. >> reporter: for police it began when fugitive jason valdez was spotted by an officer. >> he has alated history with us. and he's a very well known and long-standing gang member as well. >> reporter: police pursued and he locked himself in a motel room. >> when police made contact with him on the phone, he simply stated, i'm not going back to prison. i have a gun, i have a hostage. >> reporter: it was the beginning of a 15-hour standoff. police shut down his phone service, but they didn't realize they couldn't block his data service. several hours in, the situation took a strange twist. >> we were notified by someone on the outside that he was coming up on facebook and he was discussing the negotiations and police activity. >> reporter: he updated his facebook status six times, quote, i'm currently in a standoff. kind of ugly. i love you guys. if i don't make it out of here alive, i'm in a better place. at one point, he posted a picture of his hostage, whose face we have blurred, with the note, quote, got a cute hostage, huh? relatives and friends chimed in, keep your head up, do t