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Ukrainian Fugitive Nikolay Soltys Captured

Aired August 30, 2001 - 11:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Live picture now coming in from Sacramento, California, courtesy of our affiliate of KCRA.

That car you see there, police car squad number 042 is carrying Nikolay Soltys, who is the man who's accused of murdering six members of his family.

Moments ago, we saw him transferred from one car into another, and now they are leaving that neighborhood of Citrus Heights in Sacramento, California.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Soltys has been on the run for about 10 days. That's the day, August 20th, when he's accused of going on a rampage and killing six members of his own family, including his pregnant wife and his 3-year-old son, and he's been on the FBI's 10 most wanted list.

HARRIS: Let's go now to our affiliate KCRA. They've got a live reporter down there on the ground, on the scene. Let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE REPORTER: A lot of police line tape up here, and a lot officers standing around me.

Now this area down here behind me is the street where apparently Nikolay Soltys had picked up child, if you remember from earlier reports. Police say after he allegedly committed the murders in the two different spots in the area, he then came here, which apparently is his parents' house, to pick up his son, and then police say he went from there and murdered young son after that. So this obviously has been a place where police have had a presence since those murders, and I have to say I haven't heard how this came about here today, what tipped it off, and you may have more information back at the studio than I have.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: Jennifer, let me interrupt you for a second.

We're looking at live picture now of the squad car that is leaving the scene, and it does contain Nikolay Soltys. He is now pulling out between two other sheriff's patrol cars and taking a right turn to head back toward the downtown area. He's just gone over some crime scene tape. I don't know if you can see that or not, but moving now at a pretty good clip now away from the crime scene as they transport the suspect into custody. UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE CORRESPONDENT: And as you mentioned, there is some Movement down to that area there. A lot of the officers still staying in place here, but yes, there is some movement down there, and a lot of the crowd, and neighbors that lived in this neighborhood have moved over that -- you have as much information as I do on that point.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: Jennifer, officers there, what are they saying? A sigh of relief for them this morning?

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE CORRESPONDENT: Mary, I'm sorry, I can't understand.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: Officers there, have you spoken to any officers, a sigh of relief from them this morning that they have finally caught this man. He was been on the top 10, the FBI's most wanted list, for about a week now.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE CORRESPONDENT: I believe what you're asking, you know, is this obviously a -- if is this is the case, a big capture for law enforcement. Yes, this has been not only a local case, but a national case, publicized nationally, as you said. FBI's top 10 most wanted and also "America's Most Wanted" as well, the popular TV program that features fugitives as well. So yes, obviously, if this is the situation, it would be certainly a big capture for them.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: Jennifer, stand by for just a moment, We're going to go back to John Hamilton (ph) in Live Copter 3, who's doing a great job of tracking the scene as the suspect leaves the scene in the back of this patrol car that has the 042 designation on top.

John, I can't tell from my angle. What road is he on right now?

JOHN HAMILTON, KCRA REPORTER: He's on southbound Sunrise. They came out, they turned right on Sunrise Boulevard, which is southbound. They're just coming normal traffic right now. It looks like they're coming up to -- I will get a cross street here. They're probably going to turn right, right here, head to interstate 80.

HARRIS: We're watching sheriff's car from Sacramento, car number 42, carrying Nikolay Soltys away. Surprising they don't have the lights and sirens on, because this man has been on the FBI's most wanted list for what, the last 10 days. They've been searching for this man, finally found him in his mother's backyard.

Just to recap for those of you that are just joining us and just tuning in, what you are looking now at is a piece of tape that happened just moments ago. This is Nikolay Soltys, the man you see there who is being put into that vehicle. he is the man who's been accused of brutally killing six members of his family 10 days ago on August 20th. He's been the subject of an FBI manhunt for the last 10 days. They scoured the neighborhood and received some 900 tips from across the country about his whereabouts, finally locating him. And we are still trying to understand the circumstances under which they did, whether or not if was the result of a tip or whatever, but we understand that police have been surveilling his mother's mouse on a 24-hour basis, and when she left this morning, for whatever reason, police there entered the property and searched the house and the yard, and found him hiding under a desk in the backyard, and he surrendered.

