Fate of OKC man held hostage in Russia unknown

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The fate of an Oklahoma City General Motors employee remained unknown early Saturday after Russian special forces stormed a Moscow theater where Chechen rebels held hundreds hostage.

Saturday, October 26th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The fate of an Oklahoma City General Motors employee remained unknown early Saturday after Russian special forces stormed a Moscow theater where Chechen rebels held hundreds hostage.

The troops reportedly threw sleeping gas into the theater to end the three-day-old siege after the rebels began executing captives, said Sergei Ignatchenko, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service.

Sandy Booker, 49, was among the 600 captives, many of whom were unconscious or in shock as they were loaded onto buses to be taken away from the theater.

His mother, Jean Booker, spent Friday in her Midwest City home answering calls from the media and watching cable news channels.

``I don't know how it's going to come out, but anyway he's still on vacation,'' she said.

Sandy Booker, an electrician, left Monday for Russia. According to published reports, he was going overseas to bring his Russian fiancee and her daughter back to Oklahoma.

His mother said she didn't know he had left the United States, nor that he had a fiancee.

``It's his life. If that's what's going to make him happy, then all right,'' she said. ``I would like to have known he was going to do that.''

Sandy Booker's brother, Rick Booker, went to work as scheduled Friday in The Daily Oklahoman's production department.

He tried to stay busy throughout the day to keep his mind occupied.

``That's the only way I know how to handle it,'' he said as he scanned artwork for a newspaper advertisement.

Kathy Oden, a GM plant spokeswoman, said a majority of the 3,000 workers at the plant wore red, white and blue ribbons in support of their coworker.

``This was something that was started by the UAW (United Automobile Workers) leadership,'' Oden said. ``Everybody's got them on, and we're going to keep them on until he's safely home.''

Stuart Patt, a State Department spokesman, told The Oklahoman he could not release names of any of the hostages.

``We can confirm there are two American citizens that are there; there may be one or two more,'' Patt said. ``But that's all we're really able to say without giving identities.''

About three dozen of the estimated 50 hostage-takers had been killed, but that some apparently had managed to escape. It was unclear how many more hostages were killed.