Hostage Is Safe as Surrender Ends Office Ordeal

ORANGE —  A 29-year-old man threatened Monday to kill his ex-girlfriend at the dentist’s office where she works, but surrendered the gun and himself after she pleaded for her life, police said.

No one was injured in the hourlong ordeal at the office in the 700 block of East Chapman Avenue, Police Sgt. Barry Weinstein said. Five people, including two children, were in the office about 10 a.m. when the assailant walked up to the front desk and asked to see a dental assistant working there, Weinstein said.

When she walked up to the counter, the man pulled a stolen .38-caliber revolver from his waistband and the gun accidentally discharged into the ceiling, prompting receptionists in the area to call police, investigators said. He then put a gun near her head and threatened to fire, Weinstein said.

Officers responding to the call surrounded the office and tried negotiating with the man on the telephone, investigators said.

But it was the 31-year-old dental assistant from Garden Grove who finally persuaded him to drop the gun, investigators said.

“She pleaded and talked to him for about 15 to 20 minutes,” Weinstein said. “And he handed her the gun and she walked out. Several of our officers were right there.”

The woman told investigators the couple had broken up about three months ago after an on-again, off-again relationship that had lasted a couple of years, Weinstein said. But after the breakup, the man allegedly began threatening her.

“She was in the process of getting a restraining order,” Weinstein said.

James William Brown II of Garden Grove was held in Orange County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder and grand theft of a firearm in the incident. Bail was set at $250,000. Brown is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Municipal Court in Santa Ana.