KAGAN: As you mentioned, there's been an intense manhunt for Soltys since August 20th. There is a Ukrainian community in Sacramento, and they were also focusing on other Ukrainian communities around the country where he may have had relatives or other places he might have lived as well. But we'll have more to learn about where he's been since August 20th, but it appears that he's obviously still somewhere in the Sacramento area.

HARRIS: Let's listen back in to KCRA's coverage. They're talking to the police right now.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: So the family actually turned him in. It was the mother that called.

SHERIFF LOU BLANAS, SACRAMENTO POLICE: No, it was the brother. Actually the brother called, turned him in. Our officers were already sitting on the house. And at that point, we were just having a change of shifts, from night shift to day shift, when they converged and took the subject into custody, and that's the story.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: So, sheriff, so at this point, it looks like just shown up. He hadn't been there for very long, and in fact, his presence alarmed the family.

BLANAS: Well, right now, we're going to start a search. There's some homeless camps a few blocks from here. There's a tent and some other areas where you can conceal yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: I said you had said all along that anyone who knew Nikolay Soltys, whether it friends or family members, might in fact, be in danger of becoming his next victim. Do you feel a big part of reason for the phone call this morning?

BLANAS: I believe so. I know the family -- some of the family were terrified of him, especially the brother. We knew that from interviews with the brother. That -- and his brother has a family, small children, and when they busted out of the house and ran across the street, of course, we tightened up our perimeter on the mother's house, and subsequently after the 911 call, went in and arrested the individual.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: Sheriff Blanas, were there children inside the home. Was there anybody inside the home at all when you went in, beside Nikolay Soltys in the backyard?

BLANAS: That's it, just Nikolay was hiding under a desk in the rear yard.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: And, sheriff, I know, you are, again, are just now gathering information. But what you have learned from talking to the officers who made the arrest, did Soltys, how did he behave, and did he say anything?

BLANAS: I have no knowledge of him saying anything. I know that our officers approached him and ordered him out from underneath the desk at gunpoint, then at that point, they handcuffed and put him put in the rear of a patrol vehicle.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: OK. Sheriff, what goes on from here? Obviously, he's being transported to the jail, where he will face murder charges. You do have a scene there to process?

BLANAS: That's correct. There may be some possible evidence in the rear yard. It looks like backpacks back there. We're also going to do a ground search of an area that officers believe he might have been held up in, a kind of a wooded area, near the house. And there's a lot more work to do in regards to this individual.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: Sheriff Blanas, we haven't asked you this yet, did Nikolay Soltys say anything when he was arrested?

BLANAS: To my knowledge, I don't have that information. I don't believe he said anything. But I'm sure as time goes on, we'll learn more about Mr. Soltys.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: OK. And, Sheriff, I know you have to go. By the way, we're looking at live picture of you right now as we speak to you. You will brief the press in just a little bit. What would you, again, would you like to say to the community in terms of the role they played in brining this arrest about?

BLANAS: I just wanted to thank the community for all the phone calls and the fact that the media and the way the media has portrayed this all over national press, local press, that shows me that it's a community effort. And nobody, I believe at this point, nobody harbored this individual. We haven't talked to him yet. By his physical appearance, it looked like he'd been living in a field all this time or somewhere here close to the house. Who knows -- his car was dropped several miles from here, so we still don't know how got to his car from this area. So that's something we have to look into.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: So you did fact find that green Explorer that we had been talking about all week?

BLANAS: We are going to search the area for that green Explorer. At this point, we haven't found it. But as I said, there's still a lot more work to do in regards to this.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: Sheriff, did the shift change, delay at all the response to the scene once you had the 911 call? Did that pose any kind of a complication for you?

BLANAS: Absolutely not. You know how we change the shift, they take -- the shift change took part right at the scene. So there's a briefing period at that time, when the graveyard officers get out and the day-shift officers come in, there's a briefing period on the activity that occurred during those night hours, and during that period, that's when we got the 911 call.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: All right. Sheriff Lou Blanas, thank you very much for your time.

