01x05 - Bad Guys at the Good Guys

[bunniefuu]

Felion: On April 4, 1991, I left to go to the Good Guys store.

[ Door bell chimes ]

Bodnar: Out of my peripheral vision, I see these guys.

They start putting ski masks on.

Man: Okay, everybody. We come here to die.

Felion: The one gunman said, "Well, let's just sh**t someone and throw them out and let them know we meet business."

No! Please don't!

Sit down! Hurry up!

Man: Lock the door!

Seigler: People only take so much before they start to kind of snap.

[ p*stol cocks ]

Man: Prepared to die, Al?

They talked for almost nine hours, but the California hostage drama finally ended with g*nf*re on live television.

Smith: The Good Guys Electronic Store hostage rescue is the largest hostage rescue in the history of the United States.

Craig: At any moment, you could lose control of this whole thing, and we could have just an astronomical catastrophe.

[ g*nsh*t ]

In An Instant 1x05
"Bad Guys At The Good Guys"

It is the largest number of people ever taken hostage in an incident in civilian life in this country.

Man: Good morning, Sacramento. It's April 4, 1991. The high today will be 77 degrees and sunny.

Seigler: It was a typical, beautiful spring day in California.

Headed off to work really with no thoughts that it was anything other than just a — Just a normal, ordinary day.

Everything here is 10% off.

This right here, model 2330 — Absolutely incredible product.

Seigler: I was 27 years old.

I sold electronics for the Good Guys Audio, an electronic store in California mostly.

It was regional.

We sold everything you can think of —

TVs, home audio, personal stereos.

If it was a gadget that beeped or — or made some sort of electronic sound, we sold it.

This particular Good Guys store was in the south part of Sacramento —

A lot of g*ng activity, certainly a lot of crime, the occasional carjacking.

It was definitely a rougher part of town.

But, you know, we were young and we were Californians, so we were invulnerable.

At that point, you never think anything like that is gonna happen to you.

It's — it's just — It's unthinkable.

It's inconceivable.

Joseph: It was on a — a Thursday, and I remember it was a really, really beautiful day, and I had promised my uncle that I was gonna pick him up, and we were gonna spend the day together, so my cousin and I decided that, you know, we're gonna go get him.

We're gonna go out to eat.

We're gonna go shopping.

We're just gonna spend, like, a really good-quality, family day together.

So we picked him up, and we were headed down the road, and he says, "Wait, let's stop at the Good Guys store really quick.

I want to go do some shopping there first."

So, we were like, "Oh okay, no problem."

That was my first official day at that store.

While I'm walking into the store, the store manager is walking out.

He says to me, "Hey, Al, welcome aboard."

And I got my box with me, and I'm like, "Thanks a lot."

I was working as a video salesman, and I originally worked for another store which was much further from my home before that, for a year.

So I was thinking, "Oh yeah, this is gonna be, uh, a welcome change.

Hey, its past my lunch.

I know. It's that ad.

This is crazy for a weekday.

Can you wait till it dies down a little?

Yeah, that's fine.

Go ahead.

Seigler: It was kind of an unusual Thursday to some degree, because normally Good Guys ran an ad on the weekend.

They ran it on Friday, for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, but they tried something different this particular week and ran one on Thursday.

It brought a lot more shoppers.

The place was really a lot busier than it normally would be on a Thursday.

And I was handling customers right and left on a surprisingly busy day. This is gonna work.

Bodnar: I was at the computer terminal, which was located at the end of an aisle, a store aisle, checking the computer and see if there's any updated products or anything.

Then, right behind me, was a friend of mine named John Fritz.

He had just come on shift, as well, so we were back to back, but I was facing the front door.

[ Door bell chimes ]

Out of my peripheral vision, I see these guys.

They start putting ski masks on.

I'm like, "Okay, well, this isn't a good sign."

Seigler: That was actually when, all of a sudden, just kind of everything stopped.

A guy ran past us with a mask on.

He puts the g*n up above his head and says, "Everybody down."

Man: Everybody get down!

Felion: People who are actually walking in the store at that time, they don't know what's about to hit them.

Joseph: My heart was just pumping.

I could hear it.

No!

Hurry up! Sit down!

Bodnar: I guess this isn't gonna be a robbery.

Felion: On April 4, 1991, I had the day off work, and I was going to go to the electronics store to try and find a camera case for a camera I had gotten at Christmas time, so I left to go to the Good Guys store.

[ Laughter ]

[ All conversing in foreign language ]

Oh, what the heck.

Felion: When I pulled up into the parking lot, I noticed that there was another car that drove up very fast, and a guy was talking loud and laughing with other people that were in the car.

And I kind of hesitated because it got my attention.

I just thought that them being loud and rambunctious that it was just teenage kids.

I really didn't have any idea that anything could possibly happen.

It just never entered my mind.

People who were actually walking in the store at that time, they don't know what's about to hit them.

[ Door bell chimes ]

When I got into the store, I went toward the back where the cash registers were looking for the camera case.

And just as I got to that area, I heard a large commotion.

And I looked across on the other side of the cash registers, and there was a gunman with a mask on.

They pack an incredible punch, guys.

These are some of our top sellers right here.

Man: Everybody get down!

Seigler: He's got a p*stol in his hand.

Everybody get down!

He held the g*n straight up in the air over his head and tried to fire it, but it just went "Click."

If you pull pull the trigger on a g*n, and it's on safety, it's not gonna go off.

That's what the safety is for.

[ p*stol clicks ]

He basically got startled and then ran up to the front, but just really seconds later, we hear g*nf*re.

[ g*nshots, people scream ]

[ g*nf*re ]

[ g*nf*re continues ]

Boom, boom, boom, boom, bang, bang, bang.

One guy stood at the front door with a shotgun.

[ g*nf*re continues ] And three gunmen started sh**ting their g*ns, randomly blowing up televisions, blowing out glass counters, and randomly sh**ting whatever they wanted to sh**t.

[ g*nf*re, screaming continue ]

Man: Hey!

And also yelling, "Everybody get to the front of the store."

Man: Everybody come here to die.

Sit down! Hurry up!

I ducked, and when John saw me duck, he ducked.

I just kind of inched my way around the end cap so when the gunmen were running up and down the aisles they wouldn't see me duck down in front of the computer terminal.

[ g*nsh*t ]

At that time, I was five months pregnant.

It was all happening really, really fast.

My heart was just pumping. I could hear it.

I just immediately dropped to the ground, and my cousin and my uncle —

We were, like, in — In a pair of three.

Aah!

No! Please don't!

Go! Aah!

He gets my hair, and he shoves me against the wall.

He tells us, "Stay here and don't move."

You really can't believe what you're seeing.

It's — it's really difficult for the mind to process just what's going on around you.

Man: You go!

Sit down! Hurry up!

Lock the door!

Felion: People were running out of the back door, and a gunman with a mask on said that if they didn't get back in that he would sh**t them.

[ g*nsh*t ]

Another lady and I went and hid between large box and the will-call-window wall.

He went on toward the front of the store after he closed the door, so I thought, "Well, we've got it made, 'cause he didn't find us."

I was the only guy really that worked for the Good Guys that I could see, so my first thought is, "Well, I guess it's my responsibility... [ g*nshots ] To take care of everybody."

So I told everybody, "Okay, you know, let's all head to the front door."

And there was a guy there with a shotgun who basically pulled the g*n out and cocked it just as we walked up. In here.

