Gunmen Invade Home, Terrorize Family of 4 : Crime: All are eventually freed. Girl suffers minor injuries in car crash that resulted in capture of one suspect; second is arrested while holding two hostage.

Four members of a San Gabriel Valley family were held hostage for nearly six hours Wednesday by two armed men who ransacked the family home, ordered the father and son trussed up with their own neckties and twice forced family members to a bank to withdraw cash.

The morning of terror ended with a car chase and crash in Monterey Park that injured one suspect. The other suspect was captured about an hour later by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team as he tried to flee the family’s home.

“I couldn’t believe what was happening to us,” said the 51-year-old homemaker. “I want to move. I’m home alone every day. I don’t feel safe at all.”

Arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, armed robbery and kidnaping were Huang Ai, 23, and Bounthavy Yasa, 18, both from South San Gabriel, the unincorporated area of the county where the incident took place. They were being held on $30,000 bail each. The names of the victims were withheld by deputies.

The family’s ordeal began at 7 a.m. at a home on Centurian Avenue, a quiet cul-de-sac in a middle-class, predominantly Asian-American neighborhood below Resurrection Cemetery.

The woman said her husband had returned inside after going to the garage to warm up the family’s Honda Accord for his drive to work when an armed man burst through an unlocked door.

The wife said the man ordered her and her 21-year-old daughter to tie up her husband and 25-year-old son using neckties.

The gunman told the family he had been watching the neighborhood and knew the schedules of everyone on the street, the woman said.

The assailant then ransacked two bedrooms, searching for cash, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Pete Fosselman. When he found only jewelry, he ordered the family into their car at 8:30 a.m. for a trip to a Bank of America in Montebello, where the husband withdrew $500 from an automated teller machine, Fosselman said.

When the family returned home, the first assailant was joined by a second man who had been sitting in a white Nissan Maxima parked on the cul-de-sac, Fosselman said. At 10:30 a.m., one of the gunmen accompanied the father and daughter on a second trip to the bank to withdraw more cash.

The gunman and the daughter circled the block in the Honda while the father went inside, Fosselman said. When the father came out with the money, he could not find the car, raced back inside the bank and called Montebello police.

Because the incident happened in county jurisdiction, sheriff’s deputies were summoned to the bank. On the drive back to the house with the father, deputies spotted Yasa in the car with the daughter and gave chase, Fosselman said. The gunman eventually crashed the car into a bus bench in Monterey Park.

The daughter, who suffered minor injuries, fled from the wrecked car. Yasa was arrested and taken to County-USC Medical Center, where he was treated for minor injuries.

Meanwhile, a deputy sent to the home became suspicious when he peered through a window and spotted the mother and son sitting motionless inside. He radioed for more deputies, and the SWAT team was sent to the house.

After deputies surrounded the house, the gunman cut through a screen and jumped out; the mother and son ran out the front door. Ai was arrested by waiting deputies, Fosselman said.

“I’m glad (the deputy) thought that there was something funny,” the woman said. “We were told not to move because (the intruder) had a gun on us all the time.

“You’re just not safe at home,” she said.