Staff Writers

EMERYVILLE — A seven-hour standoff at an Office Depot store ended early Saturday morning when police arrested an armed robbery suspect disguised as a revolutionary comic book character and a store employee who police believe let the man into the store.

Police said all of the Office Depot workers, who had been hostages for two to three hours, were able to escape from the store, unharmed.

Investigators didn’t release the names of either suspect on Saturday, saying only that the alleged robber was a 45-year-old Oakland resident. On Friday night, the man was reportedly armed with a silver pistol and wearing a Guy Fawkes mask from the “V for Vendetta” comic book series and film.

Taylor Cryer, a 19-year-old employee at the 3535 Hollis St. store, said she was in the bathroom around 9:30 p.m. when the suspect is believed to have entered the store, holding her co-workers hostage in a backroom. Not knowing anything was happening, Cryer said, she began her cleanup duties and noticed the door was standing wide open — unusual for that time of night, well after the store had been closed.

Cryer said police called the store immediately after she closed the door, saying they had received a report of suspicious activity from a passer-by. She told them she couldn’t see anything, she said, and ran to the back of the store to see what was going on.

“I could hear one of my co-workers yelling in the office, `Just take what you want,'” she said.

The officer on the phone told her to walk out of the store, she said.

“I was just praying that everybody got out,” Cryer said.

Cryer said she waited outside, with Emeryville and Oakland police, until 3 a.m. Police evacuated the Best Buy store nearby and closed off Michael’s crafts and Toys R Us. According to accounts from police and Cryer, the other employees were able to get out of the store between 10 and 11 p.m.

At around 2:45 a.m., members of the Oakland police SWAT team entered the building to search for the suspect. Around 4:30 a.m., police said, they arrested a man who had been hiding in a false ceiling above the office area. Police said the suspect was injured when he fell from his hiding spot; they took him to the Alameda County Medical Center for treatment.

Cryer said it appeared the man had rummaged through her purse and other belongings, which were covered in blood when they were returned to her on Saturday. She didn’t believe he had taken anything, she said.

Investigators said a review of store tapes showed an employee letting the robber into the store around 9:30 p.m. The store closes at 9 p.m. on Fridays.

On Saturday afternoon, the store was still closed, but police cars remained at the back of the store.

Nicole St. Denis, a customer service employee, stood in front of the entrance, cheerfully offering customers coupons, free cups of Starbucks Coffee, and directions to an Office Depot location in Berkeley. The store was closed because of an investigation, she told them, but she couldn’t provide more details.

Mindy Kramer, director of public relations for the Florida-based office products supplier, also had little to say about the event.

She wouldn’t confirm whether employees are instructed not to open the doors after the store has closed or if the Office Depot would hire a security guard to protect its employees from such incidents in the future.

In an e-mail, she wrote, “Unfortunately we don’t have additional details to share as this is an ongoing investigation and we are cooperating fully with the police on this matter.”

Staff Writer Harry Harris contributed to this report.