Two California sheriff’s deputies were killed and two others were wounded in a shooting spree that started in a motel parking lot in Sacramento on Friday, authorities said.
Marcelo Marquez, 34, and a female companion, who were described on Twitter by the California Highway Patrol as armed and dangerous, were taken into custody, police said.
The incident began on Friday morning in the parking lot of a Motel 6 when a deputy, later identified as Danny Oliver, 47, approached a vehicle considered to be suspicious, Sacramento County Sheriff Lieutenant R.L. Davis said.
Someone inside the car fired multiple rounds at Oliver, who was struck in the chest. On Friday afternoon, Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones said that Oliver had died of his wounds at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center in Sacramento.
“We grieve as a family,” Jones told a news conference.
He said that Oliver, a 15-year veteran of the force, left behind a wife and two daughters.
After shooting Oliver, the car’s occupants then carjacked a vehicle nearby, shooting the man who was at the wheel before fleeing, Davis said. Police initially said that the civilian who was carjacked was a woman.
They then stole a third vehicle, a 2002 red Ford F-150 pickup truck and are believed to have crossed into neighboring Placer County, shooting two sheriff’s deputies there, Davis said.
One of the deputies, 42-year-old Michael David Davis Jr, later died, Placer County Sheriff Edward Bonner said at a news conference.
Davis was a 15-year veteran with the department and died 26 years to the day after his father and namesake, Michael David Davis, was killed while on duty as a sheriff’s deputy in southern California, Bonner said.
The female suspect was taken into custody earlier on Friday afternoon, the Sacramento Bee reported.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that she was “with law enforcement,” but said it was not clear whether she was still viewed as a suspect.
Marquez was taken into custody at about 4pm local time after he was found hiding in a suburban home, a spokesman for the Placer County Sheriff’s Department said.
Businesses in the town of Auburn, where the man fled, were put on lockdown for much of Friday afternoon.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was