Gunmen Take 30 Hostages, Seize Store in Capital : Crime: Authorities report sporadic gunfire in a Sacramento appliance firm. The suspects release three captives in exchange for a bulletproof vest.

SACRAMENTO —  Four armed men, firing their guns inside a large appliance store, held about 30 people hostage for hours Thursday after an attempted robbery, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department said.

After seizing the store about 1:30 p.m., the gunmen began negotiating with sheriff’s deputies by telephone and released three hostages--a woman and her two daughters--in exchange for one bulletproof vest.

There were sporadic bursts of gunfire inside the store for hours after the men entered, but it was unclear what they were shooting at, authorities said. There were no reported injuries.

“We have heard indiscriminate shooting inside the store,” said sheriff’s spokesman Ed Close. “We don’t know what they are aiming at. No one has been hurt, from the information we’re receiving.”

As sheriff’s deputies armed with shotguns surrounded the store several miles southeast of the state Capitol, the gunmen and hostages watched television inside, authorities said.

The four gunmen were believed to be Thai and were talking with authorities through an interpreter. Initially they asked for four bulletproof vests, but deputies delivered only one.

One deputy took off his uniform, removed his vest and turned it over to the gunmen. “One of our sergeants had to strip down to his shorts to make the exchange,” said Trish Guichard, a media assistant with the Sheriff’s Department.

By late afternoon, the four men still held the remaining hostages, a group that included employees as well as shoppers.

One of the four wore a hood with holes cut out for the eyes, said Robert Marquez, a store employee who managed to escape.

“He had a hood on like when you’re hanging somebody,” Marquez said.

Police blocked off streets in the busy commercial neighborhood, and thousands of people stood behind barricades in an effort to see the standoff.

The store, about eight miles from downtown Sacramento, is near an area that has been troubled in recent years by gangs of youths of Southeast Asian descent.

Sheriff’s deputies set up a command post in a branch office of First Interstate Bank across a parking lot from the Good Guys store to coordinate the operation and communicate with the gunmen.

“Normally, negotiation is a long process of waiting and talking,” Sheriff Glen Craig said at the scene. “We are trying to keep them engaged so they don’t get frustrated and take it out on the hostages.”