Any time you hear a shotgun cock, you stop dead in your tracks.

We all stopped.

I said, "Okay, everybody," you know, into the car-stereo room, 'cause that was a small room.

So, I ushered everybody in, said, "Squat down low.

If it's a robbery or whatever's going on, we'll just basically wait it out in here."

Everything's gonna be fine.

All right, we'll just wait in here until they leave.

Seigler: I felt responsible for them.

There's no real entire reason for me to feel that way.

That was just what was going through my head at the moment.

Man: Get down! Hurry up! Sit down!

The first thing that came into my mind is, "This is going to be a robbery."

I reached into my pocket, pulled out my wallet.

I pulled out a $20 bill.

There was a cabinet underneath the computer terminal, so I stuck my wallet under there.

I said, "Sit down"!

I figure, "Okay, now, when these guys come around and say, 'give me your money,' I give them 20 bucks. They're happy."

Man: [ In distance ] Sit down! Hurry up!

One of the customers looked at me and said, you know, "Does this kind of thing happen often here?"

You know and, of course, at this point, I'm being both brave and — and a little cocky.

"Oh yeah, you know, yeah, we had a carjacking the other day.

Don't — you know, don't worry about a thing.

It'll all be fine, you know, we're all —

We're all good here."

Everybody out.

Now!

One of the gunmen walked by the door, kind of did a double take, stopped, backed up, you know, opened the door up. - Go.

Then, he pointed the g*n directly at me and said, "Everybody out," you know, "Everybody out right now."

Well, at that point, we all got up, filed out of the room and walked to the front.

Come on! Come on!

Sit down. Hurry up! Sit down!

I said sit down.

When we got to the front, there was already a lot of people there, mostly sitting on the floor, all squatted down low, kind of wondering, "What the heck is going on?"

Felion: We were kneeling down, and all of a sudden I see a pair of shoes there.

And I look up, and here was this masked gunman with a g*n on us.

Can we go?

Man: Get up.

Up.

The other lady and I walked toward the front of the store, and I said, "He's gonna let us go," and walked up there and saw all of these people sitting down on the floor.

And at that point, I realized we weren't going any further.

Man 2: Go.

Man: Hurry up.

Hurry up. Move! Move!

Sit down. Go! Go!

Sit down! Go!

Move. Move your feet.

The area that I sat down in was next to two mothers that had three children there, and another person was Sean McIntyre, who was an employee of the store.

The mother of one of the girls was crying quite a bit, and Sean was trying to tell her to calm down.

"It'll be okay. You're not hurt."

[ In distance ] Hurry up! Move. Move.

Sit down. Go. Go.

Sit down. Go!

Bodnar: Well, I was hiding with John, ducked down behind the computer terminals, so I could see the reflection of everything that was going on in the front of the store.

The leader, he said he wanted to know who was in charge, who had the keys, the manager on duty, 'cause the store manager just left.

He says, "Well, I am."

He says, "Okay, well lock the door."

Man: Lock it.

Lock the door!

Hurry up! Lock it!

Sit down!

I look over at John.

He looks over at me, and we're like, "I guess this isn't gonna be a robbery."

You, dial 911. Go!

He just starts spouting off all these —

All these crazy demands.

Man: We want a chopper, a big chopper, to take us to Thailand, okay?

Felion: One of them said, "We want $1 million."

Joseph: Why would you pick the Good Guys Electronic Store and not the bank?

[ g*nsh*t, people scream ]

Man: Hurry up!

Hurry up. Move! Move!

Sit down. Go. Go.

Sit down. Go!

Move.

Aah!

No! Please don't!

Go!

Aah!

Bodnar: The gunmen were yelling, "Everybody to the front of the store.

Everybody, go to the front of the store."

[ In distance ] Hurry up. Move. Move.

Sit down. Go. Go.

John and I were hiding.

We were getting kind of cramped up, you know, being ducked down for that long.

It was terribly frightening.

You don't know what's gonna happen.

Man: You go!

Lock it!

Lock the door!

Hurry up! Lock it!

Seigler: They had the assistant manager lock the door, and, you know — So something was up.

We knew that, because there's no reason to do that if it was a robbery.

There's two plate-glass doors real thick glass doors.

That was the only way in, the only way out for any customers or anybody. There were no windows.

That's why they picked the place is because it was so secure.

Hurry up!

Joseph: When he locks us in those two glass, thick glass doors, he's locking it from the bottom.

And then, when I heard that, then I started to panic.

I was almost five months pregnant at the time, and I'm thinking, "You know what?

I'm gonna die in here."

You, dial 911.

Go!

What?

Yes, yes! Dial 911. We want police.

911. Give me the —

Hello? Sit down!

Okay, we take control here. We want the police and the — the, the, the, the Sheriff Department, okay?

And we make the demand.

[ Speaking foreign language ]

Sit down! Hurry up!

Sit down!

I said sit down!

Joseph: So, then, one guy says, "I need for someone to call 911.

I need to speak to the President, and I need to speak to them now."

The President is not gonna call the Good Guys Electronic Store.

They got on the phone and said, you know, basically —

I don't think he used the word "Hostage," but basically, "We've taken control here," and, uh, you know, "We want — We want the police.

We want the Sheriff's Department here."

[ Telephone rings ]

Hello. Hello?

Okay, okay, listen to me, okay, before I k*ll all the people here.

We want a chopper, a big chopper, to take us to Thailand, okay?

And, uh, the, the, the body armor.

And we want, uh, the ginseng.

Make sure the ginseng's 1,000 year old, okay?

Bodnar: He just starts spouting off all these — All these crazy demands.

He wanted 1,000-year-old ginger root to cook —

Cook and make ginseng tea.

They wanted bulletproof vests.

[ Speaking foreign language ]

Hello?

No, no, no, no, no. We make demand, okay?

I'm the boss.

We have the g*ns.

Okay.

[ Speaking foreign language ]

Everybody kind of murmured, you know, puzzled at what was going on.

You know, I don't really know what's gonna happen, but there's a lot of really ugly possibilities here.

Bring the vests.

Strip down.

No weapons, no clothes, okay — naked.

The vests!

Bring the vests!

The negotiators said to ask them how much money do they want.

Well, one of them said, "We want $1 million," and the other gunman, who was a little more agitated, he said, "No, tell them we want $4 million."

So I'm thinking they don't even know what they want.

They have all of these people sitting here on the floor, taking them as hostages, and they aren't even sure of what they want out of them.

What I didn't understand was —

Inside of the store, looking out to my left, there was a bank —

Two banks walking distance that you could see.

I didn't understand why, if you need $1 million —

Why would you pick the Good Guys Electronic Store and not the bank?

Okay, everybody. We come here to die.

Huh? And we take everybody here with us.

Okay?

These guys were looking for attention in some fashion.

They were obviously young.

We didn't think hardly any of them were much past 20 years old.

And, of course, the g*ns in their hands kind of helped make them seem a little more threatening, which, I think, was their whole point.

They wanted to seem threatening.

[ Telephone rings ]

Hello. Hello?

Okay, I say — No where are the vests?

The vests.

Vests.

Felion: It was scary because you don't know what they're gonna do.

You don't know what their thought process is.

Man: [ In distance ] Okay, everybody.

We come here to die. Huh?

Bodnar: There was a row of televisions to the right of where the hostages were, so I could see the reflection of everything that was going on in front of the store.