BLANAS: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: This is absolutely unbelievable. This is a huge break in the Nikolay Soltys case this morning. He has been on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list. He killed six of his family members...

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: Allegedly.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE: Allegedly, a week ago on Monday, and he's been on the run ever since. He also killed his pregnant wife, his 3-year-old son. This man was wanted by everyone in this community. The Ukrainian-Russian community here has been incredibly afraid of this man, and they've had -- police and sheriff's officers have had at least a dozen of Soltys relatives under police protection in this Sacramento area all this time.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA ANCHOR: OK.

And, again, live here from Live Copter 3, you can see the squad car. On the right-hand side of your screen, this is tape of Nikolay Soltys this morning just following his arrest. You can see him being moved from one squad car to the another. Again, this tape on the right-hand side that was shot by Live Copter 3 just a short time ago as he was moved into the patrol car that then eventually was used -- is being used as we speak -- to transport him to the Sacramento County Jail.

Once, again, for folks who are just now tuning in, this has all taken place this morning in Citrus Heights outside the home of Nikolay Soltys's mother, not far from Birdcage Walk, not far from Sunrise Mall. We understand now, in just talking to Sheriff Lou Blanas, that in fact the arrests stem from a phone call that was made by Nikolay Soltys' brother.

And, apparently, Soltys showed up in the backyard of this house, which was his mother's house off of Bonham Circle. We understand about 7:45, family members, including the brother, ran out of the house. They jumped into a car. They went across the street to a telephone booth near the Aaron Brothers art store and placed a 911 call.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA ANCHOR: And we just want to cut in real quick -- Sheriff Lou Blanas live at a news conference right now with more information.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

SHERIFF LOU BLANAS, SACRAMENTO COUNTY POLICE DEPT: ... saying that the individual was in the backyard hiding under a desk.

Our officers, at that point, were already on scene. Actually, we were having a shift change at that point of undercover officers. The graveyard was turning their surveillance over to the day shift. We went in the backyard and took the suspect into custody without incident. So we're still conducting a thorough investigation.

There was a backpack in the backyard. He's dirty. It looks like he's probably been living outdoors for some time. We still have to -- there's still a lot of explaining to do in how he got from where he dumped his car over there off of Auburn Boulevard to here, where he has been the last, what, 10 days. So, hopefully, we will have more information for you at 10:00 at our Mather Field Rockingham station.

QUESTION: Did his mother know that he was there?

QUESTION: Are you surprised he came here?

BLANAS: The -- because of the coverage -- and I've got to give the media a lot of credit -- and the community -- we haven't had really many verified sightings outside of Sacramento County. So we continually believed, along with a lot of our Russian -- our Ukraine officers -- that he was still here in town.

We had a number of calls from the Ukrainian community in regard to this individual. And I have to commend the community for their calls. We've had interpreters on the line. Every call, we have researched. There's some of the calls -- you know, obviously, at this point, we have him in custody. But every call we followed up diligently.

Our officers, along with the California Highway Patrol, Sacramento Police Department, FBI, U.S. Marshal, the state Department of Justice, just have done an outstanding job in regards to this manhunt. This is probably one of the biggest manhunts in the history of Sacramento County. And it came to a happy ending today. We don't have any -- to our knowledge, there's no other victims. We took the suspect into custody without incident.

And we're very happy about that.

QUESTION: Did he say anything? Did he say anything?

BLANAS: I'll be able to tell you all that at 10:00, because I'll have the arresting officer there.

Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA ANCHOR: That was Sheriff Lou Blanas talking about the capture of Nikolay Soltys. We are going to return to regular programming on KQCA 58. But we are going to continue our live coverage of the capture of Nikolay Soltys on KCRA 3. So stay with us there.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We've been listening to our affiliate KCRA as they give us coverage of the capture of Nikolay Soltys, the Ukrainian immigrant who has been on the run for at least 10 days. It was August 20 that he is accused of allegedly killing six members of own his family -- captured today in the backyard of his mother's house in Citrus Heights. That's a neighborhood just outside of Sacramento.

