Former Hostage Testifies About 26-Hour Ordeal

A 19-year-old man who was held hostage for 26 hours testified Tuesday that a murder suspect used him as a shield during the ordeal.

Amir Kolahzadeh was the hostage held the longest during an incident that began Feb. 27 at the ReadiCare Clinic in Chula Vista.

Kolahzadeh and four other former hostages testified Tuesday in the preliminary hearing of Robert Jacobsen, 35, which is expected to end Thursday.

Before taking 10 hostages at the clinic, Jacobsen was named as a suspect in the Feb. 18 slaying of William Warden, 74, of Chula Vista, who was a family friend.

Kolahzadeh told San Diego Municipal Judge Judith Hayes that he had taken a fellow worker to the clinic to get stitches in his hand.

Kolahzadeh testified that he saw Jacobsen enter the center with a gun, and that the defendant told people he would not hurt them.

The young man said Jacobsen told him to “shut up and get against the wall.”

The defendant complained of a shoulder wound he had received earlier while fleeing from police, Kolahzadeh said.

During the next 26 hours, while police delivered pizza, sodas and coffee to the door, Jacobsen used him as a shield when getting those items, Kolahzadeh said.

Jacobsen set the gun down only twice, briefly, he said.

As Kolahzadeh was released, he shook Jacobsen’s hand upon leaving the clinic, in a widely photographed conclusion to the crisis. Jacobsen then surrendered. Kolahzadeh said later in interviews that Jacobsen had required the handshake before he would let him go.

Also testifying was Dr. Dolores Loveless, who said Jacobsen “barged through the door” at gunpoint while she was treating a patient.

Loveless said she asked Jacobsen what had happened to cause him to enter the clinic with a gun. “Well, Doc, I just killed a man last week,” Loveless quoted Jacobsen as saying.

During the ordeal, other people were found hiding in the building, but Jacobsen let many of them go free, including a diabetic patient, the physician said.

Jacobsen is also accused of robbing the murder victim and burglarizing his home. Warden’s wife sat in the front row of the audience Tuesday.