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Florida hostage-taker apologizes, releases 2

image
Rescue personnel comfort the two children released on Sunday  

3 other hostages still held

July 23, 2000
Web posted at: 10:58 p.m. EDT (0258 GMT)


In this story:

Shot fired

Lawyer makes appeal

A violent history

RELATED STORIES, SITES icon



ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- A gunman who is holed up with hostages in an Orlando, Florida, home apologized to his family and friends late Sunday afternoon in a telephoned message recorded by police.

Earlier Sunday afternoon, Jamie Dean Petron released unharmed an 8-year-old boy and infant girl. He is still holding an 11-month-old boy, an adult woman, and a 16-year-old girl.

"This is not me," said Petron in his message, addressed to "Landom, my son Anthony, and my granddaughter and my friends and my family."

"This is something that totally happened," Petron said. "All I can say is that deep in my heart I am really apologetic for this. I love everybody, and I didn't hurt no one intentionally or unintentionally. I did the right thing.

  AUDIO

Hostage-taker Jamie Dean Petron apologizes to his family in a tape-recorded message

307K/27 sec.
AIFF or WAV sound
 
  MESSAGE BOARD
 

"I love you guys. And I'm really, really sorry this happened this way. I'm not the devil ... and I love you guys, and maybe we'll see each other again someday."

Petron is suspected of fatally shooting a clerk and seriously wounding the owner during a convenience store robbery Friday in Broward County. He entered a home Saturday in an Orlando neighborhood and initially took seven hostages, police said.

Two hostages escaped Saturday -- Norman West, 28, and his mother.

West was shot by Petron as he fled. The bullet grazed his head, and he was hospitalized but was listed in good condition Sunday, authorities said.

West's mother escaped uninjured.

Shot fired

Earlier on Sunday, a SWAT team sharpshooter fired one shot into the home where Petron has been holed up since Saturday.

image
Rescue personnel carry out one of the two young hostages that were being held on Sunday  

Angelo Nieves, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, said it was not clear who may have been hit, and made a plea on local television for Petron, 41, to give himself up.

An Orange County Fire Department official said units on the scene reported that the shot had wounded the suspect in the shoulder. Nieves said that Petron -- who called a local television station -- claimed a woman inside the house had been hit, but police could not confirm either report.

"What we're asking is for Mr. Petron, if there are injuries, to please let us go in and get that person and let them come out or at least surrender himself and surrender his weapons in order that we can take care of this person, if anybody is injured in the residence," said Nieves, adding that medical personnel were on the scene.

Lawyer makes appeal

Earlier Sunday, Petron's lawyer appealed on local television for his client to give himself up.

"Jim, you're my friend and I'm your lawyer," said Spencer Siegel. "You know that I have never let you down. This is one time that I need you to trust me. Come on out. We can find some resolutions here. There are answers to these questions that you haven't even considered, and I will show them to you. I promise."

Petron's girlfriend also made a televised appeal for him to surrender.

Siegel said the suspect is a "a peaceful man who has no intentions of hurting the children, at all. He is looking for a quiet resolution where no one gets hurt."

A violent history

image
The Orlando Police Department SWAT team, in black uniforms, relieves the Orange County Sheriff's Department SWAT team, in camouflage, early Sunday  

Police, however, said that Petron has a history of violence.

Siegel said Petron was tired. "He is trying to come to terms with what's been going on around him," Siegel said.

Police surrounded the Meadow Woods Village neighborhood and evacuated residents next to the house that Petron -- armed with at least one handgun -- entered Saturday about 11:30 a.m.

Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary said Petron had shot and wounded one of his deputies in Saturday's confrontation.

"We're dealing with somebody that's demonstrated he's very violent," Beary said, adding that Petron had served time in jail for the attempted murder of a Leon County sheriff's deputy in 1985.

The suspect had allowed the younger children in the house to eat Saturday.

Police used a robot to deliver food to the doorstep Sunday, but Nieves said the food had not been brought inside the house.

Petron runs an auto body shop that does work for the Broward County Sheriff's Department, and his son is a correctional officer with that department.



RELATED STORIES:
Last of hostages released as gunmen at Los Angeles area jewelry store surrender
July 16, 2000
Gunman surrenders after California hostage standoff
July 4, 2000
Disney World hostage standoff ends peacefully; suspect surrenders
June 30, 2000
Archbishop freed by man claiming to have grenade
June 28, 2000
Maryland hostage-taker killed, captives safe
March 22, 2000

RELATED SITES:
Orange County Sheriff's Office


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