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The FBI shot and killed a man who held 10 people hostage inside a downtown Bakersfield office building, ending a roughly 16-hour standoff with all the hostages rescued unharmed.

Getting into it: The ordeal began around 1 p.m. Tuesday, when Bakersfield police responded to a bomb threat at the four-story Chase Bank building, where the suspect had barricaded himself with a group of people. Over the next several hours, crisis negotiators stayed in phone contact and secured the release of two hostages before the FBI took over the operation Tuesday night and ultimately stormed the building, fatally shooting him at 4:20 a.m. Wednesday. The 10 hostages, all employees of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, were found alive, though five had been tied up, and authorities said the gunman had attached improvised explosive devices to some of them.

The FBI identified the suspect as 41-year-old Anthony Scott Searles-Harris of Oildale, a registered sex offender and Army veteran who had been dishonorably discharged years earlier for going AWOL, with what agents described as a history of violent, weapons-related offenses. While authorities didn’t formally release a motive, they said Searles-Harris appeared consumed by grievances over his own 2014 case, in which he was convicted of crimes involving a child under 14, and that he demanded copies of court documents from that case during the standoff.

He had also posted videos online criticizing the local sheriff’s office and proclaiming his innocence, which investigators said they were reviewing but had no plans to act on.

Officials said the decision to go in and shoot was based on a “holistic” read of the situation, including the suspect’s increasingly erratic behavior, though Assistant Chief Jeremy Blakemore admitted there was “not a full confirmation in either direction” about the risks.

That call drew sharp criticism from Joaquin Arturo Revelo, the public defender who had represented Searles-Harris in the earlier case and was brought to the scene. While praising the local police for trying to protect the hostages, Revelo accused the FBI of going “in to kill the man,” adding, “And that’s exactly what they did.” He also described his former client as deeply “disturbed” and “psychotic,” someone who was convinced the government had it out for him.