The bank robber killed after strapping a bomb to body and taking a group of people hostage during a marathon standoff in Bakersfield had a dark criminal history of sex acts involving underage girls after running off during his short military career.
FBI agents shot and killed Anthony Searles-Harris, 41, early Wednesday after he held 10 people hostage for 15 hours inside a Chase bank in the city’s downtown.
In 2014, he was convicted of three heinous sex crimes against minors, including lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 and oral copulation with a minor under 14 with more than a 10-year age difference between offender and victim.
Searles-Harris was originally charged with a whopping 15 crimes, including several counts of making threats.
He was sentenced to 12 years in prison and forced to register as a sex offender, but a 2017 appeal led to a charge being dropped and he was released the following year.
The pervert’s appeal revealed frightening aspects of the case, including how the convicted pedophile held “sex parties” in the summer of 2011 where he handed out drugs and alcohol to minors.
He recorded a pair of underage females naked in a bathtub and offered them alcohol only if they participated in sex acts. Two male guests then entered the bathroom, court records showed, and the girls stopped because they were “already uncomfortable enough as it was.”
He also appeared to threaten the girls if they told anyone about “what they were doing.”
“[Searles-Harris] warned them that ‘if [they] told anybody what he was doing or what [they] were doing…he would kill [them],’ court records showed. “He also mentioned ‘he had already killed somebody before, he had buried them in his backyard,’ and ‘[they] would end up just like them if [they] said anything.’”
In another instance, he allegedly offered a 13-year-old girl money and drugs “if they ‘made a video’ for him taking a shower” and engaging in a sex act.
Searles-Harris claimed in a nearly two-hour-long YouTube video posted last year that he was framed and was innocent.
During the standoff, one of the key negotiation terms Searles-Harris had was to obtain documents related to his case. Police said he was frustrated with “certain elements” of his case.
Before his arrest, Searles-Harris had a short stint in the US Army career from 2006 to 2007 before he was dishonorably discharged for going AWOL, or Absent Without Leave. It’s unclear what he did in the military.
Law enforcement officials also said in a press conference Wednesday that Searles-Harris is “no stranger to law enforcement and has a criminal history of using weapons to commit violent offenses.”
One possible motivation for the crime was notoriety, officials said. He specifically asked about the FBI’s involvement and appeared to want federal agents working the case.
Witnesses revealed that Searles-Harris offered a chilling statement when he began the robbery.
“It’s a bad day to be at the bank,” he said, according to a witness who spoke to KGET.