Escort Reports Threat; Man Arrested

Newport Beach police evacuated six apartments in the posh Promontory Point complex off Pacific Coast Highway early Saturday morning after a man allegedly threatened to kill an escort service dancer with a shotgun if she didn’t have sex with him.

Police arrested 21-year-old Florian Perreaxel Saylor of Newport Beach on suspicion of making terrorist threats, said Police Sgt. Steve Shulman. He was being held in the Newport Beach City Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.

The 19-year-old dancer from Placentia, whose name was withheld pending further investigation, and a companion, Charles Eric Huth, 19, of Signal Hill, were arrested on suspicion of operating an escort service without a permit. They were released on $200 bail.

The woman called police shortly after 4 a.m., saying she had fled the apartment in the 600 block of Promontory Point East. She said she had been giving a man a massage and he began demanding sex. She said that when she said no, the man threatened her, Shulman said.

While questioning the woman a few doors down from the apartment, officers heard an explosive sound from the direction of Saylor’s unit. The SWAT team was called, and several apartments were evacuated.

Police used a bullhorn and a “flash-bang” device--which resembles a hand grenade but is nonlethal and emits a loud bang and bright light. That brought no response from Saylor, said Police Sgt. Ron Rodgers.

“The officers ended up breaking the bedroom window, and as soon as they broke the window, they got a response from him,” Rodgers said. “Apparently, he’d been sleeping.”

Saylor was arrested shortly before 7:30 a.m., Shulman said.

No weapons were found in the apartment, and no one was injured. Police believe the explosion they heard came from fireworks set off under the balcony of the apartment.