Lawyers for a former cop who got into a standoff with officers in Pleasant Hill last week are criticizing the police response, accusing them of having a confusing SWAT response to a mental health crisis.
Tyler Smith, a defense attorney for 40-year-old Chunliam Saechao, described his client as a good person.
“This is a sweet person. He’s scared, he’s frightened. He’s a little bit despondent. He’s in shock right now,” Smith said.
Saechao, a former Marine and retired Pittsburgh cop, appeared in court Thursday afternoon to face nine felony counts, including attempted murder of police officers and injuring his spouse.
Saechao barricaded himself in his Pleasant Hill home last week, allegedly shooting and wounding his wife and later firing at police vehicles.
“He did not intend to hurt anyone,” Smith said. “He didn’t intend to kill anyone. He wasn’t trying to kill anyone.”
His attorneys said that Saechao was in the middle of a mental health crisis, posting disturbing messages on social media. All his cries for help, according to his lawyers, were mishandled.
“You cannot surround them with a military-like team of law enforcement,” Defense Attorney Curtis Briggs said. “With guns, with bull horns, with the lights, with sirens and then withdraw completely. That kind of thing can set somebody up into an even more life-threatening scenario.”
Pleasant Hill Police Chief Scott Vermillion defended his tactics on Monday. He said it was clear that Saechao was intent on harming law enforcement and added that the SWAT team left the area for around 15 hours to try and deescalate the situation. ‘
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“He was lying in wait,” Vermillion said. “And waiting for us to show up. And for that, we used time as our tactic. And, ultimately, at the end, nobody died.”
Saechao’s attorneys don’t agree.
“That is one of the oddest ways to handle a crisis like this,” Briggs said.
They ask the public not to rush to judgment about the Iraq War veteran.
“This is a former police officer himself. He did not intend to harm any police officers, he did not intend to kill anyone,” Smith said. “That is not at all what was going through his mind, that was not his mindset. He never had that intent.”
Saechaeo is set to return to court next week to enter a plea to the charges.