So, I'm hearing these demands going on and kids crying, and they —

They really didn't want to deal with these kids crying.

And it was very annoying for them, and I heard them thr*aten somebody and say, you know, "You, you, you better shut your kids up, or we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna k*ll you."

[ Children crying ]

Hey. I said, "Be quiet."

Get up.

Man: Bring the vests.

Strip down naked.

Seigler: The TV cameras loved it.

[ Police radio chatter, sirens wailing in distance ]

Deputy McGinness, what's our status on the perimeter?

Craig: In 1991, I was the elected sheriff of Sacramento County, California.

I was told that we had a robbery that had gone bad in South Sacramento at a Good Guys store, so I walked down to the communications center where Sergeant Jerry Gomez was actually on the phone with one of the hostage takers.

Okay, okay, listen to me, okay, before I k*ll all the people here.

We want a chopper, a big chopper, to take us to Thailand, okay?

And, uh, the, the, the body armor.

And we want the ginseng.

Make sure the ginseng 1,000 year old, okay?

Yeah.

It really wasn't a robbery gone bad.

What it was was a group of men who had taken as many as 40 people —

It turned out there were 41 that were inside the store that were all taken hostage.

That's not only tense.

It's just a very frightening situation.

Hey! Hey!

[ Speaking foreign language ]

Okay.

No, no, no, no, no. We the boss here, okay?

We have the g*n.

Felion: Three of those gunmen were brothers.

They were 17, 19, and 21, and then their friend, who was a 16-year-old.

The 16-year-old that stood by the door most of the time had a bandolier on, and it had green shells in it.

And he held a r*fle.

The rest of them pretty much had handguns.

Okay, we take control here.

We want the police and the, the, the, the Sheriff Department, okay?

And we make the demands.

Seigler: Loi was the oldest. He was kind of in charge.

And then, the two younger brothers to Loi were, uh, Cuong and Long.

Long was the problem.

Long was the, uh, the dangerous one.

I think we knew that pretty quickly in.

No, no, no, no! No!

He would constantly say, "I just want to see blood.

It's time we sh*t somebody.

I'm tired of waiting around. We're gonna sh**t somebody now."

Some of the hostages, every time he would say that, would — would jump a little or get a little more panicky, and so he loved that.

Well, we could go between the two stores there's a common hallway between the two of them that's gets in towards the store.

Craig: We were setting up a command center that was across the parking lot from the store itself.

The media got wind of this on the radio, and so we started having media people respond to the scene.

We had just seen this happen in Berkeley, oh, probably a year before when they tried to keep the media a mile away, and they wouldn't stay there.

They had to go where they could get some sh*ts, and they wound up showing the SWAT team approaching and a variety of other things that really seriously compromised their operation, so we dispatched our media relations officer, who gathered all of the media in one place and put them where they could see the front of the store, but swore them to secrecy on anything else and not to show our SWAT team, not to show people we had on the roof, not to show how many people we had surrounding the store, any of those things.

Well, I had commanders and people who had been to school.

They'd been to the FBI training.

They had trained with hostage negotiations.

We had the SWAT people.

I let them do their job.

I just told them, in effect, "We're not doing anything without my okay.

We're not gonna storm the place.

We're not gonna do anything until I give the okay.

As long as we can negotiate, we'll keep negotiating."

The hostage takers were already making demands.

Jerry turned to me, and he says, "Well, they want 1,000-year-old ginseng plants. They want bulletproof vests."

They wanted things that there was no way we could provide.

Man: We want the bulletproof vests.

Okay?!

Hey, don't play stupid.

[ Crying ]

Bulletproof.

Hey! I said, "Be quiet."

[ People sobbing ]

Long: No.

Joseph: So, as time goes on, negotiations are going on.

The kids keep crying.

They're, "Mommy, Mommy, why does so-and-so have a g*n?"

And the guy has a g*n.

And they're crying, and they couldn't calm down the children.

So when they negotiated, they negotiated for some of those children to leave.

Hey, listen to me okay? Okay.

Uh-huh.

Bring the vests.

Strip down.

No weapons, no clothes, okay — naked.

The vests!

Bring the vests!

The gunmen had insisted that, uh, when somebody brought a bulletproof vest that they strip down to their underwear.

You know, as they said, so that, you know, he could have no g*ns on him, or, you know, could pull no tricks.

They wanted to, uh, do something humiliating, I think, to the authorities.

And the sheriff's department complied.

A guy — a guy walks up basically wearing just his underwear and a pair of sunglasses and makes a big show.

The TV cameras loved it.

And walked up, plopped the vest down in front of the front door, and then walked off.

[ Children crying ]

You. You.

Felion: They had one of the ladies that had two children with her to go out and get the vest.

And he said, "If you run, I'll k*ll your children."

She goes, picks up the vest, brings it back into the store.

She wants to leave, and then he says, "Wait a minute. You're not leaving anywhere. We're not even sure if this is real."

Hey, man, that's not what we asked for, man, okay?

We want the full-body, okay?

From the toe to neck.

[ Speaking foreign language ]

Okay let me test, man.

And I'll let the people go.

Seigler: It was an old vest.

It looked like something you'd see from the '60s.

And he says, "Somebody's gonna need to put this bulletproof vest on 'cause we need to check and see if it's real."

And then, all the hostages were like, "Oh, no, no, no, no.

Just — just lay it down and sh**t it.

And — and if it's real, I-it — it's gonna work."

Long: I'm going to sh**t it.

Loi: Hey.

[ Speaking foreign language ]

You always get to sh**t. Move.

[ Speaking foreign language ]

Felion: The ringleader one said, "I'm gonna sh**t into it," and the younger one says, "Well, you always get to sh**t."

And that kind of concerned me because I thought, "Well, how many times has this happened?"

You know, "How many times have you been sh**ting at things?"

[ g*nsh*t, people scream ]

Bodnar: They tested it with a g*n, and I'm sitting there. All of a sudden, we heard, "Boom!"

[ g*nsh*t ]

You could feel the ground shake right by you, and it rattled your ears.

He did sh**t into it, and he seemed to be quite pleased with the fact that it was authentic.

Okay, its good, man. Its good.

I'm going to let the woman and kid go, okay?

You trust me.

Then, he sends out the girl and the children, and they're allowed to leave.

Gunman number one ended up wearing this bulletproof vest.

That made him more powerful.

But they want three more for the other guys.

The demands of the hostage takers were — were —

Were crazy and got crazier and crazier as they went along.

They asked for transportation to Thailand so they could fight the Vietcong.

And then, they upped their demands from the bulletproof vests to —

Instead of just regular vests but full body armor like they felt they had seen in "Robocop."

These guys wanted Robocop outfits that cover your fingers and your neck and your feet and everything.

How do I know you do what you say, huh?

We're not going to jail!

[ Receiver slams ]

They started getting, like, really frustrated with the negotiations, and they kept slamming the phone.

They would slam the phone, and if they didn't get their way when they wanted their demands met, they'd get agitated, very agitated.

Yeah.

Felion: One gunman said, "Well, let's just sh**t someone and throw them out and let them know we mean business."

[ p*stol cocks ]

I thought, "I might be telling some really crazy story here at the end of the day.

Either that, or I'm gonna get carried out in a body bag.

If I live, I'm gonna have a heck of a story to tell."

Craig: I was thrust in a situation, making a life-or-death decision that you don't think you're ever gonna be in.

Cuong: Loi! We found another one!

