Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel highlighted how the agency successfully carried out two Hostage Rescue Team operations within 24 hours.
In a weekly internal update to agents, Patel expressed that he was “grateful” to the FBI’s Sacramento and Los Angeles divisions, along with the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, for springing into action “after reports of a bomb threat and hostage situation” at a bank.
Patel also noted that “the subject was taken down, and all 10 hostages were safely rescued.”
“In less than 24 hours, our Hostage Rescue Team – the FBI’s elite tier 1 tactical unit – mobilized not once but twice, even flying across the country to California in the middle of the night, saving dozens of lives in the process from two individuals with live explosives,” Patel said in a statement. “In both Bakersfield, California, and Germantown, Ohio, they executed with precision, professionalism, and total commitment to the no fail mission that makes this FBI one of one.”
In a statement, Patel explained that in the hostage situation in California, a man “barricaded himself in the Kern County Superintendent of Schools office armed with explosives and took ten innocent people hostage.” Patel added that the FBI jumped into action, and the CIRG Hostage Rescue Team was deployed.
Patel continued to explain that less than 24 hours later, the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team “was right back to work” in Cincinnati, Ohio, where they responded “to a subject in a residential area hiding explosive devices in his home.”
“Our team cleared surrounding apartments, arrested the subject, and located up to 8 explosive devices in the home — showing this FBI, once again, prevented a potentially deadly situation,” Patel continued.
Patel also shared that after the Hostage Rescue Team had rescued ten hostages in California, the team “responded to a call from Germantown Police and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Ohio that a subject may be preparing to detonate hazardous devices near a residential area.”
