x
Breaking News
More () »

A history behind the 1991 Sacramento Good Guys hostage situation

The movie "A Clear Shot" is inspired by a 1991 hostage situation in Sacramento where six people died.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The movie "A Clear Shot" is set for a debut at the Esquire Theater. The movie itself is inspired by a 1991 hostage situation where four gunmen took 41 people hostage inside of a Good Guys electronics store in Sacramento premiers Saturday at Esquire Theater. 

Four gunmen burst into a Good Guys store with 9 mm pistols and a shotgun, according to The Chicago Tribune. The hostage situation lasted 8 and a half hours, and six people died during the hostage situation, including three of the gunmen.

Three of the four gunmen were brothers: Loi Nguyen, 21; Pham Nguyen, 19; and Long Nguyen, 17. The Nguyen brothers had escaped from Vietnam in a small fishing boat with their family, according to the Los Angeles Times.  

Cuong Tran, who was the fourth gunman, was a friend of the Nguyens. 

All four gunmen were involved in a gang called the Oriental Boys, according to the Associated Press. Loi was the only gunman to survive. 

The Associated Press wrote that the gang had demanded $4 million, free air passage to Thailand, and 40 individual 1,000-year-old ginger plants.

"They had no consistent demand," Glen Craig, who was the sheriff at the time, told the Chicago Tribune. "We could not keep them focused on anything in the negotiations."          

The Chicago Tribune wrote that as the negotiations went on, hostages were freed or escaped. Gunmen sent a hostage out seven hours after they stormed the store with a message that they would start to shoot everybody inside. 

It wasn't long after that when the first hostage was shot and killed. The gunmen began pointing their guns at the heads of hostages and flipping coins to figure out who they were going to shoot next, according to the Chicago Tribune. 

Eight hours of failed negotiations later, a member of the sheriff's assault team fired a shot through the store's glass door as other officers dropped through the ceiling and started to shoot, according to the Associated Press.

One of the gunmen began to shoot hostages the moment he saw deputies entering the building.

The hostages who died that day were Kris Sohne, 27, John Fritz and Fernando Guiterrez, 28.

Some of the hostages said the gunmen had talked about how it was hard to find jobs, and how they wanted to go to Southeast Asia to fight the "Viet Cong," according to the Washington Post. 

Loi is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in California State Prison, Solano

"A Clear Shot" is scheduled to be screened at Esquire Theater on Saturday at 8:45 p.m.

WATCH MORE: 'Do not offer any information unless you have a lawyer.' | ICE expected to raid this weekend

Before You Leave, Check This Out