U.S.

Rescue Ends Hostage Standoff

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

December 9, 2000 / 10:13 PM EST / CBS

A 13-year-old boy was rescued Saturday after a 10-hour hostage standoff with police that ended in the death of the federal officer who was suspected of kidnapping him.

The body of David Clairmont was found after shots were fired during the rescue. It was not known if he committed suicide or had been struck by police gunfire.

Clairmont, 32, was a police officer with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Los Angeles. He was due in court Monday to face charges of sex crimes related to the boy.

Clairmont, who was wearing his uniform, forced the boy into his car Friday morning at a bus stop in Bermuda Dunes, an unincorporated area about 15 miles east of Palm Springs.

Several other children witnessed the abduction but were not hurt, police said. They told officers they didn't see Clairmont display a weapon.

Clairmont then eluded police during a high-speed freeway chase, said Riverside County Sheriff's spokesman Mark Lohman.

During the chase, Clairmont sped west on Interstate 10 and was spotted near Banning by a California Highway Patrol officer. He allegedly fled at speeds reaching 110 mph before officers lost sight of him at a freeway exit in Redlands.

The standoff began about 11 p.m., when an employee at the Country Suites Hotel told authorities he recognized Clairmont from news reports.

Part of the hotel was evacuated and hostage negotiators talked through the night with Clairmont and the boy, who were barricaded in a hotel room bathroom, Lohman said.

Police sent tear gas under the door and the boy was pulled to safety through a window, Lohman said. Authorities later found Clairmont dead in the room.

The officer and the boy were once neighbors.