`Deranged' Gunman Was `After The Americans' -- Hostages Tell Of 7- Hour Ordeal In Bar
BERKELEY, Calif. - Hostages of a schizophrenic man who hated Americans and claimed to hear voices endured seven hours of bizarre conversations and gunfire in a hotel bar.
They also saw one of the hostages killed and seven other people wounded before the gunman died in an explosion of police bullets.
``When he took a head count of us, he started counting his rounds as well,'' said Doug Moore, among 33 people held by Mehrdad Dashti. ``He watched every single move. Every time someone moved, he flinched.''
Dashti, 30, commandeered Henry's Publick House and Grille at the Durant Hotel, a block south of the University of California's Berkeley campus, early yesterday.
The siege, punctuated by Dashti's gunfire and the escape of some hostages, ended when police decided they could not talk him into coming out and stormed the bar.
Dashti was described as a paranoid schizophrenic on an Alameda County mental-health form found in his cluttered Berkeley apartment. Police knew of no clear motive for the attack.
``He was apparently very confused,'' said Berkeley police Capt. Phil Doran. ``Deranged is not a bad description.''
Dashti, who grew up in Iran and came to the United States eight years ago, expressed animosity toward Americans.
``The foreigners in there, he told them he wasn't going to bother them. He was after the Americans,'' Moore said.
Dashti claimed the ``government owed him $16 trillion for
mental-telepathy work and this was his way of getting it back,'' said Moore, 25, a student at the nearby campus and manager of the hotel bar, a popular gathering place for students.
Dashti, who received a degree in engineering from San Francisco State University, also was upset he didn't get a student loan for Berkeley, police said.
Dashti, in an unmailed letter to President Bush obtained by the San Francisco Examiner, claimed to have spoken with ``invisible intelligent species'' from the world of the dead.
Moore said Dashti also disliked blond women. During the ordeal, Dashti made them take off their pants but let them keep on their underwear, hostages said.
Carrying a briefcase, Dashti walked into Henry's shortly before midnight and had a drink, Moore said. Moore made a ``last call'' and the remaining crowd of more than 40 people clustered at the bar.
There was a bang. Dashti had concealed a pistol, a revolver and an ``assault-type pistol'' in the briefcase, police said. Moore said he looked up to see Dashti point a gun into the crowd and fire several more shots.
``I saw the gun, and I hit the ground,'' said John Landa, 21, who was shot in the right arm but escaped with several others.
John Sheehy, 22, of Lafayette, died after he was shot in the chest at close range.
Dashti terrified his hostages by shooting ``for the hell of it,'' Moore said. ``He would say, `Cover your heads,' and then shoot.''
Dashti used two male hostages as mouthpieces, having them answer telephone calls from police and shout his demands out the window.
The gunman, who drank beer and whiskey, suggested everyone have a drink and invited the hostages to talk about anything, Moore said.
Dashti also began a guessing game. He thought of a number between one and 15 and the others tried to guess the number, Moore said.
One of Dashti's demands was that San Francisco Police Chief Frank Jordan ``drop his drawers'' on television, Doran said. Moore said Dashti had ``lots of negative things to say'' about San Francisco police.
San Francisco police Sgt. Jerry Senkir said Dashti was named in a March 1989 warrant charging grand theft in connection with cashing two stolen checks, worth more than $16,000.
Dashti's roommate, 19-year-old Fred Smith, described him as ``pretty religious'' and fond of guns.