Gunman Surrenders After 26-Hour Standoff : Crime: Murder suspect at one time held 10 people hostage in Chula Vista. He sustained the only injury.

CHULA VISTA —  A gunman wanted for murder surrendered to police Friday, 26 hours after taking 10 people hostage inside a medical clinic.

Robert Jacobsen, 35, gave himself up at 4:53 p.m., after six tear gas canisters were fired into the building. He walked out of the clinic with his hands raised, holding a telephone in one hand. Several officers approached him slowly, with weapons raised.

Jacobsen was quickly handcuffed by two officers and whisked to a patrol car. Police said he left a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun inside the building.

There apparently were no injuries to the hostages, taken at the ReadiCare Center medical clinic, or to police. The facility is at H Street and 5th Avenue, across from a major shopping center and on one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares.

Jacobsen, however, was shot in the shoulder at the beginning of the standoff Thursday, said Chula Vista Police SWAT commander Lt. Don Partch.

According to Partch, Jacobsen was already inside the clinic when a pursuing plainclothes officer fired a single shot that apparently hit him in the shoulder. That was the only shot fired during the incident, until police fired the tear gas to force Jacobsen to surrender.

At about 2:25 p.m. Friday, Jacobsen had released the last of his 10 hostages. He escorted Emir Kolahzadeh to the front door, shook Kolahzadeh’s hand, and allowed him to walk safely out the building. Kolahzadeh was one of 10 hostages grabbed by Jacobsen on Thursday and the last to be let go.

He and Jacobsen had spent almost 20 hours alone together, sharing pizza and soft drinks provided by police. At times, Jacobsen paraded Kolahzadeh in front of a large window, in clear view of police, alternately pointing the handgun at the hostage’s head and sticking the gun in his waistband while prodding Kolahzadeh from behind.

Chula Vista Police Officer Gary Wedge, a member of the negotiating team, said Kolahzadeh made the negotiations with Jacobsen difficult at times because he seemed to be bonding with his captor.

“We believe that it (bonding) did happen during this incident,” Wedge said. “There were times when we felt (Kolahzadeh) was bonding with the suspect, which made our job more difficult.”

Wedge later blamed Kolahzadeh’s bonding experience to stress brought on by “a situation he was not familiar with . . . and had never been in.” Wedge declined to elaborate.

Kolahzadeh, 21, was freed after police negotiators honored a commitment to allow Jacobsen to talk briefly with his wife, Bobbie, by telephone.

Wedge said Jacobsen made it clear during the negotiations that he did not intend to harm the hostages.

Partch said the freed hostages told police they did not feel threatened by Jacobsen.

“But he gave indications that he would kill himself,” Wedge said.

Jacobsen, an unemployed truck driver and construction worker, was wanted in the Feb. 18 slaying of William Warden, who was shot to death during a burglary at his Chula Vista home. Warden, 73, and his wife, Nola, had apparently known Jacobsen since he was a child.

On Friday, Brad Johnson, Jacobsen’s former employer and friend of 15 years, told The Times that Jacobsen confessed to his wife. Johnson, who said he spent most of Thursday night at Jacobsen’s Chula Vista home, blamed the killing on drug use.

“This is the tragedy of drugs,” said Johnson, 33. “He told his wife he was high at the time. He was looking to steal money and a little jewelry in order to buy drugs.”

As for the shooting, Johnson said Jacobsen “just panicked.”

“He told his wife that the old man surprised him in the hallway. He just panicked and fired. His (Jacobsen’s) wife is pretty devastated by this,” Johnson said.

Warden’s family declined to discuss the incident on the advice of police. Family members, however, acknowledged that William and Nola Warden were friends with Jacobsen.

Despite Jacobsen’s alleged confession to his wife, Chula Vista Police Lt. Merlin Wilson said Jacobsen “has not confessed to me or any of my investigators to the murder as of yet.”

Police had been looking for Jacobsen for about a week. On Thursday, a bartender who works at a bar about two blocks from the clinic called police to tell them Jacobsen was in the bar. By the time officers arrived, Jacobsen was gone.

Police spotted him a few minutes later, about 3 p.m., walking in front of the nearby Fiesta Twin Cinemas, located in a commercial area. Realizing he had been seen by police, Jacobsen ran across the parking lot and entered the medical clinic, authorities said.

Wilson said Jacobsen pulled what police think is the same gun used to kill Warden and took 10 people hostage. About half an hour later, Jacobsen released his first hostage, a man dressed in a blue shirt and blue pants and wearing a bandage around his right hand.

About 5:30 p.m., Jacobsen released seven other hostages, mostly female employees. At 6:40 p.m., another female employee was released. She was the last hostage released until Kolahzadeh was allowed to walk out Friday.

Several times during the standoff, police snipers had a clear shot at Jacobsen, who often stood in clear view in front of different windows. Early Friday morning, Jacobsen walked out of the building and stood by the entrance for five minutes, smoking a cigarette.

At one point, he threatened to shoot at the army of reporters camped out across the street in a mall parking lot. Police took his threats seriously and positioned two huge dump trucks between the reporters and the clinic.

“As long as he doesn’t become violent, we’ll wait him out. Time is on our side,” Wilson said.

According to court records, Jacobsen has had various problems with the law and has served periodic jail sentences.

He was arrested in Chula Vista in 1984 for defrauding an innkeeper, a misdemeanor, served five days in jail and was placed on probation, records show. At the time, he was described by authorities as a transient living out of a car.

In 1985, he was arrested after stealing a car and driving it to Louisiana, where he was caught and extradited, according to court records. He pleaded guilty to vehicle theft, served about six months in jail, and was placed on probation again.

He was returned to jail on probation violations in 1986, 1989 and 1990, court records show. While in jail, Jacobsen expressed remorse, personal torment and love for his family in two letters written to judges.

In the first letter, written in 1985, he pleaded for leniency. He told a judge he wanted to be the “daddy” his young daughter needed.

He also asked the judge to consider his motive for stealing the car. According to Jacobsen’s letter, he stole the car, credit cards and money from a man whom he accused of sexually assaulting him.

“This is something I am going to have to live with for the rest of my life,” Jacobsen wrote. “If you want to know why women who are raped and children who are molested don’t tell or say anything . . . I can tell you. They are ashamed of it, and feel maybe it was there (sic) fault.”

Of his alleged attacker, Jacobsen said he hoped that “God will forgive him for what he did to me, but I’ll never forgive him. I feel like dirt.”

In the second letter, written in June, 1989, Jacobsen again said he had reformed and needed another chance to prove himself a good husband and father. This time he asked the judge to consider his young son’s need for a “daddy.”

“(He) needs his Daddy to guide him straight. . . . I love my family very much, Your Honor, and need them even more. Just as they love and need me. I have changed Sir. I swear I have. I brought this all upon myself. I feel I have payed (sic) my debt to society and to you.”

Jacobsen was removed from formal probation in January, 1991, and placed on court supervision until December, 1992. He was ordered to continue paying $100 a month restitution and refrain from using or possessing drugs.

Times staff writers Jonathan Gaw and Sebastian Rotella contributed to this report.