Pleasant Hill neighborhood locked down for a second time in less than 24 hours

PLEASANT HILL — Police on Friday returned to the Pleasant Hill neighborhood they shut down a day earlier after a retired detective allegedly shot and injured his wife, and then barricaded himself inside his home until the officers left without doing anything.

The Pleasant Hill Police Department issued a shelter-in-place order for the Sherman Acres area around 5:30 p.m. Friday. In addition, Marcia Drive and both directions of Monument Boulevard at Interstate 680 were closed, according to police.

It was the second shutdown of the neighborhood in less than 24 hours.

Around 7 p.m. Thursday, officers found a woman suffering from minor injuries while conducting a welfare check at a home on Cleopatra Drive. Police said her husband — identified by Bay Area News Group sources as retired Pittsburg police Detective Chunliam Saechao — had fired a shotgun at her as she tried to enter the garage.

The woman was treated for her injuries at a hospital and was expected to recover, police said.

Police shut down access to the area, as well as a section of Monument Boulevard near the neighborhood. Authorities, including the Central County SWAT team, surrounded the home and crisis negotiators tried to contact the man, but he did not respond.

On Friday morning, police announced an end to the hours-long standoff without taking Saechao into custody, leaving some residents feeling abandoned and unsafe.

While the man — police did not identify him — remained a suspect in the woman’s shooting, he “was not an immediate threat to the general public,” according to police.

Saechao remained inside the home Friday and posted disturbing and threatening messages to social media. One post showed him wearing a ballistic vest with what appeared to be a rifle strapped to his right side. The caption read “only for self defense.”

A woman who runs a home day care center in the neighborhood said “not really” when asked if she felt safe.

“I feel like they (police) should have done more than they did, and we don’t understand why they didn’t do more,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified.

Staff writers Rick Hurd and Nate Gartrell contributed to this report. Check back for updates.