BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood discussed the hostage standoff, a jailbreak attempt, a DOJ oversight dispute, and river drownings during his monthly interview.<\/p>\n
Two weeks after a 15-hour hostage standoff at a Chase Bank in downtown Bakersfield ended with an FBI team shooting and killing the suspect and rescuing all five hostages, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood is reflecting on his office’s role and addressing several other recent incidents.<\/p>\n
The suspect had allegedly strapped a bomb to himself and five other people inside the bank’s second floor. The Kern County Sheriff’s Office assisted the Bakersfield Police Department and federal authorities in the early hours of the standoff, primarily by helping execute a search warrant at the suspect’s residence.<\/p>\n
“We assisted in a search warrant at the suspect’s residence looking for bomb residue because we didn’t know whether the bomb was real or not, and if you find bomb residue at the residence, you can make an assumption,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
Investigators found wires at the home but no bomb residue.<\/p>\n
“That it’s a game changer, uh, which we did not find residue, we found wires, and that was encouraging, but wasn’t the final say,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
Youngblood said the standoff was unlike anything he had encountered in his career.<\/p>\n
“When you first hear about it, you go, yeah, OK, and then it becomes real,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
He said the Bakersfield Police Department and federal authorities led the response, with his office playing a supporting role.<\/p>\n
“The city was the primary with the feds, and we just were there to assist,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
Inmate van crash<\/p>\n
Youngblood also addressed a recent crash in downtown Bakersfield in which a suspected drunk driver struck a county van transporting inmates.<\/p>\n
“This one was pretty catastrophic. There’s one person has life threatening injuries, not from the sheriff’s office, but the driver of the other car,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
He said three inmates were in the van at the time and were in the process of being released.<\/p>\n
“The inmates were being released. We do that every day. We drive them to 3 different locations, drop them off, and they’re being released,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
Inmate escape attempt at Kern Medical<\/p>\n
Youngblood also spoke about a separate incident in which an inmate attempted to escape from Kern Medical Center. The inmate was taken back into custody.<\/p>\n
He said some medical procedures require restraints to be removed, and his office is now working with the facility to establish clearer protocols.<\/p>\n
“We’re meeting with KMC to decide when, who’s going to decide whether those restraints are going to be removed because that’s a green light for a guy that’s facing life in prison,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
Youngblood acknowledged that the staffing protocol was not followed during the incident.<\/p>\n
“There should have been two officers with this particular inmate. There wasn’t. Uh, we own that, and we’ve looked at that, and we’ve, uh, uh, made it clear we have procedures. Follow the procedures,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
He said the chain of command will be reviewed to determine where the breakdown occurred.<\/p>\n
“You have a young deputy that’s being told what to do by a sergeant, so you go right up the chain till we get to the policy. Did we follow the policy? And we, in this one, we probably did not,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
On the question of restraint removal going forward, Youngblood was direct.<\/p>\n
“If the Kern Medical Center wants restraints removed from a really bad guy, there has to be some negotiation about whether I’m going to do that or not,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
Grand jury, DOJ oversight<\/p>\n
A recent grand jury report addressed the stipulated judgment between the Kern County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice, which stemmed from an investigation into the use of force. Youngblood said the grand jury’s findings aligned with his own position.<\/p>\n
“The grand jury just said what the sheriff’s been saying all along. They’re milking the county out of millions of dollars, over $3 million so far,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
He said the office is now five years into the agreement, with two more years remaining, and noted that no one was indicted as a result of the original investigation.<\/p>\n
“If we were that bad, if you remember, the initial investigation was on the use of force. No one’s been indicted. They didn’t find that we violated any constitutional rights,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
Despite the grand jury’s suggestion to fight the agreement, Youngblood said challenging the state is not a practical path forward.<\/p>\n
“You’re going to fight the state of California, which has an enormous amount of money. And what are you going to gain? We have a year and a half. Let’s go ahead and work our way through it,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
He said his office will continue to push back through the courts if the DOJ does not hold up its end of the agreement.<\/p>\n
“If they don’t do their part, we’ll again bring it up to the judge,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
River drownings<\/p>\n
Youngblood addressed two recent drownings in Kern County waterways. He said one victim was a young man whose dog was swept away and who died trying to save it. The most recent victim was a fisherman wading in the water who was swept away.<\/p>\n
“That river is dangerous. Stay out of it,” Youngblood said. “If you’re up at Kernville, uh, at the park, I’m not telling you to stay out of the river. I’m telling you to be very, very cautious because if you get swept away, we’re going to find your body several days later.”<\/p>\n
He said the county has been tracking water-related deaths since the 1960s, and the toll is approaching 400.<\/p>\n
“Those are real people that had real families that, uh, uh, went to the river to enjoy the river and wound up drowning,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
He said his office wants people to enjoy the river but urged them to stay out of swift water.<\/p>\n
Staffing levels<\/p>\n
Youngblood said the sheriff’s office is now staffed above 90% capacity, the highest level in years, and that the change is being noticed by residents.<\/p>\n
“I’m getting calls, uh, daily or emails saying thank you for the visibility, thank you for being there quickly. Uh, we see a lot more deputies on the streets,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
He said the improvement is especially noticeable in rural and remote areas of the county, where staffing had previously been a persistent problem.<\/p>\n
“I was a sergeant in Boron, and I had 4 deputies, and there were five of us. We all lived there. We went for a period. There was nobody assigned to Boron,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
He said the office has introduced stipends to incentivize deputies to live in communities like Mojave, Rosamond, Kern Valley, and Ridgecrest.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been innovative in what we’re doing, and it’s really paying dividends,” Youngblood said.<\/p>\n
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n
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