Sacramento officers describe Soltys' capture

SACRAMENTO, California (CNN) -- Two members of the team of detectives who captured fugitive Nikolay Soltys described to a news conference here Thursday how the Ukrainian immigrant -- accused of killing six relatives, including his pregnant wife and 3-year-old son -- was spotted and taken into custody. This is an edited transcript of the conference.

SACRAMENTO COUNTY SHERIFF LOU BLANAS: We had an arrest team or surveillance team out there, so let me give you a little background. Since the homicides [had] occurred, we had a number of plainclothes officers working various parts of the investigation in trying to track these fugitives -- not only the local agencies involved but also the federal agencies.

EXTRA INFORMATION • Gallery: Sacramento killings rampage   • Map: Key locations in California slayings     RESOURCES • FBI: Ten Most Wanted Fugitives   • FBI: Nikolay Soltys   • Message board: Family violence     AUDIO Detective Chris Joachim describes how officers found Nikolay Soltys 2.9 mb / 24 sec WAV sound

We've maintained 24-hour residence on the residences involved. On the residence down the street here on Mills Station, we had a uniformed squad car there [owing to] the fact that the individuals living over here may be potential victims. That is where four of the victims were murdered over here, on Mill's Station.

Since that time, we have tried to follow members of the family, not only to provide safety but to hope that the subject would try to make contact with them over the course of our surveillance.

This morning, at quarter to 8, our graveyard surveillance team was ... just about ready to get off. And the day shift was coming on. At that time, the arrest was made. That team was made up of individuals from the Department of Justice, Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, Sacramento police officers, and Sacramento deputy sheriffs.

I have two of the officers involved in that, and I'm going to have them come up, give their story of what happened, and then we'll open it up to a little question and answer of those officers. So bear with us.

From the Sacramento Police Department, we have Sgt. Virgil Brown. And from the Sacramento [County] Sheriff's Department, we have Detective Chris Joachim.

BROWN: My name is Virgil Brown. I'm a sergeant with the Sacramento police department. I'm currently assigned to the Crank, Rock Impact project ... a state-funded task force, which consists of Sacramento Police Department, probation and the sheriff's department ....

As everybody has indicated earlier, this is not just an individual-type event here. This is a law enforcement community that came together to bring the suspect into custody. And this just says something about Sacramento in general, the fact that we work together as a unit to take care of our problems. And I'm just really proud to be a part of this organization. The fact that we all worked together ... all the egos were put aside and everybody worked as a unit to take care of this problem.

And again, I have to thank the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement. I have to thank the probation department, the sheriff's department and SPD for giving us their support and doing whatever it took to take this person into custody. And basically, what that took was 24-hour work to take this person into custody.

JOACHIM: I will describe how the arrest occurred.

As the sheriff said, at 7:45 this morning I was working the graveyard shift and was getting ready to get off, and Sgt. Brown here was bringing his day shift crew on. We observed the family leave the residence in a very hurried fashion. And we began to follow them.

Shortly after that, we saw them arrive at a store, and the suspect's brother entered a store, and we realized that he had called 911, reporting that the suspect was underneath a desk in the back yard of the residence we were watching. Somehow the suspect had arrived in the back yard of that residence on foot, undetected, in the cover of darkness while we were watching the residents in the area.

The patrolman assigned to the area did a fantastic job of immediately setting an outer perimeter so the suspect wouldn't escape, allowing Sgt. Brown's team and my team to do as we planned, and that was, if he arrived at that residence to hit it and effect an arrest as immediately or as fast as possible.

So under the direction of Sgt. Lancaster, we had two teams converge on the residence from two different directions. We quietly approached, and we couldn't see a desk in the back yard at first.

The FBI offered up to $50,000 for evidence leading to Soltys' capture.

Eventually, some of my partners were able to peer through the fence and find a desk just inside the gate to the residence, just outside a sliding glass door, next to an inoperable refrigerator. As we moved to maneuver through the gate, several of us could see the suspect's feet. He was maybe curled or lying on the ground, as if he had been resting or lying in wait in that location.

As he heard us, he sprang to his feet and appeared as if he were [trying] to run, but the inoperable refrigerator's door was open, blocking his exit. We entered the gate. It was a very confined area. We were able to grab him, and he thrust his hands in the air as soon as I entered the gate. So I immediately saw he wasn't armed.

I secured my weapon, was able to grab him, extricate him from that little small area. And Sgt. Brown was able to handcuff him, along with the assistance of several of our partners right outside that gate area. And we brought the family back to the scene who positively identified him.

QUESTION: Sir, did he say anything?

JOACHIM: He spoke no words that I heard during the entire incident.

BROWN: The whole time he was very stoic, didn't say anything to us. He didn't really respond immediately when we took him down. We told him to get down. We had to forcibly take him down, although he didn't struggle with us.

QUESTION: He thrust his hands in the air as if he surrendered?

