12-Hour Denny's Armed Standoff Nets Arrest: Campbell Police

CAMPBELL, CA -- Police officers have taken a suspect in custody, resolving an armed standoff that lasted about 12 hours and involved a man who stayed alone in the Denny's restaurant at 2060 South Bascom Ave. after having a confrontation with a contract employee in the parking lot, Capt. Gary Berg told Patch.

Along with a crisis negotiations team, a SWAT team was brought in and used a diversionary device used to get the man to surrender from an escalating situation that prompted police to block off South Bascom Avenue from East Campbell Avenue to the north to Dry Creek Road to the south.

Bascom Avenue is now open. No one was hurt.

The man pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it at the Denny's employee following an argument in the restaurant parking lot that led to the unidentified suspect tossing coffee on the staffer. The man returned to the restaurant, sat in a booth and remained silent the whole time. Campbell police was called, officers arrived and told remaining employees to exit.

At one point, he was seen on top of the roof but returned to the restaurant, still refusing to cooperate with police. A chemical agent was launched in the restaurant, forcing the suspect to flee. He was then taken into custody.

"He didn't talk to us at all," Berg said.

When asked about the suspect's mental state, Berg said: "I don't know what his state of mind was."

Berg added that police didn't "know what he was doing in there."

The nature of the argument in the parking lot remains a mystery as well.

"He didn't like what the employee was doing," the captain said.

The scene attracted swarms of people watching and listening to the progression of the incident that started at 5:30 a.m. Friday.

Priscilla Gonzalez arrived for work at 6 a.m. at the Shell gas station on the corner of East Campbell and Bascom Avenue to what would have been an ordinary day if not for noticing a man actly strangely inside the Denny's across the street, and Campbell police officers blocking the major thoroughfare.

"I heard: 'Come out, come out the front door,' and saw him pacing back and forth," Gonzalez told Patch this morning. She described him as wearing a hoodie. She saw no employees or customers during the incident. She did hear a helicopter circling the restaurant at Arroyo Seco Drive and Bascom.

The street is one of the Silicon Valley city's busiest -- with the restaurant located east of State Route 17 and just south of The Pruneyard complex where hundreds of people shop, eat and drink.

Denny's corporate office expressed relief the man appears to be the only one inside the restaurant and noted employees know what to do in these types of circumstances.

"The safety of our guests and our team members is always our top priority. Our restaurant teams know to seek safety for guests and employees first and then contact the authorities in the event a person brandishes a weapon on our property. We remain hopeful that the Campbell police will be able to resolve this situation safely for everyone involved," Denny's corporate spokesman Paul Spencer told Patch.

The zone surrounding the Denny's was cordoned off, with many local businesses not answering their phones.

Three blocks away, Ross Dress For Less store customers were asking employees for hours about the commotion that involves several assisting agencies. They are Santa Clara, Los Gatos/Monte Sereno police departments; Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety; Santa Clara County Sheriffs and the Santa Clara County Fire Department.

Anyone with information regarding the incident is being asked to call the Campbell Police Investigations Unit at 408-871-5190.

--Image courtesy of Barbara Knox