Hostage Incident Ends in Arrest

Classes for more than 500 pupils at Sierra Vista Elementary School in Placentia were canceled Monday when a man held his girlfriend hostage for 12 hours inside a home near the campus, authorities said.

No one was injured and the incident ended when the SWAT team used tear gas, entered the house and arrested the suspect.

Teachers and officials began making phone calls about 6 a.m. to tell the parents of the 530 pupils to keep their children at home.

“We started a phone tree and all the teachers called their students,” said Rosemary Gladden, spokeswoman for the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District. “It was a precautionary measure.”

Police said the incident began late Sunday when a Placentia police officer tried to stop Donald Alan Hash, 38, of Placentia for a traffic violation near his parents’ home in the 500 block of Lee Place, which abuts the school’s playground.

“He was acting very irrational,” said Placentia Police Det. Corinne Loomis. “The officer tried to subdue him with his baton and Mace, but he fled inside his house.”

She said Hash’s parents were able to escape. But he barricaded himself and held his girlfriend hostage, Loomis said, adding that at one point, he threatened to kill her if she answered phone calls from negotiators.

The overnight standoff ended shortly after 10:30 a.m. when SWAT team officers fired tear gas and flash-bang grenades into the home and entered to arrest Hash.

Hash is being held on suspicion of assault on a police officer, making terrorist threats, domestic violence and false imprisonment.

The telephoning by school officials successfully alerted parents to the situation: Only two children showed up for class; they were sent to nearby Brookhaven Elementary School for the day.

Parents did, however, have to scramble to find child care. Scherrie McCarthy, who runs an in-home day-care service, said she had to turn away several parents.

“I was packed today and we have a limit,” said McCarthy, 43, of Placentia, who regularly watches four students from Sierra Vista school and took in three more for the day. “Parents were worried because the house was too close to the school. He put a damper on everybody.”