A lone gunman shot three California sheriff's deputies - two of them fatally - and led state authorities on a large-scale manhunt before he was finally arrested in a house 30 miles outside Sacramento in Placer County, The New York Times reported.
At around 10:30 a.m. Friday the suspect, identified as Marcelo Marquez, allegedly shot and killed sheriff's deputy Danny Oliver at a motel parking lot in Sacramento. He then shot another man, stole his white Ford Mustang and fled the scene with a woman, Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones told the newspaper.
The Mustang's owner, Anthony Holmes, was listed in serious condition on Friday at a hospital.
The violence resumed hours later when Marquez stole a red Ford pickup truck from a man named Jose Cruz, who was gardening outside a client's house, according to the Sacramento Bee. Cruz told the Bee that the man walked up to him, aimed a gun and demanded his keys.
"Hurry up, because they're chasing me," Cruz recalled the man saying to him. He noted the armed man had a bloody shirt wrapped around his left arm. The man let Cruz unhook the trailer attached to the truck before driving off with the stolen vehicle.
Police caught up with the Ford truck in a neighborhood in Placer County. A second sheriff's deputy, Michael David Davis, lost his life when Marquez allegedly shot him and another officer when they stopped the truck. The officer who was with Davis, Deputy Sheriff Jeff Davis, survived the shooting with a wound to the arm, The NY Times reported.
Marquez and his female companion fled the scene again, this time on foot.
A manhunt ensued and Placer County authorities, with the help of a SWAT Team, FBI agents and State Highway Patrol, tracked the alleged killer down to a home near a high school in Auburn.
Police used tear gas to force Marquez, 34, out of the home, according to the Associated Press. He and the unnamed woman are now in custody. As of Friday, it is not clear if they have been charged, and it is not clear if a motive has been determined.
"I think there's those people who would say, 'You know what, I wish you'd killed him," Placer County Sheriff Ed Bonner said Friday, the AP reported. "Now, that's not who we are. We are not him. We did our job."