Let's bring in Pat Walsh. He is with a radio station in Sacramento, KFBK.

And, Pat, can you tell us more about what you know about the capture of Nikolay Soltys?

PAT WALSH, KFBK RADIO: Yes.

Well, Soltys is -- it has been confirmed that he is in police custody after being captured at his mother's house in the Citrus Heights section here in Sacramento. Sacramento sheriff's deputies surrounded the house this morning, took him into custody without a fight. The word is that his brother turned him in. He actually is the one that made the call, told the authorities that he was hiding under desk.

And Soltys, of course, is suspected of murdering six members of his family. He's been on the run for nearly two weeks, since authorities found the bodies of his wife, his 3-year-old son, an aunt, an uncle and two cousins here in three different locations here in Sacramento in Placer County -- Soltys taken into custody after being found under the desk in his backyard of his mother's home in the Bonham Circle. And what we know right now is that he is being transported to Sacramento County Jail, where he will be booked on several murder charges.

KAGAN: Pat, are you still with us?

WALSH: Yes.

KAGAN: Just, if you can geographically answer some questions for us.

It seems the sheriff's deputy still has some questions about how Soltys might have gotten from one place to another. The place where the car was last abandoned to the place where he was discovered, there's quite a bit of distance between that.

WALSH: Yes. We are still trying -- we are investigating that right now. We are not sure. We have not got an official word of how he was transported from one place -- excuse me -- we have no word on that, no word. We are still looking into that. We don't know how he made it there.

All we know is that his brother turned him in -- he is the one that made the phone call -- and that he is being transferred to Sacramento County Jail at this point.

KAGAN: All right, Pat Walsh of radio station KFBK, thank you very much for that report.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A couple of other nuggets I happened to pick up from listening to the police talking a moment ago.

They say that there's a homeless camp nearby his mother's home. And they are now checking out, I guess, the grounds there to see if there's any connection. And perhaps that's where he had been hiding. They said -- I heard the officer say that's a very good place to go and conceal oneself.

And he also said that there is a wooded area near the house that they are searching right now. They feel like that may be where he was -- may also be a place where he was holed up. So the investigation on the ground still continues even though they have him in custody.

KAGAN: Seemed to indicate that the kind of condition they found him, at this point it doesn't appear, they don't believe, that anybody was helping to harbor him as a fugitive, which also gives them clues maybe that he has been hanging out outdoors for the last 10 days -- but, once again, a great relief for many in Sacramento and the Ukrainian community that Nikolay Soltys...

HARRIS: All right.

Well, I'll tell you what. Let's listen back in to KCRA's coverage and see what they're saying now. I wish we could hear an identification of what highway they happen to be on right now. And it's also interesting to note that there is no siren, no lights or anything on this...

KAGAN: And only two cars together, it looks like.

HARRIS: And traffic -- and the cars riding by this police car have no idea -- or sheriff's car -- have know idea what is inside.

KAGAN: Who is inside.

Let's listen in to KCRA once again.

JENNIFER BOWKER, KCRA REPORTER: ... and people that work around the area here just seeing what's going on and what's on the scene. And details do keep coming in. So we will keep bringing them to you live.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA ANCHOR: What does the mother's house look like? Describe that for us.

BOWKER: You know what? They have it blocked off here.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA ANCHOR: Can't see it. Yes.

BOWKER: It's a quiet neighborhood. There are still a lot of cars in the driveways in the neighborhood. And I do see one car moving down there right now. But, otherwise, it's fairly quiet. And I talked with one neighbor who said she just went to the park to take her dog out, and she came back, and she couldn't get back in her house.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA ANCHOR: Yes.

BOWKER: So we really can't see much from here because they have the police tape up. So we've been kept back a bit. I do see a person walking back there, a few cars. But other than that, it's fairly quiet. Most of the neighbors are out here.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA ANCHOR: And it is interesting to note that, according to the sheriff and other officials, the arrest took place in the backyard of the Nikolay Soltys' mother's home and not in the house itself.