Now you're gonna be the first to die.

[ p*stol cocks ] Bodnar: You can't thr*aten me with heaven, so go ahead.

[ Police radio chatter, sirens wail in distance ]

Craig: All of our people sitting around the table had earphones, could hear the entire conversation that was taking place in the negotiations, and they were making notes, they were offering suggestions, doing things like that.

You could feel the animosity of the people on the other end of the line.

They were angry young men, and they were — Literally they were desperate, and it's really hard to negotiate with people who are that desperate, because they don't want to hear anything except what they want.

Man: What are you doing? We need to save our families.

[ All arguing, shouting indistinctly ]

Do something!

Woman: Shut up!

[ Shouting continues ]

One at a time.

When we realized that family members were starting to show up at the scene, we got a room in the basement of the shopping center to gather the families together, alerted the department chaplain, and we put the chaplain with them down there, and we gave them regular briefings.

I was thrust in a situation, making a life-or-death decision that you don't think you're ever gonna be in.

But you know that — I knew when I went there that, uh, part of my reason for being there was to take responsibility if things went wrong.

Enough talk. We tie them up.

One person on the phone.

Who will talk?

Who will talk?!

I'll do it.

Move.

Move!

Long: Separate into groups now!

Felion: It's unfortunate that these young people didn't think any more of their lives or anyone else's, because they weren't afraid to die.

They'd miss deadline after deadline after deadline.

And at that point, they start kind of ratcheting up the bravado a little bit.

Joseph: Then, they just said, "Okay, you know what?

We need for everybody to stand up."

And so, we all stood up, and — and we got to look around and see each other.

And then, he started saying, "You know what?

I'm — I'm getting very frustrated.

They're not taking us serious.

So, I feel that law enforcement wants to play games.

If that's what they want to do, then that's what we're gonna do."

"We're gonna play this nursery rhyme, 'eeny, meeny, miny, moe.'" and he has his 9mm, and he's pointing it at everybody's head or their heart, and he's going one at a time.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

Catch a piggy by its toe."

It brought a lot of tension to the room.

Bodnar: John and I were hiding.

We were getting kind of cramped up, you know, being ducked down for that long.

I could see certain gunmen in certain positions.

And then, John could look in the other direction and see certain gunmen.

So, John and I were kind of hand-signaling each other back and forth.

I would point in a certain direction, and he'd kind of inch over.

And then, he would point in a certain direction until finally one of the gunmen that was patrolling the store saw John's foot sticking out of the aisle.

Hey!

Long: Up.

Long: Up! Cuong: Hey! Found one over here.

Bodnar: Gunman number two was the brother of Loi, who was gunman number one, who was the leader.

And Loi said, "You bring him up to the front.

Bring him up here now."

By now there's, like, a — A semi-, half-circle of hostages that are at the front of the store, and they all put the g*ns to his head.

And Loi's on the phone, and he said, "We just found one, and he's gonna be the first one to die if our demands are not met."

Then, Loi said, "Go back over there and — and look. Maybe there's another one."

Cuong: Loi! We found another one!

Of course, there I am.

And Loi's like, "What?! Another one?!

Bring him here now!"

Seigler: They were enraged.

They were making a big show of it, pointing their g*ns around, and I think that's what they really wanted to do —

Throw their authority around, be paid attention to.

Hey, what your name?

Al. It's Al.

Bodnar: All of them put the g*ns to my head.

"You're gonna be the first one to die."

Hey, we found a guy — Al. He hiding from us.

And, uh, now he gonna be the first to die.

And we want $3 million.

We want, uh, bulletproof vests, and we want, uh...

A pizza in 10 minutes, or he die.

Long: Get him a body bag.

[ p*stol cocks ] Prepared to die, Al?

[ p*stol clicks ]

Bodnar: These g*ns were —

When the g*n is on safety, it would actually click.

So, they would do that.

They would put a g*n to your head, pull the trigger. [ p*stol clicks ]

You'd hear "Click."

They're playing games with me, saying, "Prepare to die."

You know, "Get the body bags ready," and I'm just sitting there, you know, casually.

You don't want to show fear.

Fear is the one thing that you don't want to show.

And I knew where I was going to go when I d*ed, which allowed me to keep a cool head.

You can't thr*aten me with heaven.

You can go ahead and k*ll me, but...

You're just gonna put me in a better place.

So go ahead.

And I had that attitude.

I had already pre-booked a trip for my mother, my father, and my sister to come out to visit me.

I thought about it when I was being held hostage, you know, "If I'm actually k*lled, they're actually gonna be getting tickets to my funeral."

Felion: As I sat there, I thought, "Here I am in this store.

My family doesn't know where I am.

I don't know if I'll ever see them again, and I never got to tell them goodbye."

And that started to wear on me a little bit.

And I thought — you know, the emotions took over, and I thought, "I can't let this happen," because if you become emotional, and you become a focus for them, you might be the one they might want to sh**t and send out and be the example.

So, I kind of pulled myself back together, and I thought maybe, for a while, if I kept my head down and didn't look at them and draw attention that perhaps I wouldn't be noticed.

But then I looked at myself, and I said, "Are you kidding?

I had a bright-pink outfit on, and I thought, to them, I must be like a blinking light in the night."

You bring the tea, okay?

You go to the Chinese store, and get the ginseng root.

I started to think the things are not going well.

They're not getting their demands and that...

H-how do I know you do what you say, huh?

It's not going to turn out like I thought it would.

You knew that somebody was gonna be very seriously hurt or k*lled.

No one would dare attempt to att*ck them or to upset them, because we had to move and speak with severe caution because they were very, very unpredictable.

You do nothing. Let me tell you something.

A car? No, no, no, no, no.

How are we going to get to Thailand in a car?

A 40-person helicopter — Bring it now.

[ Sighs ]

I just started freaking out, and at that time I was five months pregnant.

I think it was just, that was just all too much drama for me, and my body started going into cramps.

I mean, something's wrong.

I'm in too — too much pain.

And my cousin was saying, "Stop it. You're, you're, you're, you're, you're starting to panic. It's — everything's gonna be all right."

They said, "Okay, we're gonna start letting people use the restroom one at a time."

I told her, "Look, I have to go. I'm leaving. I'm going to the bathroom. I'll be right back." She goes, "No, you're not. No, you're not." She's holding on to me. She said, "No, you're not. You're not leaving me here. I'm not dying alone. And you might not come back. Or what if they k*ll you back there? Don't go." I said, "No, I got to use this restroom, because you know what? I'm cramping, and I'm sweating it, and I'm shaking, a-and I think I'm dying."

Loi: I'm losing my patience! And I will start sh**ting right now.

Smith: We discovered that there was really only two ways to get into the store, and one of those was through the front door.

Loi: I'm losing my patience!

Are we really ready to do this?

Felion: For them to pick that store and then to do what they did, it is kind of unbelievable that the two just are coincidental —

Bad guys hitting on Good Guys.

Okay, everybody. We come here to die.

Mcginness: On April 4, 1991, four young men with a very, very ill-conceived plan set about the process of taking a store over —

Violently, very well armed —

And actually took custody of a large number of shoppers.

Aah!

No! Please don't!

Go!

Aah!

Loi: Lock it. Lock the door!

Their demands were a little unusual.

One of the things they initially asked for was 1,000-year-old ginseng plants, which, in their culture, they provide energy.

Frankly, I didn't know where to get a 1,000-year-old ginseng plant.

