Chase bank hostage suspect identified as Army veteran who went AWOL

4 Jun 2026 • 2:24 AM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

Chase bank hostage suspect identified as Army veteran who went AWOL

  • The man who held 10 hostages overnight in a Chase Bank building in Bakersfield, California, has been identified as an Army veteran with a violent history.
  • The incident began around 1 p.m. on Tuesday when Anthony Scott Searle-Harris, 41, took the hostages, who were employees of a local school district, on the second floor of the building, claiming to have explosives.
  • Five of the 10 hostages were tied up during the standoff, but authorities confirmed that none of them sustained any injuries.
  • Searle-Harris, who was also a registered sex offender and had been discharged from the U.S. Army for going AWOL, had a documented history of violence.
  • The standoff concluded just after 4 a.m. on Wednesday morning when FBI agents shot and killed Searle-Harris.

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