Suspect who took 10 hostages is dead after hourslong bomb threat at California building, authorities say

By Andy Rose, CNN

(CNN) — A man who took 10 hostages while claiming to have explosives in a California school district’s offices before authorities killed him Wednesday morning was an Army veteran and convicted sex offender, authorities said.

Anthony Scott Searles-Harris, 41, took the hostages on the second floor of the Chase Bank building in downtown Bakersfield some 100 miles north of Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon, leading to a roughly 15-hour standoff before he was killed in a shooting involving the FBI, authorities said.

All hostages have been recovered safely, including two who were released on Tuesday during authorities’ negotiations with Searles-Harris, Jeremy Blakemore, Bakersfield assistant police chief, said during a news conference. Though the building’s ground floor houses a bank branch, the hostages were taken on a separate floor that contains the offices of the Kern County school superintendent’s administration, authorities said.

“The suspect advised he had explosives attached to his person, which our personnel could see as well,” Blakemore said. “He also told law enforcement that additional explosives had been attached to some of the hostages, which we confirmed based on our own observations.”

All hostages were reunited with their families Wednesday, Blakemore said. The suspect was killed after an FBI team entered the building Wednesday morning – a move prompted by his “erratic behavior” and concerns about the health of a hostage, said Sid Patel, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Sacramento field office.

“There were a total of 10 members of our community whose lives were changed yesterday unexpectedly,” Blakemore said. “Throughout the night, their families questioned whether or not they would be seen again, but we are very grateful for the outcome and the fact that we’ve been able to protect their lives.”

Police have not confirmed whether the improvised explosive devices would have worked, Patel said.

Searles-Harris had barricaded himself inside the building’s second floor with hostages around 1 p.m. Tuesday, prompting police to shut down the surrounding area and lock down nearby government buildings, authorities said. The rest of the building, including the bank branch, was evacuated.

Searles-Harris, who officials said tied up five of the 10 hostages, had a “criminal history of using weapons to commit violent offenses,” Patel said.

In 2014, Searles-Harris was convicted of two sex offenses involving a child under the age of 14, state records show.

A motive in the hostage incident is under investigation, Blakemore said.

During negotiations, Searles-Harris expressed “some concerns related to how his previous cases, our case, had been handled and what the aftermath of that was – his sentencing,” Blakemore said.

Although several of the hostages were school district employees, there is no indication they were deliberately targeted by Searles-Harris, Blakemore said.

The suspect lived in a home about 3 miles away from the crime scene.

How the situation unfolded

After police received calls about the hostage situation around 1 p.m. Tuesday, negotiators spoke to Searles-Harris by phone, police said. Members of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team eventually were called to the scene, Patel said.

During negotiations, two hostages were released Tuesday: one around 4 p.m., and another shortly before 8:30 p.m., Blakemore said.

Negotiations eventually stalled, and Searles-Harris refused to release more hostages, Blakemore said.

On Wednesday morning, FBI agents entered the building to confront Searles-Harris, prompted in part by concerns about one of the hostages, Patel said.

“She was diabetic, and we knew that this is a loss-of-life situation for that particular hostage … if we didn’t act sooner than later,” Patel said.

The hostage was in touch with authorities – who were able to get medicine for her at some point – until her phone died, the special agent added.

Five people hid and never encountered the suspect, the FBI said, without elaborating.

The shooting that killed Searles-Harris happened around 4:20 a.m. Wednesday, Bakersfield police said. Bakersfield police were not involved in the shooting, they said.

Police tape was stretched across several intersections as the area around the building was cordoned off, and authorities said Wednesday morning law enforcement would remain there “for the next several hours as investigators process the scene.”

Searles-Harris served in the US Army from 2006 to 2007, and was dishonorably discharged for going absent without leave, Patel said.

Fatal shootings involving FBI agents can lengthen the time it takes for law enforcement to release a crime scene. When an FBI agent fires a weapon, a shooting review team from Washington, DC, is mobilized. The inspectors work alongside other FBI investigators to determine whether discharging the weapon fell within the bureau’s deadly force policy.

Bakersfield – known as a western cultural hub of country music – is on the southern end of California’s Central Valley. It has a population of around 420,000 – roughly the same as that of Tampa, Florida – and Bakersfield’s metropolitan area is the ninth-largest in California.

CNN’s Jack Hannah, Josh Campbell, Tina Burnside and Cindy Von Quednow contributed to this report.

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