A shelter-in-place order was issued for the Sherman Acres neighborhood in Pleasant Hill Friday evening, and police closed Monument Boulevard at Interstate 680, as well as Marcia Drive, in both directions due to police activity in the area.
The police activity is adjacent to the 200 block of Cleopatra Drive, where retired Pittsburg police officer and Marine veteran, Chunliam Saechao barricaded himself inside his residence after allegedly shooting his wife Thursday night.
Saechao reportedly shot his wife with a shotgun. The victim was treated for non-life threatening injuries at a hospital and later released.
A SWAT team from the Pleasant Hill Police Department tried to make contact with Saechao for several hours Thursday, but disengaged and left the scene at 2 a.m. Friday to try to de-escalate the situation. Police said at the time they did not believe he was an immediate threat to the community.
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Saechao continued posting messages on social media that indicated he could be having a mental health crisis.
During Friday’s standoff, police and Saechao were going back and forth on social media.
Meanwhile, residents in Sherman Acres told NBC Bay Area Friday that they were frustrated and worried about the ongoing police standoff.
Residents told an officer they have been left in the dark about what’s going on. The residents in the area were trapped in their homes for hours for the second night in a row with an armed suspect nearby on Friday.
Antioch resident Daniel T., a worker at a store nearby the incident said that he had no idea police left the armed suspect in the house before he returned to work Friday afternoon.
“A bullet could have ran past here. It could have endangered someone else,” he said.
Phyllis Loya, an acquaintance of Saechao’s told NBC Bay Area by phone she’s worried.
“He served his country honorably in the Marine corps, and I'm just distressed and heartbroken to learn of the incident. My hope is it’s resolved peacefully and that no one gets hurt, including him,” she said.
Members of the community have also replied to Saechao’s tweets and asking him to come out peacefully before the incident drags on longer or someone gets hurt.
