| 1990 Henry's Pub hostage crisis | |
|---|---|
| Location | Henry's Pub, Hotel Durant, Berkeley, California, U.S. |
| Date | September 28, 1990; 34 years ago (1990-09-28) 12:05 a.m. – 7:30 a.m. |
| Attack type | Hostage-taking, siege, mass shooting |
| Weapons | Three pistols:
|
| Deaths | 2 (including the perpetrator) |
| Injured | 7 |
| Perpetrator | Mehrdad Dashti |
The Henry's Pub hostage incident was a hostage crisis that occurred on September 28, 1990, at Henry's Pub inside the Hotel Durant in Berkeley, California, United States.
Mehrdad Dashti, who had schizophrenia, held 33 hostages for seven hours, terrorizing them and sexually degrading some of them. Dashti and a hostage were killed when police entered the premises.
Incident
At about 12:30 am, Iranian-born 29-year-old Mehrdad Dashti brought with him 445 rounds of ammunition, and three guns and held 33 hostages for 7 hours in the bar near the University of California, Berkeley. During the incident the hostage-taker issued irrational, delusional demands to the police officers, such as asking for trillions of dollars from the federal government in exchange for telepathy services or insisting that San Francisco Police Chief Frank Jordan make a statement, appear on television and drop his pants. He ordered some blonde female students to undress below the waist and spoke sexually demeaning language to them.
By 7 am, police negotiators had unsuccessfully tried to disarm Dashti and decided to move in. In the siege a student was killed, John N. Sheehy (22), shot in the chest at close range, and six other students and one police officer were wounded by gunfire. Dashti jumped up and fired two shots at the kitchen door, and the gunman was shot and killed with a hail of 24 bullets to his head and chest.
References
- "Voice of demons' tormented gunman". upi.com. September 28, 1990.
- "25 years later: Henry's hostage crisis remembered". berkeleyside.org. Archived from the original on June 3, 2021. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
- Emilie, Raguso (2 October 2015). "25 years later: Henry's hostage crisis remembered". Archived from the original on 31 October 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
- Gross, Jane (28 September 1990). "Berkeley Gunman Kills Student Taken Hostage". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 14 August 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
- Snow, Robert L. (2013-11-11). SWAT Teams: Explosive Face-Offs with America's Deadliest Criminals. Springer. ISBN 978-1-4899-6048-1.
- Killings by law enforcement officers in the United States
- Hostage taking in the United States
- Crimes in the San Francisco Bay Area
- 1990 in California
- 20th century in Berkeley, California
- Deaths by firearm in California
- 1990 crimes in the United States
- September 1990 crimes
- 1990 mass shootings in the United States
- Mass shootings in California