Secondly, uh, they wanted full body armor.

Well, we didn't have full body armor, but we did wind up giving one vest initially to get the women and children out.

They wanted a helicopter, and they wanted a letter from the President giving them free passage to go to Vietnam.

They were asking for things that were impossible.

It was the most tense situation I have ever been in in my life, and don't want to be in another one like it.

Hey, we found a guy — Al. He hiding from us.

And, uh, now he gonna be the first to die.

And we want $3 million.

We want, uh, bulletproof vests, and we want, uh...

A pizza in 10 minutes, or he die.

Long: Get him a body bag.

Bodnar: The price changed.

Now it's $1 million instead of $3 million.

Now — and where's our "Robocop" outfits?

I thought they wanted vests.

And where's our Chinese food?

And then it's supposed to be pizza.

They don't even remember their own demands, they changed so much.

Seigler: They wanted us frightened and intense.

I think they were just frustrated with their lives.

They wanted to feel like big men, for a change.

They wanted to have other people basically shut up and listen to them for a few minutes.

They wanted to scare somebody.

They wanted to feel powerful.

Hey, I like that watch.

How much?

Under the circumstances, I think you can just have it.

What you think, man? I don't want to steal from you.

You steal from me. I have no life.

I hate this country.

Your education system no good, I can't get no job, I can't join the army.

We don't belong here.

What are we supposed to do, huh?

It's hopeless.

That's why we die here.

They said, "We can't get jobs, we're uneducated, we do not like your education system, and we can't go into your m*llitary.

You've treated the people in our country poorly.

You treat us poorly in your country.

We're just gonna just start k*lling you guys because we already know we're gonna die and we really don't care, and we don't like America."

Everybody out. Now!

Seigler: I certainly had accepted at different points that — that death was a possibility, that I might not make it out.

[ Sighs ]

Smith: I was a member of the S.W.A.T. team, the special enforcement de-detail for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.

When I got to the scene, it was very chaotic —

Lots of patrol cars, lots of officers running around.

The streets around the Good Guys Electronics Store were just really just full of traffic and police officers and law enforcement and fire personnel.

Every news media channel that I can think of was on scene.

This Electronic Store is completely surrounded by ground troops, by aviation support.

We had helicopters in the sky, flying in tight orbit over it.

Deputy McGinness, what's our status on the perimeter?

I got all the side entrances and the back entrance covered.

I'm gonna want a couple of guys up on the roof with me.

I, of course, was a member of the special operations detail to ensure that the suspects could not escape, either out the front door, back door, side door, or the roof.

Bodnar: The parking lot is already a carnival atmosphere —

Roped off, cop cars everywhere with r*fles pointed at them, but really, they're in front of you.

So the r*fles are really pointing technically at you.

The vests, make it, okay?

Do you hear me?

You better hurry up, man.

Felion: I thought maybe they would realize that they're not gonna get what they want, and they might as well give up and we're all gonna walk out safe and sound.

But I realized this is not what it's leading up to.

Mcginness: They were very bent on maintaining control.

They wanted to control things.

No regard for the well-being and lives of those upon whom they had a profound effect that day.

Craig: It was very, very tense, and every decision was weighed, every — every move we made was weighed towards trying to rescue the hostages and get people out of there in one piece.

Smith: We discovered that there was really only two ways to get into the store, and one of those was through the front doors.

There was a second way in, back hallway that got into a storage room, and then eventually, that would lead into the showroom, where the hostages and the hostage takers were at.

This was the first actual hostage rescue in the history of the sheriff's department, so I thought about our training, and I thought, "Are we really ready to do this?"

You do nothing.

Let me tell you something —

Car? No, no, no.

How are we going to get to Thailand in a car?

A 40-person helicopter.

Bring it now.

Joseph: I was almost five months pregnant at the time.

I'm cramping and I'm sweating it and I'm shaking and, a-a-and I — I mean, something's wrong.

I'm in too, too much pain.

My cousin was saying, "Stop it, you're —

You're — you're — you're — You're starting to panic.

Its — everything's gonna be all right."

So when it was time to go to the bathroom, he had his g*n, and he says, "Do you want to use the restroom?"

I said, "Yes." I put my head down.

He escorts me with his g*n to my back, and he takes me to the back of the store.

We're not going to jail.

He was anxious to start sh**ting people.

Joseph: Suicidal, psychotic, and confused all in one.

You want to play games? Heads, you die.

Tails, you die.

[ Siren wails ]

[ Police radio chatter ]

Smith: We had two sn*pers deployed in the front of the store, and then the other seven of us were the ones that were gonna be doing the entry and hostage rescue.

7 of us against 4 armed gunmen with 41 hostages inside a large showroom store with lots of hiding places, so the odds for a successful mission where everybody survives that is — is pretty slim.

Go on!

[ Whimpers ]

Joseph: I go into the restroom, and at this time, I'm five months pregnant.

I was holding all of my pain, so I had to sit there, and I was trying my hardest because there's a 12 gauge to my head, and he's just watching me.

And I was thinking, you know, "What can I really do?"

My pants are off, I'm on the toilet, and I'm trying to cover up all my blood because I didn't want him to see it.

So he's looking at me, and I'm looking at him, and I've got this g*n on my head.

And I'm thinking, "Oh, you know, I got to play this off, I got to figure something out.

I'm, you know, if he starts asking me these questions, I'm gonna go with constipation, and if he asks me, like, what's going on, I gonna go with the cycle."

He's going, "Are you okay?"

And I said, "Yes, I'm okay.

I-I'm feeling a-a-a little bit better."

Smith: She had a miscarriage in the bathroom during the incident, while a hostage taker was in the bathroom with her.

For her to have to deal with that, that's huge.

We find a guy, Al, he hiding from us.

Now he gonna be the first to die.

And we want $3 million.

Bodnar: The whole time, I'm thinking, "I got to get out of this place.

I'm in the worst possible position that a person could be in.

I'm in front of everybody.

I'm the one that's targeted for death.

I'm gonna be the first one to go.

There was probably about eight, nine people that went to the bathroom with an escort.

Then Loi says, "Does anybody else need to go?"

I got to go.

You are not going to go.

You're going to die.

You gonna die.

I'm gonna go.

You are not gonna go.

Hey, hey, stop! You stop or you die!

[ Speaking native language ]

I knew that I had to force their hand.

I started walking to the back of the room to go to the bathroom.

He said, "Both of you guys go and keep an eye on this guy.

Both of you."

Everyone else got a single escort.

I got a double escort. Two g*ns to my head.

[ Toilet flushing ]

[ Speaking native language ]

I went to the bathroom, and then instead of going back up to the front, they took me to the break room.

I'll k*ll him.

No, I k*ll him.

So these guys start arguing over who's gonna get to k*ll me, and they point the g*n to my head and say, you know, "Prepare to die," and then the other guy says, "No, if anybody's gonna k*ll him, it's gonna get to be me."

[ g*nshots, screaming ]

[ Glass shatters ]

[ Speaking native language ]

There's a snack machine back there, and there's a soda machine.

One guy got so mad, he goes, "Boom!"

And the glass shatters.

Hurry up!

They grabbed the box that I used to unload my personal belongings on my first official day to stock it up with the sodas and the snacks, and they found another box there.

So they loaded one with snacks.

They loaded one with — with drinks.

While I was back there and these guys were arguing about everything, I had taken off my tie, and I folded it up, and I put it in my right pocket.

