A man who held hostages inside a California office building for approximately 12 hours was shot and killed by FBI agents early Wednesday, according to police. The hostages were discovered unharmed inside the downtown Bakersfield building, which houses a bank and a school district office, the Bakersfield Police Department stated.
Standoff Details
The suspect was killed in an officer-involved shooting involving FBI personnel. The standoff began Tuesday afternoon when officers responded to a bomb threat at the Chase Bank building, a four-story office building with dark-tinted glass windows. Police reported that the man had barricaded himself with several people inside.
The department's crisis negotiation team communicated with the suspect by phone, and two hostages were released Tuesday night. Nearby buildings, including City Hall and police headquarters, were evacuated, and some roads were temporarily closed. Bakersfield, with a population of about 380,000, is the seat of largely rural Kern County, about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Police Response
Officers established a perimeter around the area and warned the public to stay away. A JPMorgan Chase spokesperson confirmed the bank branch is on the ground floor. Bakersfield police Sgt. Eric Celedon said Tuesday, "We have every single resource at our disposal out here to bring this to the safest resolution possible."
Jacob Davidson, a livestreamer known as Dad's Gone Live, was near the bank at his family's tattoo shop when he heard about the bomb threat. He said, "I went into the bank's parking garage and watched the cops enter the back of the bank. This is the biggest police presence I've ever seen in this town." His livestream captured a woman rocking back and forth before crouching below a window, and later two hands waving.
