The good guys

The Good Guys! is a chain of electronic stores with 59 stores in California and a total of 11 more in Nevada, Oregon and Washington. It was headquartered in Los Angeles until it was bought 18 months ago by CompUSA.

Related Topics:
The Good Guys! - Electronic - California - Nevada - Oregon - Washington - Los Angeles - CompUSA

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On April 4th, 1991, four young Vietnamese refugees, brothers Loi Khac Nguyen, 21, Pham Khac Nguyen, 19, and Long Khac Nguyen, 17, and their friend, Cuong Tran, 16, drove into the parking lot of "The Good Guys" electronics store located at 7020 Stockton Blvd. in the South Area of Sacramento, California after already botching a robbery. The group exited the vehicle, a 1982 Toyota Corolla, and entered the store armed with three pistols and a shotgun. They began to herd customers and staff into a group, including a shoplifter attempting to exit the store with a camcorder shoved down his pants, and began shooting. Several customers managed to escape, and alerted police of the situation.

Related Topics:
April 4th - 1991 - Vietnamese - Toyota Corolla

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When the call came in at 13:35, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department Special Enforcement Detail (SED), which is part of the Department's Narcotics/Gangs Division, was already in the process of gearing up in anticipation of executing a previously planned drug raid. They immediately paged off duty team members, and begin preparations to rush to the scene along with the Department's Critical Incident Negations Team (CINT), and other local and state law enforcement agencies.

Related Topics:
Special Enforcement Detail - Narcotics - Critical Incident Negations Team

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In total, there were 41 hostages inside the building. To this date, it remains the largest hostage rescue operation in US history.

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As the situation developed, the local media descended on the area in force, broadcasting the unfolding incident for the world, and placing additional pressure on an already tense situation.

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The team was able to obtain a floor plan for the building , which was copied and distributed to team members. The SED team felt there was only one entrance to the store that did not have alarms on it: a freight entrance located at the rear of the store. They would have to come in through a fabrics store on the north side of the building. The seven-man entry team, which was composed of Sgt. Devlin; SED investigators Gordon Smith; Bill Kelly; Mike Hammel; Greg Peterson; Charles Price; and Stanfill, gained entrance to the fabric store, and slowly moved into position. The subjects apparently heard movement by the police and shouts of "Stay away from the door" coming from inside the store itself.

Related Topics:
Gordon Smith - Bill Kelly - Mike Hammel - Greg Peterson - Charles Price

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One of the entry team members, Investigator Smith, removed a ceiling panel in the hallway between the two buildings and inserted a pole-mounted mirror. He was able to observe the subjects directing hostages to place large boxes against the back door to block entry. Once the door was barricaded, the area was abandoned. A fisheye camera, obtained from the California Department of Justice, was installed by the team but was of limited use, because of the design of the store, and only showed a portion of the showroom near the door. By this time, the hostages had been tied up with speaker wire and been arranged in front of the store's glass front entrance doors in standing and kneeling positions.

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For over two hours with the department's Critical Incident Negotiating Team, led by Sgt. Paul Hauptman tried to end the incident peacefully, by negotiating with the hostage takers. The hostage takers began to display irrational behavior, demanding everything from four million dollars, to forty 1,000-year-old ginseng roots, to a 50-troop military helicopter, to transporting everyone to Thailand after a refueling stop in Alaska. Throughout the incident the hostage takers never presented a clear set of demands to the negotiators.

Related Topics:
Ginseng - Helicopter - Thailand - Alaska

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The one demand that remained constant was the request for bulletproof vests. The vest were obtained by the police, and one was exchanged for several hostages. Another benefit of the exchange was that it allowed police to gain information on the current situation in the store. One of the released hostages revealed that the shots heard earlier had been the hostage takers shooting at the stores security cameras, and that none of the hostages had been harmed up to this point. Another cause for optimism was the generally high rate of success when negotiating with armed robbers, as most eventually realize that if they don't surrender peacefully the police will be forced to resolve the situation using the tactical option.

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At one point during the negotiations, the negotiator for the hostage takers, who called himself "Thai", agreed to surrender to the police, but only if they were allowed to retain their bulletproof vests and weapons while in prison. He set down the phone and began to discuss the situation with his partners. By this point many of the officers involved felt that the exchanges might lead to a negotiated settlement. Suddenly, the phone went dead, and the CINT immediately tried to reestablish contact with the store. One the initial try, the phone was busy, and one the second try a suspect calling himself " Number One", answered the phone, informing everyone that he was now in control. From that point on the situation began to rapidly deteriorate. Shots were once again fired at the stores security cameras.

