Police said Wednesday a man who took several people hostage at a Bakersfield bank building is dead and all hostages have been freed after a roughly 15-hour standoff.
The suspect had barricaded himself inside the building on Chester Avenue and 17th Street around 1 p.m. Tuesday local time, prompting a massive law enforcement response that involved crisis negotiators and the FBI.
He was pronounced dead at the scene following an officer-involved shooting with FBI personnel, Bakersfield police said, and the department said the shooting occurred around 4:20 a.m.
Bakersfield police said two of the hostages were released Tuesday night after crisis negotiators spoke with the suspect by telephone; the remaining hostages were later found in the building unharmed and received medical care at the scene. Officials had said earlier there were no reports of injuries and the hostages were "in good health."
The downtown office building houses a bank and a school district office and is a four-story structure with dark-tinted glass windows, authorities said. A spokesperson for Chase Bank said Tuesday night that the branch in that building was empty and not involved in the standoff. Meghan Durant, a spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase, said in an emailed statement Wednesday that the branch is on the ground floor and that they were working with authorities, and the building houses other offices not connected to Chase Bank.
Officers established a perimeter around the area, nearby buildings including City Hall and the police headquarters a block away were evacuated, and some roads were temporarily closed while authorities warned the public to stay away. The area surrounding the building remained closed Wednesday morning, and police urged people to avoid the area and allow for extra travel time.
"We have every single resource at our disposal out here to bring this to the safest resolution possible," Sgt. Eric Celedon said Tuesday.
Jacob Davidson, a livestreamer known as Dad's Gone Live, said he was a block from the bank at his family's tattoo shop when he started getting calls about the bomb threat. He said, "This is the biggest police presence I've ever seen in this town," and his livestream captured a woman rocking back and forth Tuesday night before crouching below a window and later two hands waving.
Mayor Karen Goh said she was monitoring the situation and asked the community to keep those involved in their prayers.
It was not immediately clear how many people had been taken hostage, and the investigation remains ongoing.
Bakersfield is about 113 miles north of Los Angeles on the southern edge of California's San Joaquin Valley.