Man Attacks Taxi Driver, Takes Woman Hostage : Crime: Police arrest a suspect after cab collides with car and passenger runs into Huntington Beach flower shop.

A passenger attacked a taxi driver Friday night, stomped on the gas pedal until the car was going 110 m.p.h. down Beach Boulevard and then held a pair of scissors to a flower shop employee, police said.

The series of events began about 40 miles away in Monrovia at 8:54 p.m. when Kenneth K. Horton, 22, of Long Beach told the cabdriver he wanted to go to Long Beach, then switched destinations several times along the way. Eventually, Sgt. Tony Sollecito said, they ended up southbound on Beach Boulevard.

Police said Horton suddenly jumped from the back seat of the cab into the front seat and began hitting the driver over the head with the driver’s clipboard, inexplicably asking, “Why do you want me to go to jail?”

With Horton’s foot on the gas pedal, police said, the taxi sped south on Beach Boulevard, reaching speeds of over 110 m.p.h.

The taxi struck another car at the corner of Beach Boulevard and Warner Avenue, Sollecito said, but there were no injuries. Horton ran from the collision into Conroy’s Florist Shop in the 16000 block of Beach Boulevard, where he grabbed florist Jillian Lutz, 20, and held two pairs of scissors against her head in the back room, police said.

Hostage negotiators contacted Horton by telephone and eventually persuaded him to step out of the shop, where police subdued him.

The store’s owner, who requested anonymity, said police sprayed Horton with pepper gas after he released Lutz.

Horton was arrested on suspicion of kidnaping and assault with a deadly weapon.

“This never happens--I’ve never dealt with this situation,” said the shop’s owner. “Nobody even tries to rob us, because we have drop safes and there’s people around.” The owner said another employee and a customer were in the shop at the time but were unharmed.

“I’ve talked to Jillian, and she’s fine,” the owner said. “She and the other (employee) left here with their parents last night.”

Police did not identify the cab driver, whose ear was cut by glass in the traffic collision.