Crisis intervention officer convinces knife attack, kidnapping suspect to surrender

A Pleasant Hill police officer convinced a barricaded suspect in a knife attack and kidnapping to surrender Wednesday.

When officers responded about 5:13 p.m. in the 1800 block of Oak Park Boulevard, 31-year-old Frances Clausell had barricaded herself in a home with the 2-year-old child of a 33-year-old Pleasant Hill woman, whom Clausell had allegedly attacked with a knife earlier that afternoon. The victim sustained stab wounds to her hands in the attack and is expected to survive her injuries.

A member of the police department’s Crisis Intervention Team established a line of communication with Clausell, who refused to exit the home and to release the child, according to a news release from police.

During the incident, police learned that Clausell had an outstanding arrest warrant for felony kidnapping in Solano County involving an incident involving the same child. In that incident, police said, the suspect had threatened to end her own life and the child’s.

As SWAT teams were assembling in response, the police officer in communication with Clausell her to surrender and she was taken into custody without incident, police said. She was booked on suspicion of various charges into the Martinez Detention Facility, including domestic violence, assault with a deadly weapon and child endangerment.

The child was unharmed, police said.