Two Gunmen Release Hostage, Surrender After 9-Hour Siege
Armed carjackers who led police on a 65-mile chase before crashing and fleeing into the county Hall of Records in Downtown released a hostage early Monday and surrendered, police said.
Four people, including a California Highway Patrol officer, were hurt during the chase.
The gunmen held a woman hostage for about nine hours in the bullet-ridden building. The sobbing woman, identified only as a county worker, was escorted out of the building by SWAT team members and was unharmed, said Lt. John Dunkin, a police spokesman.
The two men, who were not identified, were taken from the building and put in separate patrol cars.
Police sealed off the Downtown Civic Center area Sunday afternoon after the men fled into the multistory county building. It was not clear who had fired the shots that struck the building’s glass front.
The pickup was stolen at gunpoint in Sacramento, and its driver was taken to an automated teller machine at a bank where he was forced to withdraw $300, Sgt. Robert Gomez of the Kern County Sheriff’s Department said. The man was later released unharmed.
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