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Approximately eight hours into the incident, the subjects shot a male hostage in the leg at his request in exchange for his freedom. All he had to do was deliver the gangs message and plight to the local media. They claimed they were trying to draw attention to the troubles of their home country and that they were on a suicide mission. At one point the police attempted to have all the subjects move to the television area of the store by putting the hostage on the news, but unfortunately this tactic didn't work, and the team was finally give the "green light ". Sniper Jeffrey Boyes would issue the signal to execute the assault. Boyes had received permission to fire on any subject he could obtain a clear line of sight on.

Related Topics:
Suicide - Sniper - Jeffrey Boyes

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When an elderly hostage was shot in the leg, the decision was made to move in. A second bullet-proof vest was delivered to the front door and a female hostage was sent out to recover it, with her wrists tied behind her and harnessed with more speaker cord. While this was transpiring, guns were placed to the hostages heads. A hostage was placed on the phone, and he informed the police that the subjects were going to begin executing hostages.

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As the door was open and the woman was half-way down the path to retrive the vest, Boyce was able to line up the perfect shot of Number One, and he took the shot with a 308 Win 168-grain HPBT. Unfortunately, the bullet hit the door frame and the glass window next to it shattered. Immediatly, the hostage takers ran from left to right, shooting at the hostages that were tied down in a row. Boyes radioed "Go", and the SED entry team immediately hit the door. A flash-bang was tossed into the store from outside, and a male hostage managed to scramble to safety through the now shattered glass door. Number One, now stunned and disoriented, managed to stagger out of Boyce's sights and take cover behind a large pillar. He then immediately began firing his weapon at the bound hostages.

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It took the entry team approximately two to three seconds to gain entry to the building because of the barricades erected earlier. They then had to contend with the 100-foot dash to the front of the store. The team was armed with a variety of weapons for the entry. Sgt Devlin, Price, and Smith were armed with SIG/Sauer P-220 pistols, Bill Kelly carried a laser-sighted HK MP-5, and investigators Hammel and Peterson carried HK MP-SD3's. Stanfill was still armed with his AR-15.

Related Topics:
SIG/Sauer P-220 - Pistol - HK MP-5 - HK MP-SD3 - AR-15

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Hammel and Price cleared the west side of the store, Peterson and Kelly the east side, with Devlin and Smith going straight up the middle. Stanfill took-up a rear guard position. As the team began its movement toward the front of the store, the remaining hostage takers immediately began to fire on the entry team and hostages. Peterson stepped on the wire that had been used to tether the female hostage sent out to recover he second vest. At that very moment she was snatched to safety by officers outside of the store causing Peterson's feet to fly out form under him, forcing him to fall backwards, just as a shot gun blast blew through the area where he was standing. His fellow team members erroneously believed he had been struck in the face by the blast. As Peterson began to rise to his feet, Devlin and Kelly tried to flank the shotgun wielding suspect who fired on them once again, before being taken under fire by the team.

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Simultaneously on the west side of the store, Price, Hammel, and Stanfill took out one of the suspects before he could react. Stanfil then spotted a second armed suspect and fired on him, but he disappeared into the chaos of the screaming and panicked crowed of hostages. Approximately two seconds later, Number One, was cut down by multiple hits from Hammel, Stanfill, Price and Kelly.

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At this point the team could only account for three of the suspects, and immediately began a systematic search for the fourth one. Price and Hammel discovered and unarmed Asian male, wearing a vest lying on the floor. Once he was rolled over they discovered he had a .223 caliber entrance wound, and had finally accounted for all four suspects.

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During the assault the suspects managed to wound eleven hostages, kill three more, and three other hostages were injured by broken glass. All four suspects were neutralized by the entry team. Three were killed and one, Thai was wounded by Stanfill. None of the SED entry team was wounded. Dead were store employees Kris Edward Sohne and John Lee Fritz and customer Fernando Gutierrez. Gutierrez' niece, Lisa Joseph, also was a hostage. She suffered a miscarriage and later wrote a book on her ordeal. Nguyen is serving his consecutive life sentences in the California State Prison at Corcoran.

Related Topics:
Kris Edward Sohne - John Lee Fritz - Fernando Gutierrez - Lisa Joseph - Miscarriage

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In wake of the Good Guys incident, Federal Cartridge commissioned a series of glass tests with existing, popular hunting rifle bullets. They were objectively looking for the best "brush-busting" bullet, hoping this would also be the best anti-glass bullet with the best after-barrier stability and weight retention. The 308 Win bullets were light (165-grain), medium (180-grain) and heavy (220-grain) softpoints; light (168-grain) and medium (180-grain) Match HPBT bullets and the medium weight (180-grain) Nosler Partition bullet. The barriers were ¼-inch float (commercial) glass, laminated auto glass, thermo pane residential glass and tempered plate glass place at 45 degrees and then 90 degrees.

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The winner of the side-by-side tests was Nosler Partition. It had the least average dispersion (the least change in point of impact after glass), the least absolute dispersion and the least fragmentation (the best weight retention). Next came all three softpoints, followed up by Match hollowpoint boattails.

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