I had unbuttoned the top button of my shirt to change my identity.

And then, when we went back to the front of the store, instead of sitting back down where I was, as the focal point, just sat in with the hostages.

Loi: 40-person helicopter.

Just change your identity, get out of being the focal point.

Don't play stupid.

I really wished that John had done the same thing.

[ Loi speaking native language ]

No. Have the old lady go out.

Who?

The old lady.

Up to this point, it was quite disturbing because of them not knowing exactly what they wanted.

They finally decided they were gonna do something.

The area that I sat down in was next to two mothers that had three children there.

They decided that maybe they should let the girls out and free them.

So the ringleader says, "Let the old woman take them out.

I turned around and looked to see who he was talking about.

And with that, one of the mothers stood up and said, "Can I take them out?"

And he says, "No, the old woman take them out."

Well, by then, I realized he meant me.

Get up.

[ Children crying ]

I stood up, and the one little 4-year-old didn't want to go with me because I guess she had been taught never to go with strangers.

She didn't want to go, and her mother had to convince her that it was all right to go with me.

So I grabbed her by the hand, and the littlest one and the other 6-year-old followed me out, and we went out the store.

But until I got past the glass doors of that store, I still wasn't sure that they weren't gonna sh**t me and I was gonna be the one that was gonna be the example.

I was glad to be able to go out, but I felt sorry for the mothers that still had to stay in there not knowing whether they would get out alive to raise those children.

No, I know the deal, but if we come out, you k*ll us.

No deal!

How do I know you do what you say, huh?

We're not going to jail.

There was a definite split between the gunmen.

The oldest, Loi, seemed willing from the very beginning to kind of try to negotiate something, but, uh, the younger ones not so much.

One particular by the name of Long just was insistent —

Everything that he wanted met to the letter.

Frankly, he was anxious to start sh**ting people.

He made that clear from the very beginning.

That's not what we asked for!

Joseph: He is screaming.

He's yelling. You sit down.

He's pulling out his long Kn*fe.

Suicidal, psychotic, irritated, angry, and confused, all in one.

You, go!

Joseph: He's just going nuts.

Seigler: Long was pretty insistent, "They just — they're not taking us seriously."

It was at that point they decided to tie us up.

That's always one of those moments that you think, you know, "Why am I letting this happen to me?"

So they tied us up in groups, mostly of four.

Craig: All the hostages were tethered together with cables that they had hooked to all the television sets and different appliances they had in the store.

The hostages were tethered in a line all in one location towards the front of the store because they were anticipating if anything happened, it would be at the front of the store.

Joseph: All the hostages were in a domino effect, meaning if you were to move your arm, then that pushed up a leg of the other hostage, so that you can't run or move, really.

[ Telephone rings ]

Is this the police?

How do I know that?

Okay, there's somebody that keeps calling on this phone, and they're acting like they're the police.

Seigler: Customers would call and pretend to be the sheriff's department.

Sometimes, they would talk for 15, 20 minutes, thinking they were talking to the police department and it wasn't.

It was just some customer.

Till finally they decided, "We got to sh**t somebody to, you know, send somebody out for a message."

You do as I say.

Oh, you want to play games?

Fine, we'll play games.

Heads, you die.

Tails, you die.

Joseph: "We're going to play this game called heads or tails, and here's how it works.

We're gonna divide you into sets of 20.

20 to the right. 20 to the left.

If it lands on heads, the 20 to the right are gonna be k*lled.

If it lands on tails, the 20 to the left are gonna be k*lled.

So he throws up the coin, and we're all screaming.

We're — we're all screaming and freaking out.

We're like, "No!"

[ Screaming ]

Where are our vests?

No, no, no, I'm the boss.

You do as I say.

Oh, you want to play games?

Fine, we'll play games.

Heads, you die.

Tails, you die.

The gunmen felt at this point that they were not being taking seriously, and more negotiations went back and forth.

"You're gonna live. You're gonna die."

And then they decided half of everybody was gonna die, just to show that they were serious.

So he said, "I'm gonna flip a quarter.

Everybody in my right half, if it's heads, you're gonna die.

Everybody on my left side, if its tails, you're gonna die."

Who will die first?

[ Indistinct shouting ]

Joseph: So he throws up the coin, and we're all screaming.

The coin gets ready to — To fall, it rolled, and he picked it up and said, "That one don't count."

Seigler: They really did a series of coin flips, and they made a really big show about it.

They flipped the coin high in the air, let it fall to the floor, and of course, it would bounce once or twice on the floor.

All to basically frighten the hostages.

Once they flipped it once, okay, then this side of the room now is where we're gonna choose our target from.

Then they tried it again to, you know, "Okay, from this side of the room, we'll divide it into two halves."

And mostly, I think it was more for show than anything else.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

sh**t him in the leg.

He pretty much just grabbed Sean McIntyre, I think because he was the closest guy.

He'd worked, actually, audio.

He wasn't even supposed to be in the store.

He walked in to get a part for a car stereo that he was installing and just happened to be there at just the right time.

Hey, we're going to sh**t you and let you out.

And then you gonna tell to the media our demands, and we're going to watch on the TV, okay?

And, uh, they'll take it serious.

Hey, if we sh**t you in the leg, let you out, that's a fair deal, man.

They told him, "We're gonna sh**t you, and we're gonna let you out.

You're gonna relay to the media our demands, and we're gonna watch it on TV.

And then everybody will take us seriously."

Turn around.

sh**t him in the head.

In the leg.

sh**t him in the head.

[ Speaks native language ]

Seigler: He faced them for them to sh**t him, but they're like, "No, no, no, turn around."

They really didn't even want to basically look him in the eye as they sh*t him.

So, he turned around, and, uh, then there was a lot of debate because at least two of the younger gunmen were like, "sh**t him in the head, sh**t him," you know, "sh**t him somewhere else."

Joseph: So he says at the count of three, and we all have to watch.

He says, "One, two, three."

[ g*nsh*t ]

[ Screaming ]

Bodnar: All of a sudden, you hear, "POW!"

Sean just drops to the ground.

I saw a puff of smoke at knee level where the b*llet had gone through the wall and went through the boom boxes.

Joseph: He was in bad pain, but he was so, like, he was so brave.

He was on the ground.

He's shaking, and he's holding his leg.

And he's bleeding, and — and they're still talking to him.

They said, "Okay, are you gonna go do what we said, and you're gonna go tell the — the — the police that we want our demands?"

"Yes, I'm going to do what you said."

[ Siren wails ]

[ Police radio chatter ]

Bodnar: When they singled out Sean and they were gonna k*ll Sean, he was the unluckiest guy in the whole room.

Well, he got sh*t, and he lived and he got out.

And he went from being the — the most unlucky person in the room to be the luckiest person in the room because there wasn't a person in that room at that time that wouldn't gladly take a b*llet in the knee just to get out of there.

At this point, we're thinking, "Okay, we're finally now to the point something's gonna happen.

The sheriff's department will storm in, or they'll do something to get us out of here," but frankly, it really — it didn't happen.

Where's our vests?

We asked for "Robocop" outfits, and they didn't give it to us.

We didn't get our four vests!

Where's our vests? Huh?

Where's our helicopter, huh?

We make demand, and you do nothing.

A 40-person helicopter — Bring it now!

Look, it's Sean on the news!

There are four gunmen in Good Guys holding approximately 20 people hostage.

