Retired officer accused of shooting wife, standoff, appears in court
Retired officer accused of shooting wife, standoff, appears in court
Retired Pittsburg police officer Chunilam Saechao, accused of shooting his wife and charged with attempted murder, had his first court appearance on Thursday. His court appearance was a week after the shooting led to a days-long stand-off with Pleasant Hill SWAT Police.
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, Calif. - Retired Pittsburg police officer Chunilam Saechao, accused of shooting his wife and charged with attempted murder, had his first court appearance on Thursday. His court appearance was a week after the shooting led to a days-long stand-off with Pleasant Hill SWAT Police.
The Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez was meant to be an arraignment, but the hearing was pushed to next week. It was delayed because there was confusion surrounding defense council designation.
The attorneys representing the 40-year-old on Thursday, Tyler Smith and Curtis Briggs, said they’ve been in contact with Saechao. They said the veteran and former police officer was having a mental health crisis.
"We can confidently say he did not shoot his wife intentionally. He did not intend to shoot anyone. I’ll just leave it at that because there’s still a lot of information, but I can confidently say that there was no intention to harm anyone whatsoever," said Smith.
Saechao’s wife was shot and injured last Thursday evening. He allegedly tweeted while the SWAT team attempted to negotiate with him barricaded in his house in the Sherman Acres neighborhood. Then, Pleasant Hill police appeared to leave the scene, later saying they stayed nearby to monitor the house.
Police returned Friday night and arrested Saechao on Saturday morning. The Pleasant Hill Police Chief defended his tactics and said they led to a peaceful resolution.
"Is this the ideal scenario where a social worker could have gotten involved earlier or a psychologist, or do you want to surround somebody that’s having this type of crisis with 60 or 70s assault rifles and a tank? that’s probably not the best thing to do. We’re going to look at closely in developing our defense," said Briggs.
The official arraignment will happen next Thursday after defense council has been formally named. Officers were shot at during the standoff but were not injured.
Saechao’s family was in the courtroom Thursday.