JOACHIM: I believe so. I was looking at him through the fence, as he appeared to turn and run, but the refrigerator was blocking his way. So officer Brad Warner pushed the gate open for me, because I was armed with the shotgun. I entered the small area and as soon as he saw me, he thrust his hands in the air. I took it as a surrender. I was happy to see that he was unarmed, so I was able to secure my weapon and extricate him from the area.

QUESTION: Detective Joachim, given the fact that you have the house under 24-hour surveillance, how surprised were you that he showed up in that back yard?

JOACHIM: Well, that's why we had the house under surveillance. We believed this is one of the likely places he would have arrived at. It's a very difficult -- surveillance is a very difficult thing to do, especially at night .... And you could see vehicles arrive, but people on foot in the darkness -- he was wearing dark clothing -- he could have entered the place over back fences.

And in fact, earlier in the day we did see somebody approach on foot to the residence, but the family had cell phones to dial 911 directly to us. They had a panic alarm in the house. We received no alarm, so we didn't fear for their safety at that time.

Apparently, if that was him, he laid in that back yard until the family saw him and evacuated the house.

QUESTION: How long do you think he'd been there?

QUESTION: What did he look like?

Soltys' looks out from a police car after his arrest Thursday morning.

JOACHIM: Well, basically he was wearing a blue T-shirt with yellow writing on it. He had on a dark-colored to black type of jogging pants. He was very dirty. His feet were dirty. His whole body was basically dirty, like he'd been camping out. He had a two- or three-day growth of a beard. Just very disheveled. Again, he looked like he had been camping out.

QUESTION: You said that the family left in a hurry. Do you take that to mean that they were fearful, that they'd just discovered him themselves?

JOACHIM: At first, when we saw the family leave, we didn't know what they'd seen. We were simply watching them. They didn't use their 911 cell phones or their panic alarm.

Detective Macatee was watching at that point. The garage door flew open. He radioed to us that the family was entering the car in a hurry, backup lights, and it left in a really quick hurry. When we followed them to the store, once they made the 911 call, it was obvious to us why they were leaving in such a hurry. They had just discovered him and went to report it.

QUESTION: Just the two people? The mother and the son, or how many people are we talking about getting in the car?

JOACHIM: There were several.

BROWN: Yes. We're talking about his brother, his mother, the brother's wife, a younger male juvenile and an older female juvenile. And the female juvenile was the one we saw actually kind of run into the vehicle. That really gave us some indication that they were in a hurry to get out of there.

QUESTION: Since they called 911, will they be getting the $120,000 reward?

BROWN: Well, that's something you have to talk to Sgt. Lewis about. I'm not really sure on that.

QUESTION: Do you have any idea where he's been the past couple of days?

JOACHIM: Well, the investigation obviously is continuing, and it's in its preliminary stages now that they have an opportunity to talk to him. But, as Sgt. Brown said, he was disheveled and looked like he may have been camping out.

QUESTION: Are you sure he came in overnight in the darkness?

JOACHIM: Well, technically, I guess he could have been there, but it wasn't a very great hiding place. I'm sure the family would have seen him if he hadn't come in during the night.

QUESTION: Did he have anything with him?

BROWN: Yes ... when we took him down, we searched him. At that point he had ... I'd say about a 4- to 5-inch potato peeler, a metal potato peeler with him. He also had a folded-up map. I'm not sure exactly what the map was of.

JOACHIM: It was of the Sacramento area, I'm being told.

BROWN: That was the only property that he had on his person. Behind the fence where he was hiding, there was a backpack and a sleeping bag.

QUESTION: Any weapons?

QUESTION: Do you believe the potato peeler was the murder weapon?

JOACHIM: No, I believe he was maybe peeling potatoes, if he was camping out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found a knife in the ...

BROWN: Yes, right. As we're being told, there was a knife in his backpack. We're not really sure if it is the murder weapon. But it is a knife similar to what we think might have been used.

QUESTION: Any indication how he survived all this time? Did he have cash in his backpack?

JOACHIM: I looked in the backpack briefly when I first saw it. I left it for the investigators to further search, and they found the weapon that he was describing. But there was a soda bottle, some water in there, a sleeping bag that I saw immediately. So I believe that indicated he may have been camping out.

QUESTION: Can you describe that knife?

JOACHIM: I did not see it myself.

QUESTION: Is there a rural area adjacent to where he was found?

BROWN: To the north there is a wooded area that could be used for camping, yes.

QUESTION: Is it a park?

BROWN: No, it's not really a park. If I'm not mistaken, I'm not really familiar with the area, but from what I understand it's like a creek area.

QUESTION: Have you talked to the family at all since this happened, and has the brother said anything to clarify exactly what may have happened?

BROWN: The suspect hasn't given us any information, hasn't talked to us. The family ... hasn't provided any information, and at some other time ... the homicide investigators might have additional information to provide to you.