They want three b*llet-proof jackets, a helicopter, and firearms.

They already sh*t me.

That's all I have to say.

Reporter: Any other demands that we can pass along?

That's all I have to say.

That's it!?

That's not what we asked for!

Bodnar: They didn't get anything.

"Where's our bulletproof vests, where's our 'Robocop' outfits, where's the helicopter?"

By now they expected an army-style helicopter in the parking lot.

They were ruthless.

They just seemed like they had no conscience.

It's a weird thing... Because after I lost the baby, I didn't have time to grieve or think about it because my mind was so fearful that all I could think of was the next moment.

And I just moved forward in survival 'cause I knew I had already lost the baby, so I was just hoping to — To take my own self and my family out.

That was my goal.

Smith: Once we got into the back room, it became very obvious pretty quickly that we were gonna have to make an entry in here and get into a situation where more than likely, there was gonna be g*nf*re.

They were planning on our sn*per taking a sn*per sh*t, and that sn*per sh*t would be the cue for us to enter the rear of the store and make the rescue.

We were told a couple of different times to prepare for entry.

We would get up, we'd get stacked at the doorway, and then they told us to stand down because they were still negotiating.

[ Man groans ]

There's an old man — He just fell down.

Joseph: All of a sudden, I hear, "Boom."

And then there's this guy to the right.

He's in a diabetic seizure, and he's shaking.

And he's all tied up, and he's just, like, all shaking.

Seigler: Long walks up, takes one look at him, and actually, he's really calm, and says, "Well, we've got our next volunteer."

[ Police radio chatter ]

[ Man groans ]

There's an old man — He just fell down.

There was an elderly diabetic, and he passed out because he didn't have his Insulin.

And he just went face first onto the floor, and he brought the whole group with him that he was tied to.

They didn't care.

They said, "Oh."

They got him.

They moved him up forward, got on the phone, and said, "You see this guy?

He's having some kind of att*ck.

Either you bring me this bulletproof vest, or I'm gonna start sh**ting these — these people one at a time.

Bodnar: "Now you talk —

You talk for your life, or we k*ll you."

I don't even think he even knew the phone was to his ear.

And his eye — all of a sudden, his eyes, like, go back in his head, and he just — choo! — He just goes over backwards.

And that infuriated them.

Hello?

No, no, no.

Joseph: So they negotiated a little bit more, and the negotiation didn't really work out.

So he says, "Okay, I'm gonna count to three.

I'm gonna sh**t this — this guy that's having some sort of att*ck.

One, two, three."

[ g*nsh*t ]

When he takes the sh*t, his leg goes up, and his knee, like, touched his shoulder.

And then it slammed back down to the ground.

And he — and it was an old man.

I just felt so sorry for him.

Bodnar: The authorities, of course, wanted him out for medical treatment.

And they're like, "No, man.

Now all die."

I did really begin to think, "Okay, I may not get out of this alive."

sn*pers, stand by.

Wait for my signal.

I'm going down there.

We decided we can't just wait and watch them sh**t people.

We have got to implement the plan, and the plan was that we actually had two sn*pers out there with two different angles.

They had asked for a bulletproof vest.

We said, "Okay, we will give them the vest, and when he opens the door to take the vest, he will be exposed.

We'll take the sh*t."

Smith: We're now preparing to make entry.

They tell us to get ready.

I personally thought about a lot of things in my life that could change if this didn't go right.

I had an 8-year old son at the time, and one of those things was I may not ever see him again.

Seigler: We could see S.W.A.T. sn*pers poised underneath cars.

We were big news at that point, and of course, all the TVs inside the store by this point had our picture pretty much nonstop.

At this point, we had been, you know, held there against our will for six, seven, and then ultimately, eight hours.

People only take so much before they start to kind of snap.

[ Siren wails ]

Smith: This incident started at about 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon, so we were eight hours into this incident.

We're now preparing to make entry.

Wait, they dropped another the vest!

Seigler: It seemed like the gunmen were just about to sh**t another person when somebody inside the store yelled, you know, "Look, look, they've — They've brought another vest."

So they looked outside, and they debated what to do.

One of the gunmen said that he'd go out and pick it up, and one of the other gunmen said, "Are you crazy?

We can't go out there.

We'll tie up a hostage and send 'em out."

So, they picked a hostage.

Up.

Listen, if you don't come back, we'll start k*lling people, starting with your family.

Got it?

You two at the front of the door — out!

Open the door.

Tied her up with speaker wire, kind of a long tether, and said, "Go out, get the vest.

We've got your cousin, uh, both your cousins.

We'll have g*ns trained on both of 'em, so if you try to run, you know, they get it —

They get it first."

And, you know, at this point, she's — she's tied up with speaker wire.

She's not going anywhere.

She's — you can tell she's scared to death.

Joseph: They got one of the gunmen to put a 12 gauge to my head, and they got one of the other gunmen to put a 9mm to my uncle's back, and they said, "Bring us that vest, come back, or they're dead."

And my cousin is shaking, but she was just — She was so brave.

She said, "I-I'll do what you — What you want me to do."

You two at the front.

Seigler: They have curt open up the door.

He opens up the door, pushes it open just — Just a little bit, just enough for her to slip outside.

And you can see she just takes the most cautious, tentative step you can imagine.

About that time that the door started to swing back, and — and that was when all — all hell breaks loose.

[ g*nsh*t ]

Open the door.

Faster!

Bodnar: So curt unlocks the door from the bottom and opens the door.

[ Speaking native language ]

[ Police radio chatter ]

Take the sh*t.

[ Speaking native language ]

Take the sh*t.

[ Screaming ]

Bodnar: The sn*per takes the sh*t, but the door swings shut on its own inertia.

And the b*llet hits the plate glass door...

[ g*nsh*t ]

[ Groans ]

Bodnar: And grazes gunman number two's head.

And we get sprayed with all this thick plate glass in thousands of pieces.

Just like, it goes, "Boom," and then we're just sprayed.

[ g*nsh*t ]

Seigler: There was glass all over the floor.

We hear chaos and confusion.

We hear people screaming.

[ Groans ]

Craig: The sn*per fired at the front of the store.

We threw flash bangs and other things to make them think we were storming the store from the front.

Officer: Come to me, come to me.

I got you. I got you.

She was actually tethered to an electrical cord, and as she ran out from the area of the front door, ultimately reached the end of the cord.

As it recoiled, it caused her to fall.

We carried her to a — a patrol car and got her out of the area.

Seigler: I look up for just a second, and I see Long.

He basically cocks his g*n.

I duck back down again.

You hear bang, and then bang, and then bang.

I knew that at this point, he was not getting taken out, and so that — that really was all that fit in my brain at that point, was, "Is he sh**ting the woman next to me?

I'm about to get sh*t, too."

[ Screams ]

It wasn't fear. It wasn't anything like that.

It wasn't my life flashing in front of my eyes.

It was just a single thought of, "Here it is."

Craig: I could see the hostage taker just going down the line of people he had tethered together, sh**ting, going, "Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang," right down the line, and my heart came right up in my throat.

I thought, "Oh, my God, we're gonna have —

I don't know how many dead people we're gonna have."

It was a terribly frightening moment.

Seigler: I think the frustrating thing is he got better as he went.

You know, the first person he sh*t, he hit in I think in the foot.

Then he hit somebody in the knee.

By the time he got next to the woman next to me, he hit her in the arm, kind of shoulder area.