In fact, there has been no indication that Soltys was in the house. And in case you haven't been following this this morning, apparently this was all the result of a 911 call that was made by the brother after Nikolay Soltys showed up in the backyard.

Jennifer, it looks like authorities are going to be there for some time. The sheriff said that they have to process the scene, as well as scour some of those homeless camps.

BOWKER: Well, certainly.

And as was described, they know basics of what happened here. They know what they were involved in today. But they are going to go back and reconstruct things and see how it happened. Again, he mentioned that Nikolay Soltys was found with that backpack in the backyard. And they are going to look into that, see exactly what has happened between the time of the murders and now.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA ANCHOR: And, Jennifer, I know that when they came out of the house around 7:45 this morning to call 911, the mother and the brother, they were pretty desperate to get somebody out there. Were people there pretty quickly? Were the investigators there fairly quickly?

I know they had surveillance on that property for quite some time.

BOWKER: You know, I must say that we -- you know, we came after law enforcement. So I wouldn't be able to speak to that. But by the time we got here, certainly, it was taped off, set up, a lot of law enforcement in the area.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA ANCHOR: Well, Jennifer, as you say, the sheriff's department will be providing us more information a little bit later from now. They have scheduled a news conference for 10:00 at their substation in Rancho Cordova. And we should be able to get some of our further questions answered at that time.

Jennifer, thank you very much -- Jennifer Bowker live at the scene for us at the place where Nikolay Soltys was arrested this morning, his mother's home in Citrus Heights.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA ANCHOR: And we do want to head back up to John Hamilton in Live Copter 3.

John, Nikolay Soltys apparently on the way to the Sacramento County Jail -- can you give us an idea of where they are right now?

JOHN HAMILTON, KCRA REPORTER: Yes, we are right in front of the Radisson Hotel, heading on the freeway back into the downtown area. And you can see, when we were in tight, the back of Nikolay's head in the back of that lead patrol car.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA ANCHOR: A lot of entourage there following that patrol car?

HAMILTON: Well, it's hard to tell, but I think we have two patrol cars and three unmarked cars.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: Yes, and it's interesting, John, we were looking at your live pictures of Nikolay Soltys after the arrest as he was transferred from one squad car to the other. And it appeared that he had some sort of a dark blue shirt on, it looked like almost yellow lettering.

I couldn't -- in fact, here's the video again.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: It appears that it says "staff" on the back.

HAMILTON: Exactly. I couldn't tell either. But, judging from what Sheriff Blanas said, I think they actually gave him some nicer clothes. We really couldn't tell.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: Yes.

HAMILTON: But, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: I would suspect that's the case. Because, the sheriff had described him as being very disheveled and very dirty. Obviously, from this tape we're looking at on the right hand side, we can't see him close, but it does look like the clothes are not the clothes you would expect of a man who had been perhaps living in a homeless camp, or out on the streets for at least the past week.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: On the right side of your screen, we are now looking at the arrest of Nikolay Soltys. That was taped from earlier. Apparently, he was found in the backyard of his mother's house, hiding under a desk.

Sheriff Lou Blanas indicated that when they went to arrest him, they pulled the gun on him and he came calmly. He didn't put up a fight, and as far as Lou Blanas knows, he did not say anything as well. So, they have not heard from Nikolay Soltys yet this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: We back here -- I'm sorry, John. Go ahead.

HAMILTON: Oh, that's OK. We looked in the backyard too to try to actually find that desk, but there's so many trees in that area. Like the sheriff's said, it's a great area for homeless people to live, back along that corridor back there. We couldn't find the desk.

A little later on, we may go back to try and find that. UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: All right, John, thank you. In the meantime, you're doing a great job of following along as they transport this murder suspect, this man who was part of the FBI's 10 most-wanted list, taken into custody this morning and now headed to the Sacramento County jail.

