A Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputy was killed, and two others wounded, on Friday. A female suspect is in custody but a manhunt is under way for another suspect.
A gunman shot and killed two California sheriff’s deputies and wounded another deputy and a motorist in separate incidents Friday in and around Sacramento, authorities reported.
Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones says a deputy was killed after he approached a suspicious vehicle and was shot in the forehead.
Jones identified the deputy as 47-year-old Danny Oliver, who had served with the department for 15 years. He leaves a wife and two daughters.
In nearby Placer County, sheriff’s spokeswoman Dena Erwin says one of her department’s deputies was killed after he was shot with an AR-15-type assault rifle.
A second Placer deputy was shot in the arm and was expected to survive.
A suspect in the shootings was taken into custody later in Placer County after a manhunt. Erwin says 34-year-old Marcelo Marquez was taken alive Friday afternoon from a home in Auburn, 30 miles northwest of Sacramento.
A woman who was with the man earlier was taken into custody in Placer County, and authorities said she had a handgun in her purse.
Officers chased the suspect for hours in a manhunt spanning the two counties after the suspect shot three deputies and a bystander. The condition of the bystander was not immediately known.
Jones said he did not know a motive for the shooting. Oliver was the first county deputy killed since 2008.
“He was not able to return fire or do anything,” Jones said. He said Oliver’s partner was able to shoot back as the vehicle fled the scene.
The Sacramento deputy was shot first, at about 10:30 a.m. while approaching a suspicious vehicle containing a man and a woman outside a Motel 6, said Sgt. Lisa Bowman. The suspects fled, and soon after stole a car, shooting the driver when he refused to hand over his keys.
A man staying at the motel who did not want his name used said he saw an officer’s vehicle drive around to the back of the motel and then what sounded like gunfire.
“I walked to the back, looked over the rail and saw the officer down,” the witness said.
The suspects later carjacked a Ford pickup truck belonging to Jose Cruz, who was gardening outside a client’s house in Sacramento.
Cruz told The Sacramento Bee that a man in a white Ford Mustang convertible told him he needed a favor: “I need your keys,” the man said. “Hurry up, because they’re chasing me.”
The man pointed a gun at Cruz and had a bloody shirt wrapped around his other arm. But he helped Cruz unhitch his work trailer before driving off.
“I feel lucky that he didn’t hurt me,” Cruz said. “When they pull (a gun) on you, you don’t know if it’s loaded, then in one second, they pull a trigger and that’s it.”
The suspects then fled to neighboring Placer County, where the assailant is suspected of shooting the two Placer deputies.
Contributing: KXTV-TV, Sacramento, Calif.; The Associated Press