Me — I got sh*t in the hip, and from then on, basically, people d*ed.

Smith: We could all hear a whole bunch of sh**ting going on at the front of the store, and at that time, my thought was, "We've failed.

They've k*lled everybody.

So now what do we do?"

And I just told myself, "You know what, if that's the case, now it's them and us, and we still need to forge forward and do what we came to do."

[ Screaming ]

Joseph: I see the masked gunman, and he's just coming in, and he's just sh**ting, "Pop, pop, pop."

And they're just falling and screaming, and you can hear it.

You can hear the people being sh*t, and they're screaming.

And they're falling to the ground, and it was just — Oh, and my uncle was —

It was just — it was just terrible, and he was jerking.

I remember my uncle was jerking when they sh*t him.

He jerked. No, no!

Mcginness: That's when the S.W.A.T. team came out from the shadows.

Smith: As I worked my way down the left aisle, I now see hostages laying lifeless, laying still.

And my impression was that they had all been sh*t and k*lled by the hostage takers.

[ Screaming ]

Where is he?

All of a sudden, a shotgun blast rung out, and I felt the concussion of the blast.

And I saw a muzzle flash.

I could not see where the suspect was at.

[ Screaming ]

[ g*nsh*t ]

There were three hostages tied up at the end of this display cabinet, and I tried to speak with them to try to find out where this shotgun suspect was, and they couldn't even talk to me, they were all so hysterical.

[ Screaming ]

When I came around the end of the cabinet, I could see the hostage taker with the shotgun kneeling at the end of the cabinet, and he couldn't see me.

I stepped out from the cabinet and then fired on him, fired three sh*ts into him, at which time, he fell, and as I started to approach him, he was still alive.

And he still had the g*n in his hand, and then one of the other officers fired, also.

And he was, um, neutralized at that time.

Mcginness: The S.W.A.T. team deployed and sh*t the suspects, k*lling three of them.

Bodnar: There's glass everywhere.

You could barely see because there was so much gunpowder.

The gunpowder was so thick, it was hard to see.

You could taste the gunpowder in your mouth.

And there was just shells and glass and bloody clothes, and just — just —

It was just something you would see in a movie.

[ Siren wails ]

[ Police radio chatter ]

Loi: [ Coughs ] I'm a hostage.

No, he's one of the bad guys!

I'm a hostage! He's one of the bad guys.

Down! I'm not, she's liar!

You lie!

Smith: As I came to the front the store, the other team had what appeared to be a suspect detained.

He was wearing a bulletproof vest, which had been delivered earlier as part of the negotiations.

He was trying to say that he was one of the hostages, but there were hostages that were alive and talking to us and telling us that he was one of the bad guys.

So we got him handcuffed, but as I'm standing with him, within six or eight feet of me were three dead hostages.

Joseph: [ Voice breaking ] And then I can see my uncle, and he's just, like, laying there, just, like, lifeless.

Like, I knew he was dead.

I knew — I knew from the — From the impact of the sh*t, from all the sh**ting that there was just no way he could be alive.

Just there was just no way.

Seigler: They send in the team of medical personnel.

Medical personnel have these tags, and they're walking around tagging people.

And, um, the — The tags apparently have things that you tear off the bottom of 'em.

It said basically injured, immediate, and the last tag, if they tear it off, is deceased.

Bodnar: I stepped over John and saw his nametag that he was deceased.

Because it was black — A black tag.

Seigler: It's difficult to actually look over and see one of your co-workers dead.

I remember I said out loud, I said, "Goodbye."

Um... And that's all you can do.

One S.W.A.T. guy passes by with this g*n with multiple clips in it, but then as I look up, there's two S.W.A.T. guys.

You know, one of them is just weeping.

You know, I mean, it's really a weird, weird thing.

[ Voice breaking ] But at that point, you know it's over.

[ Siren wails ]

They talked for almost nine hours, but the California hostage drama finally ended with g*nf*re on live television.

Sacramento police moving into the Electronic Store after the gunmen began sh**ting on the inside.

Three of the gunmen were k*lled, but so were three of the hostages.

It's still a chilling scene out here, Anna.

I mean, a sense of panic, a sense of shock standing in this parking lot in Sacramento where just over an hour ago, uh, that terrible scene of sh**ting unfolded, ending 8 1/2 hours of terror for 30 hostages here.

We still hear ambulances wailing in the background right now as they try to piece together exactly what happened.

We saved a lot of people.

Unfortunately, we didn't save three.

[ Siren wails ]

Smith: There were 41 hostages.

Three of those hostages d*ed by g*nf*re.

11 other hostages were wounded.

The Good Guys Electronic Store hostage rescue is the largest hostage rescue in the history of the United States.

It is used by S.W.A.T. teams and viewed by S.W.A.T. teams just to hear what happened and how it was handled.

Seigler: I was sh*t in the hip.

It was, as they say in the movies, just a flesh wound.

It basically went in and out.

[ Siren wails ]

It's a shame. It's senseless. It was a waste.

There was no real purpose behind it.

It was just one of those incredibly dumb, ill-advised things that happened for no real, entirely good reason that anybody can really discern I think to this day.

The one surviving hostage taker, Loi Nguyen, was tried and convicted and is currently serving 41 consecutive life sentences in a California prison.

He will not get out.

It just doesn't seem fair that young people who get an idea in their head of doing this could change so many lives and devastate lives.

I'm sorry that they d*ed.

I'm glad that the one that survived is gonna be in prison for the rest of his life so that he can't do anything like this again to anyone else.

Craig: It was traumatic then, and reliving traumatic experiences is never fun.

You know, you — you go back through it again, and you think, "Holy cow, it's... not any different.

Uh, you know, three innocent people still d*ed."

Doesn't make any difference how many times you go back and tell the story.

You still get that same result.

It weighs on me.

[ Police radio chatter ]

Smith: About four months after the Good Guys incident, I was promoted to sergeant and was sent to the jails as a supervisor, and when I got to the jail, I realized within a couple of weeks that this hostage taker who survived was in custody at the jail.

And when he came out of his cell, he walked up to me, and I identified myself to him.

And he just hung his head and said, "I don't want to talk."

And I just said, "You don't have to talk, but you need to listen."

And so I just proceeded to tell him how I felt and how I was angry about how he had put all those people in that position and put my team in that position.

He never said another word.

I wasn't seeing him for him.

I was seeing him for me because I needed to get that stuff off my chest as part of my healing process.

[ Siren wails ]

Joseph: So we go to the hospital.

Physician comes in, checks me, he — he says, "Yes, she — she was pregnant."

They run tests. "She — she lost her baby."

I didn't have time to grieve.

Once I was a hostage, that was just the beginning of the nightmare.

Then I had to go to my uncle's funeral.

I had to go back to the doctor.

I had to go face my family.

I had to go face my friends.

I had to relive the whole incident over and over and over.

You, go. You, go.

Joseph: I have forgiven all four of those gunmen.

Move!

Joseph: I forgive them for their sins, and I forgive them for their acts, though I am...

Saddened that that situation had to occur and the events had to unfold and be that tragic and that I had to suffer such a horrific loss.

[ Siren wails ]

Bodnar: Without forgiveness, you can never get through an incident like this and maintain any type of sanity.

Because I was able to forgive and move on, I was able to move on with my life.

If you don't forgive, you will never be able to let something like this go.

As hard as it may sound, you have to be able to forgive everybody.

[ Police radio chatter ]