By Bill Lindelof and Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com
An apparent home invasion ended when one man was captured and another was shot dead by Sacramento police Monday night in the Meadowview neighborhood of south Sacramento.
A police dog named Bandit was wounded in the shootout.
(Photo at left by Bee reporter Kim Minugh shows Bandit with K9 Sgt. Steve Oliveira before the 4-and-a-half-year-old German shepherd went into surgery this afternoon to have a bullet and shrapnel removed from his neck. The dog is expected to survive.)
The incident began about at 8:35 p.m. when a man used a ruse to enter a house in the 2000 block of O'Neil Way.
Inside the home were a 17-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy. Police say it is unclear why the man in his 30s chose break into the home. The girl called police to report the break-in and left the phone line open, allowing authorities to monitor the situation inside the house.
The armed suspect bound the two young residents and then searched the home. The victims told police that the suspect appeared to be talking by cell phone to an accomplice as he went through the home.
When police arrived, they saw a 23-year-old man, believed to be an accomplice in the break-in, walking from the home and detained him.
Police say the suspect inside the home exited through a back door and into the back yard, where an officer and Bandit waited. The officer and suspect exchanged gunfire. It is not clear if the suspect was hit. The officer was not hit, but Bandit was wounded.
The suspect retreated into the house and ran out the front door, where he was confronted by four officers who shot him when he failed to drop his weapon.
Police found the victims bound but unhurt.
Police said the suspects were from out of town but did not reveal their names or where they live. Police said it is not known why they targeted the house on O'Neil Way, which is near Meadowview Road and Freeport Boulevard.
The officers involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave. Their experience ranges from one year to 11 years on the force.
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