After slightly over eight hours of being barricaded at his residence on the 200 block of Cleopatra Drive in Pleasant Hill, Chunliam Saechao, 40, surrendered to the FBI SWAT Team without further incident, police said Saturday morning. The FBI SWAT team was called in this morning to take over for the Central County SWAT who planned to revisit the scene at 2 p.m., if necessary.
According to a press release issued by the Pleasant Hill Police Department at 11 a.m., Saechao exited his home at around 7:52 a.m. and was taken into custody. He will be booked on numerous felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon and attempted homicide of a police officer.
Saechao is a former officer with the Pittsburg Police Department.
The shelter in place was lifted at about 9:24 a.m. and all roads re-opened to thru-traffic, police advised.
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The Pleasant Hill Police Department acknowledge the effort of the Sherman Acres neighborhood and neighboring communities' compliance of the shelter in place despite the heightened fear of this incident. The safety and security of the community were consistently observed and evaluated.
Police say they are grateful that the de-escalation tactics resulted in a peaceful resolution, preventing any physical harm or casualties to law enforcement, personnel or the neighboring community.
On Saturday, Pleasant hill police Chief Scott Vermillion the decision with officers and SWAT team leaving the scene of the first standoff early Friday morning. He said he thought it was best way to de-escalate the situation. Police did not believe Saechao posed an immediate threat to the community.
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"I also felt and some of us felt based on our investigation, that he may have a resentment or hostility toward law enforcement, being that he used to be law enforcement and he may have been suffering from mental health crisis," he said. "We felt that we were more the target and by being there, it escalated the situation."
But Vermillion added the police were staying on top of the situation.
"Yes, our SWAT team left but the police department and what we were doing we did not leave," he said. "We were still in the area, assessing, monitoring. We had surveillance, we actually had a ping on his cell phone."
