Westminster : Man Holds Son Hostage in Marital Dispute

A Westminster man, upset by his separation from his wife, held their 12-year-old son hostage for nearly nine hours, then released the boy unharmed early Friday morning, police said.

Manuel Dalla Ramirez, 39, held his son in their Monroe Street home from 8:30 p.m. Thursday until 5:13 a.m. Friday. The elder Ramirez’s mother, a Costa Mesa resident, finally persuaded him to surrender, said Westminster Police Officer Larry Woessner.

The boy “was not physically harmed at all, just shaken up a bit,” Woessner said. His father was arrested and booked into County Jail on suspicion of felony child endangerment, Woessner said. He was held on $10,000 bail.

Ramirez’s wife, Rose, called him Thursday evening in Westminster “to discuss their separation and possible divorce,” Woessner said. They already had been separated for several days.

The boy was staying with his father when the phone call came. Ramirez “told his wife he had a gun and was threatening to use it on the boy,” Woessner said. Ramirez said he would kill his son before he would allow his wife to gain custody of him, she told police.

Rose Ramirez notified Westminster police, who sent 19 officers, including a “quick response team” and a hostage negotiator, to the Ramirez home. But Manuel Ramirez “continually refused to surrender or release his son and was demanding to talk to his wife again,” Woessner said.

Although Ramirez “threatened to use the gun on any officer who came into the house, as well as on the boy and himself,” Woessner said, no shots were fired, and no nearby homes were evacuated.

When his mother persuaded Ramirez, by telephone, to surrender, father, with no weapon in hand, and son left the house together. But inside the house, police found two empty .22-caliber rifles, a loaded .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol, and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition.