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Standoff Closes Dale Mabry

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI AND KEITH MORELLI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 2, 2008

TAMPA - Esteban Gonzalez Jr. was inside his family's white clapboard home when his mother telephoned just before noon Thursday with horrifying news.

His father, Esteban Gonzalez Sr., had abducted her at gunpoint and exchanged fire with deputies outside a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant at 14703 N. Dale Mabry Highway. They were speeding down the road being chased by deputies.

"She said he had basically told her he wasn't going to stop and if they did stop he wasn't going to go lightly," Gonzalez Jr. said in a telephone interview given as the standoff unfolded. His mother, Olga, 42, didn't say anything more before the phone went dead, he said.

Gonzalez Jr., 23, turned on his television, and the chase was broadcast live into the family's rural home in Dover.

Then the phone rang again. This time it was his father. He told his father to think about what he was doing and to weigh his options. "He said he was sorry," Gonzalez said. "He wanted me to take care of my little 7-year-old brother and make sure he was OK."

He said he asked his father why he was doing it.

"He said he was tired of all the lies and frustrated with what was going on," Gonzalez Jr. said. He said his father told him he'd talked to his own mother and sister near Brownsville, Tex. Then he hung up.

The drama began outside the restaurant on Dale Mabry south of Bearss Avenue where Olga Gonzalez was attending a work meeting.

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