The FBI on Wednesday said the suspect who was shot and killed by officers after holding several people hostage inside a downtown Bakersfield, California, building was “no stranger” to law enforcement and sought county school officials on the building’s second floor.During a press conference following the officer-involved shooting that ended an hourslong standoff, FBI Special Agent in Charge for the Sacramento field office Sid Patel identified 41-year-old Anthony Scott Searles-Harris as the suspect. Patel said Searles-Harris had a criminal record and was “no stranger to law enforcement” and a registered sex offender. Searles-Harris served in the U.S. Army from 2006 to 2007 but was dishonorably discharged for being absent without leave.
The hostage situation had initially been reported at a JPMorgan Chase bank branch in Bakersfield, but Patel clarified that the scene was the office of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools. Chase Bank leases a first-floor space from the superintendent’s office, which is located on the second floor.
Patel said the 10 hostages were all employees of the superintendent’s office and that five of them were tied up during the roughly 12-hour standoff with police. None of the hostages was said to have any injuries.
