Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet
WESTMINSTER, Calif.– Taxi driver Long Hoang Ma, 71, never expected when he answered a call to pick up three passengers in Garden Grove that it would lead him on the ride of his life.
Literally.
Unknown to him, the three passengers he picked up Jan. 22 were the three inmates whom authorities said had escaped from Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana: Bac Duong, 43, Hossein Nayeri, 37, and Jonathan Tieu, 20.
Ma, who speaks limited English, was joined by Nguoi Viet Daily News Managing Editor Do Dzung, who translated as he recounted his story. He said he was taken hostage at gunpoint and survived a harrowing ordeal that lasted nearly a week.
“I thought I was going to die,” Ma said. “I heard Nayeri and Duong arguing and the words ‘boom boom, old man’ and I just knew. I’m thankful to be alive.”
A resident of Garden Grove, Ma works as an independent driver in parts of Little Saigon. He regularly picks up customers who find him through ads he places in the classified section of Nguoi Viet Daily News. When he picked up the inmates, he said, he had no idea who they were, adding they offered him a hamburger before asking him to drive them to a Wal-Mart in Westminster to pick up cell phones. They then headed to a Target and to a strip mall in Rosemead, about 30 miles northwest in Los Angeles County. That’s where they allegedly held him at gunpoint and took him hostage. Nayeri then got behind the wheel of the cab, Ma said.
Ma shows where the inmates pointed the gun at him. (Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
Ma said they stayed at a motel in Rosemead the first night, but he could not recall the name of it. The next morning, Duong brought back to the motel a van he allegedly had stolen from a Craigslist seller in the Los Angeles area.
“After that first night, we went to the Flamingo Inn Motel (in Rosemead) and stayed there for three days,” Ma said. “We watched the news coverage of their escape, and they were very proud of what they had done. They drank two cases of beer, and a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and smoked non-stop.”
From there, he said, they headed to San Jose, with Duong and Ma driving his car; Tieu rode in the van with Nayeri. According to Ma, it was clear Nayeri was the mastermind and leader of the group, even going so far as saying he sensed that Duong was afraid of his fellow escapee.
Ma said he was befriended by inmate Bac Duong, who called him “uncle” and served as his protector as the fugitives argued over whether to kill him. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
Tieu, whom he referred to as the “little one,” was quiet, and followed orders, he said. Before the escape, Nayeri had been jailed for more than a year without bond on charges of torture, kidnapping, aggravated mayhem and burglary. Duong had been held without bond since December on a number of charges that included attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Tieu had been incarcerated since October on a $1 million bond for charges that include murder and attempted murder.
Ma said that while he was with the fugitives, he spent the most time with Duong but did not engage in much conversation because he thought he was a killer. However, it was Duong who resisted Nayeri’s plans to kill Ma. At one point, Ma said the men fought, and Nayeri punched Duong in the face.
Cab driver Long Ma, 74, spent a week with the escaped inmates before being freed. (Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
In San Jose, Duong took Ma to a Western Union to collect $3,000 that he said Nayeri’s mother had wired to him. The next day, when Nayeri and Tieu left the motel to have the windows of the white GMC utility van tinted, Duong told him they were leaving, Ma said.
“Bac Duong said, ‘No, we have to go. We have to go right now,’” Ma said. “Duong and I left on a Thursday, and he told me we could have left earlier except Nayeri had the gun. Duong wanted to make sure he had the gun because he felt Nayeri would have wreaked a lot of havoc and hurt many people.”
Duong then drove the Honda Civic, the car Ma used as a taxi, back to Orange County with Ma in the front seat, hands unbound. He said they first drove to the office of a Westminster attorney to surrender, but they were turned away by the secretary.
A seal from the Sheriff’s Office could still be seen on Ma’s car. (Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
Duong then drove to Auto Electric Rebuilders in Santa Ana, where Duong contacted a friend who called 911 to notify authorities, Ma said.
He surrendered Friday, Jan. 29.
The following day, Nayeri and Tieu were caught in San Francisco after a vigilant citizen spotted the van and alerted authorities. Police have not confirmed whether a gun was found in the car but Ma said he is certain Duong had it in the Civic.
“From the bottom of my heart, I can say Bac Duong saved my life and I owe him,” Ma said. “I’m so thankful, so grateful to him.”
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