born Mehrdad Dashti, was a paranoid schizophrenic. Authorities said he apparently had a grudge against American blondes and singled out blond women hostages for sexual abuse.

Although Jung’s friends were uninjured, he said there were times during the night that he was fearful that they had been killed.

“It was nightmarish,” Jung said. “The scariest part of the night is when he said he was going to start the executions . . . Then we heard eight staggered gunshots. For all we knew, he was in there executing people.”

Jung said he watched helplessly as more and more wounded patrons were taken from the scene.

“It was the longest night,” he said. “I was so scared for my friends.”

Charles Shaw, Jung’s roommate, said he managed to escape from a back door about 40 minutes after the incident started.

“I was in a good position,” said Shaw, a 21-year-old legal studies major from St. Helena. “I could see the gunman, but he couldn’t see me, and there was a crack in the door.”

When Dashti was distracted, Shaw said, he grabbed a girl next to him and they “crawled inch by inch” through the back door.

“I just wanted to save myself,” Shaw said. “It was a nightmare. The whole time he was waving his guns madly, then he would fanatically pull the trigger. He shot the guy right next to me.”

Jung’s father, whose first name is also Kin, said he awoke Thursday morning to the radio news of the standoff at the pub.

“I knew that was a place where they frequently liked to relax,” said the older Jung, a family doctor in Ventura. “I was concerned right away.”

He said he tried to call his son but received no answer. Shortly after 7 a.m. Thursday, Jung called his parents to say he was safe.

“We’re so grateful for his health,” the doctor said.

Jung said he and his friends spent much of Friday talking about the incident and comforting each other.

“Unfortunately, none of us have gotten to class yet,” Jung said. “And I’ve slept maybe six hours in the past two days. It definitely has had a big emotional impact.

“This is something that’s going to stay with us for a long time.”

DAY AFTER: UC Berkeley gropes toward normalcy amid calls for gun control. A29