By Brian Anderson
Contra Costa Newspapers

Oct. 31, 2002

OAKLAND —An Alameda County deputy sheriff caught up in the Outback Steakhouse robbery testified today that she was never told about a second call to police concerning the crime before entering the restaurant.

Angela Schwab said she was dispatched the night of Dec. 11, 1998 to the Regional Street restaurant after someone there dialed 911 but hung up before a dispatcher could answer. A call back reached Outback proprietor Jim McGinnis, who said everything was fine.

But dispatchers logged another call, this one from a security company reporting that it had received an emergency signal from the same restaurant. That warning never made it to Schwab, she said.

“I think it would have helped,” she said, referring to how authorities might have handled the call with the additional information. “With a 911 hang-up and an alarm call, there may have been more officers there.

“If there was a robbery in progress, there would have been a whole series of officers dispatched out.”

Instead, only Schwab and Deputy John Paul Monego responded to what officials have characterized as a daring takedown robbery.

Schwab entered first and was taken hostage then stripped of her gun. Monego was about a minute behind and was fired on while coming through the restaurant’s front doors. Prosecutor Jon Goodfellow has said that the shooter went outside and finished off the young Brentwood father with a hail of bullets.

Reuben Eliceo Vasquez, 27, and Miguel Galindo Sifuentes, 23, and Hai Minh Le, 23, are on trial on first degree murder charges and special circumstances. They could face the death penalty if found guilty.

She resumes the stand this afternoon.