Pair Arrested in Kidnaping of 4 Students

Four San Diego State University students were kidnaped and robbed early Wednesday as they left an East San Diego pizzeria. An hour later, two suspects were arrested.

No one was injured, but three shotgun blasts were fired during the incident, said Dave Cohen, a spokesman for the San Diego Police Department. The suspects were taken into custody without incident, he said.

Gregory Paige, 24, Matthew Pianin, 19, Erik Kaplan, 19, and Ryan Dinsmore, 18, were leaving the Etna restaurant in the 4400 block of El Cajon Boulevard about 1:45 a.m. when two robbers confronted them, Cohen said.

The students were forced at gunpoint to drive to a bank branch at College Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard, he said.

One of the gunmen became angry and fired a single shotgun blast into the air when one of the victims was unable to withdraw more than $40 from the bank’s automated teller machine, police said.

The students were then forced to drive to an apartment complex at 39th and Myrtle streets in East San Diego, where one of the abductors went inside and returned with a second shotgun and a handgun, Cohen said. During the time they were at the apartment complex, the gunmen in the car fired a shotgun blast through one of the car’s doors and another through the back window, he said.

The journey continued to the dormitory of one of the students at 5500 Montezuma Road, Cohen said. While one of the captors took the student to his dorm room, the three other students and a gunman remained in the car, he said.

SDSU campus police patrolling the area noticed the illegally parked car about 3 a.m. and became suspicious, Cohen said. As they approached the car, the three students escaped, and the gunman fled on foot, Cohen said.

After waiting several minutes, police caught one suspect, identified as Timothy Long, 19, when he and the student returned from the dorm room, Cohen said.

The second suspect, identified as Bryan Tanner, 27, was arrested a short time later at a nearby convenience store, where he had ordered a clerk to call him a cab. Both suspects were booked into County Jail on suspicion of kidnaping and robbery.