Hostages Released, Suspect Dead After 15-Hour Standoff and Bomb Threat at Bakersfield Bank Building

A 15-hour hostage standoff at a Chase Bank building in downtown Bakersfield, California, ended Wednesday morning with the suspect dead and all hostages unharmed, according to police. The suspect, identified as Anthony Scott Searles-Harris, 41, an Army veteran and convicted sex offender, was killed in a shooting involving FBI personnel around 4:20 a.m.

Wednesday. The incident began around 1 p.m.

Tuesday when Searles-Harris took 10 hostages in the Kern County school district superintendent's offices on the second floor of the building, which also houses a Chase Bank branch. Authorities said the suspect claimed to have explosives attached to his person and to some of the hostages, which law enforcement confirmed through their own observations.

Two hostages were released Tuesday during negotiations, and the remaining eight were freed unharmed after the suspect was shot. The FBI's Hostage Rescue Team was called to the scene.

The suspect's demands were not immediately disclosed. The area around the building was cordoned off, and law enforcement remained on scene for several hours to process evidence.

A shooting review team from Washington, D.C., was mobilized to investigate the use of deadly force by FBI agents. Bakersfield, a city of about 420,000 in California's Central Valley, experienced a lockdown of nearby government buildings during the standoff.