The interesting thing this morning was that Sheriff Blanas indicates that he doesn't believe, based on what they know now, that anyone actually harbored this fugitive. He bases that on not only Soltys' appearance, but also the fact that they had gotten a number of phone calls from members of the Ukrainian community, and members of the family, who were concerned for their safety, and who indicated that they had no interest in helping this man.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: That's right. Apparently they are searching homeless camps along the Green Belt. As John mentioned, right behind his mother's home it does look like it's a wooded area. Someone could easily live in that area. Nikolay Soltys, he was on the run. From all the media attention that this case has been getting, Sheriff Lou Blanas sends a big thank you to the media this morning, and to everyone in the community that have been trying to provide tips.

Apparently, Nikolay Soltys knew about the extensive coverage and was trying to stay in hiding away from relatives, away from anyone that might have turned him in.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: And the interesting thing, again, as we've been talking about, is that very often, and law enforcement knows this, very often someone will return to the place they know best; whether it's home, whether it's to a friend's house, often to a relatives house. That is why the sheriff's department had maintained an around-the-clock surveillance of several homes, including the home of Nikolay Soltys' mother.

KAGAN: We have been listening in on our coverage from one of our affiliates, KCRA, as this breaking news develops just outside of Sacramento, California. Actually, they're now back into Sacramento.

Nikolay Soltys, the Ukrainian immigrant who has been on the run for the last 10 days after allegedly killing 10 -- six members of his own family, has been captured this morning. It took place just before 8:00 a.m. California time.

Police officials found him in the backyard of his mother's home. No reason, though, to believe, according to the officials, that that's where he had been hiding. Police believe at this point it doesn't look like any of his relatives had been harboring him in the 10 days that he's been on the run.

HARRIS: They also say that the house had been under surveillance for 24 hours a day for some time now. They had been watching and waiting for any sign like this. Today, when his mother left the house, the police went into the property, searched the house, found no one inside, searched the yard and found Soltys hiding under that desk in the backyard. We also understand that a brother, his brother, actually made the phone call, a 911 call, to the police to tip them off.

KAGAN: The live picture you're looking at right now, we believe Nikolay Soltys is in that white car, the white patrol car you see making a left turn into the parking lot.

We're going to listen to KCRA as the car enters the jail grounds.

HARRIS: And we'll see if we can get another shot of him, if the helicopter's able to get over there.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: Deirdre Fitzpatrick joins us now via phone. She is at the sheriff's department with more. Deirdre?

DEIRDRE FITZPATRICK, KCRA REPORTER (voice-over): Kevin, I'm just standing outside the entrance. This has got to be the most watched car in America at this moment, as they finally bring Nikolay Soltys in here to the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.

Now, the plan here, once they get him out of this car, is they will be bringing him inside where he will be going through some questioning. Now, a lot of times in these big, high profile cases, it's very difficult for us to try to get a shot of these guys as they go on.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: In fact, Deirdre, let me interrupt you for a minute. We are looking at live picture right now of Nikolay Soltys, as he has just been walked from the squad car into the back entrance, it looks like, of the jail. They had just parked, they had opened the door, and he, according to our picture here, has just gone inside the main building.

FITZPATRICK: That's right. I'm about 20 feet away from him, and as you saw, the head was down and he slowly walked in there, just wearing kind of a T-shirt as he was walking in. They made it real easy for us to get that shot today. Let me tell you, they cleared out one lane right there next to the sheriff's department.

They told us exactly when he would be here, and they told us exactly where they would be bringing him in. After 10 days of not knowing where this guy was and wanting to see him, they wanted everybody to see that today he has been caught.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: Deirdre, tell me about the activity around the building right now. Is it just swamped with people?

FITZPATRICK: There are a lot of people. You saw the area where he drove in. They had a couple of sheriff's squad cars blocking the area off with some crime tape, just to make it easy for them to drive straight in. And then just around the building, we've seen a lot of the sheriff's deputies wanted to get out there and get a look, just as much as all of us did.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: How did he look? FITZPATRICK: Well a lot of people -- pardon?

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: How did he look, Deirdre? Can you describe what he looked like when he did get out of that squad car?

We noticed earlier when he was arrested, he was hanging his head. he wouldn't look up. Sheriff Lou Blanas had mentioned that he was extremely dirty as well.

