A man who allegedly locked himself inside his Pleasant Hill home, shot his wife through a closed door and refused to talk to police negotiators has been left alone after an hours-long standoff.
At about 7 p.m. Thursday, officers were sent to a home in the 200 block of Cleopatra Drive, where they found a woman who had been shot through a locked garage door while she was trying to get into her house, according to Pleasant Hill police.
She was allegedly shot by her husband, who police say fired a single shot from a shotgun.
She was treated at a hospital for injuries that aren't considered life-threatening and was later released.
The man was later identified as former Pittsburg police officer Chunliam Saechao.
Saechao stayed in the house while SWAT team members secured the area, according to police.
For several hours afterward, Saechao allegedly refused to communicate with crisis negotiators who tried to contact him via telephone and loudspeaker, police said in a news release Friday.
At about 2 a.m., the SWAT team "disengaged from the scene and the husband was left alone" inside the house, police said.
"The case is still active, it doesn't mean he won't be arrested. We're monitoring the area," said Pleasant Hill Police Lt. Jason Kleven.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
Kleven said officers left the immediate area in order to initiate "a little cooling-off period."
"With us there at his house, it makes tensions run a little bit higher," Kleven said. "We're not giving up the case or anything like that."
During the standoff, several streets around the home were closed to traffic, including both directions of nearby Monument Boulevard, and neighbors were asked to evacuate or shelter in place.
Also, Saechao continued to post to social media during and after the standoff, including some messages that police believe indicated he might be suicidal.
Since the SWAT team left, the surrounding streets were reopened, neighbors were allowed back into their homes and officers continue to reach out to the man, Kleven said.
"There's nothing we've seen that indicates there's a danger to people there," he said.
