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A California sex offender who was killed after he held several people hostage during an hourslong standoff had expressed concerns over how his case was handled, according to police and his former attorney.
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The man, identified as Anthony Scott Searles-Harris, 41, stormed the building on Chester Avenue and 17th Street in Bakersfield just before 1 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said. Police said at a news conference Wednesday that they began receiving calls shortly afterward about a man with explosives inside.
Searles-Harris barricaded himself on the second floor and took 10 Kern County Superintendent of Schools employees hostage, Bakersfield Assistant Police Chief Jeremy Blakemore said.
The standoff prompted a massive law enforcement response that involved crisis negotiators and the FBI.
Kern County Schools Superintendent John Mendiburu said he was relieved the incident was “resolved without physical injury to any KCSOS staff members.”
“What unfolded was undoubtedly a terribly frightening and unsettling experience, and the composure our employees demonstrated throughout the 16-hour ordeal was extraordinary,” he said in a statement.
Blakemore said two of the hostages were released Tuesday following negotiations that involved “discussions and exchanges related to food and water, those types of things.”
“There was also some element related to his previous court case and in terms of materials that he wanted to see, so we were able to provide some of that in exchange for getting release of the hostages,” he said.
After the first two hostages were released, Blakemore said, negotiations stalled, and Searles-Harris refused to release anyone else.
During the standoff, police said the man revealed that he had explosives attached to himself, which law enforcement could see, according to Blakemore. The suspect also said explosives had been attached to some of the hostages, which law enforcement was able to confirm based on its own observations.
Five of the hostages had been tied up, said Sid Patel, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Sacramento field office.
One of the hostages had her phone and was communicating with law enforcement until it died, Patel said. He told reporters that she has diabetes and that authorities were able to get medicine to her.
Patel said that because of the circumstances and the suspect’s behavior, a hostage rescue team “neutralized” him around 4:30 a.m.
He was pronounced dead at the scene following a shooting with FBI personnel, Bakersfield police said in a statement.
All of the hostages were physically unharmed, police said.
Authorities said Searles-Harris was known to law enforcement. He served in the Army from 2006 to 2007 but was dishonorably discharged for going AWOL. His criminal history includes using weapons to commit violent offenses, Patel said, and in 2014 he was charged with sex acts with a child under 14. He was a registered sex offender, police said.
A motive remains under investigation. Police do not believe the Kern County Schools employees were the targets.
A spokesperson for Chase Bank, which has a branch in the building, said Tuesday night that the office 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 the company was working with authorities.
The area surrounding the building remained closed Wednesday morning. Police urged people to avoid the area and allow for extra travel time.
Bakersfield is about 113 miles north of Los Angeles on the southern edge of California’s San Joaquin Valley. Mayor Karen Goh said she was monitoring the situation and asked the community to keep those involved in their prayers.
Searles-Harris became a registered sex offender after he was convicted of sex crimes involving a minor in 2014.
Those charges stemmed from an incident in 2011.
Searles-Harris, then 27, allegedly attended parties at his Bakersfield home where drugs and alcohol were given to minors, according to court documents. During one such party, he allegedly told everyone to leave except for two minors to whom he offered money to perform a sex act on a man in his 20s who arrived at the property later, according to court documents.
In 2014, he was convicted in a jury trial of acting in concert to commit forcible oral copulation, lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 and participating in oral copulation with a minor under 14 and more than 10 years younger in connection with that incident, court documents show.
Searles-Harris filed an appeal in 2014, and three years later California’s 5th Appellate District Court reversed his conviction on the forcible oral copulation charge pertaining to one of the minors over insufficient evidence and lack of proof that the minor was forced and feared injury.
He was sentenced to six years in prison in 2014. He received credit for time served and was released on parole in February 2018.
Blakemore, the assistant police chief, said that conversations with Searles-Harris during Tuesday’s barricade situation “led us to believe that he was really concerned about his previous case history” and that his social media posts pointed to concerns about his how case was handled and the aftermath.
Asked about that in an interview Wednesday, Arturo Revelo, Searles-Harris’ defense attorney in that case, replied: “Why now? Why eight years later?”
Revelo told NBC News that law enforcement drove him to Tuesday’s barricade scene because Searles-Harris had asked to speak with him.
“They didn’t let me talk to him. I was there for five hours, and I saw the whole thing unfold,” he said.
He and Searles-Harris didn’t have a good relationship and didn’t keep in touch, Revelo said, describing his former client as a “narcissist” who “blamed everybody except himself for whatever happened to him.”
Revelo said Searles-Harris didn’t have any knowledge of how to make a weapon.
Patel, the FBI special agent, said Wednesday that during the barricade, “there were multiple IEDs that presented a concern” for law enforcement, referring to improvised explosive devices. Asked whether they were functional, Patel said testing continues, “but we were able to conclude at this point in time that they were not a concern to us.”
Revelo said he wasn’t aware of Searles-Harris’ having mental health issues but believes he targeted the site of a bank because he wanted to be killed by the FBI.
“He had no reason to be doing this, so there is no way in hell that this man went there with other purpose other than getting himself killed by the FBI,” Revelo said.
Revelo denounced Searles-Harris’ killing. Despite his former client’s criminal history, Revelo said, he “didn’t deserve to be killed like a dog.”
Minyvonne Burke is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News.
Marlene Lenthang is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC
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