FITZPATRICK: Right. You know what he looked like? He looks defeated, which is exactly what he is today after finally being caught after 10 days of being out on the run. You've heard Blanas talking a little bit about how he looked really scruffy, like he hadn't been taken care of for the last 10 days.

The implication I seem to be getting, at least from the sheriff, was that maybe he hasn't been hiding out in someone's house. Maybe he's just been on the run the entire time, you know. Just hung out in the wild somewhere, and then shows back up at his mother's house, and then finally we get these results that they've been looking for.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: Certainly the demeanor we saw, Deirdre, would appear to be that of a man who maybe not only was defeated, but also maybe thoroughly exhausted. If in fact no one had been harboring him, as it does appear to be the case, and if he had been living on the street or out in a homeless camp and looking for food to eat, it could very well be that all of this had to do with just his state of exhaustion.

FITZPATRICK: Exactly. And to have your face, your name, all of it so public across the country for so long. I mean there isn't anyone in this town who hasn't heard about this case, who has been talking about this case, who hasn't seen these picture, hasn't seen the most wanted picture that's been up, who doesn't know who this guy is. So, he's been able to stay away for 10 days, I can't even imagine what that must have been like.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: Deirdre, just to clarify, he was walked into the back entrance of the sheriff's department building...

FITZPATRICK: That's right.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: ... not the jail, correct?

FITZPATRICK: He's not in the jail yet. The jail is just a couple blocks from where I am right now. He walked into the sheriff's department, and the understanding I have from some of the people out here is they'll do their initial questioning here before they eventually move him over to the jail, a couple of blocks away.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: Well, no doubt about it. A tremendous sense of relief not only in the community, but also in the sheriff's department itself.

We have talked to sheriff's personnel extensively over the last few day about the toll, the emotional toll and the labor toll that this has taken on folks as they conducted what the sheriff described this morning as the biggest manhunt in Sacramento County history.

Sheriff obviously very relieved that he is in custody. And at this point, they don't know of any other victims.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: Deirdre, have you spoken with any officers this morning expressing relief? Glad that this man is finally in custody? I know it's taken a huge toll, as Kevin mentioned, on the department.

FITZPATRICK: Well it's just physically. I haven't really been able to talk to too many of them, but you just kind of get the sense when you look at them and you look at their faces, there's almost like this great exhale that has happened.

I know a lot of them, they've been working day after day after day. I talked to a couple of them a couple of days ago, and they were saying that it's difficult. This one they really, really took personally. There were children who were killed. And you know, it just -- it took so long to finally get this guy. I would imagine their sense also for their families, as well mom and dad are coming back home. They got the bad guy. I think hopefully it (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from here on out.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA MALE ANCHOR: Just to recap, Nikolay Soltys was taken into custody just before 8:00 this morning at his mother's home in Citrus Heights. This all stemmed from in part a surveillance, a round-the-clock surveillance at the mother's home.

FITZPATRICK: Right. And Kevin, you know her home was not the only one under surveillance. There were many neighborhoods in our area that are very Ukrainian or Russian based, where there are a lot of immigrants living. So they've been keeping an out for people he may have known; friends, family, that type of thing.

Listen, I've walked to the front of the sheriff's department building right now, and as I look we've got camera after camera, media from all over the country have been following this one. They're all just peering in that front window of the sheriff's department.

Let me just try to get a look in here myself. See what I might be able to see.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: Now, Deirdre...

FITZPATRICK: Looks like they are --- you what they're doing, it looks like they're walking him in here. They are all walking in themselves, having brought him in through the back of the building.

UNIDENTIFIED KCRA FEMALE ANCHOR: Deirdre, can you repeat what is going to be happening right now to Nikolay Soltys as he is brought into the sheriff's department?

FITZPATRICK: Well, they're going to be doing the questioning, initial questioning here. And it looks like the front doors of the sheriff's department are opening up and we have one troop coming out. Yes, it looks like they're just now beginning their investigation inside, beginning their questioning.

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