Exclusive: Details emerge on man who shot and killed Sacramento sheriff’s deputy, K-9

The man who shot and killed a Sacramento sheriff’s deputy and K-9 had a history of criminal activity, drug use and mental illness, law enforcement sources and the suspect’s mother told The Sacramento Bee.

Robert Stephen Calderon, 46, died in a shootout with law enforcement on the Cal Expo grounds late Monday after leading officers on a brief car chase. Deputies had approached Calderon near the Ardendale strip mall on Arden Way around 10 p.m. and he was acting unusual, according to a law enforcement source who was not authorized to speak on an ongoing investigation.

Calderon crashed his car in a parking lot on the east side of Cal Expo around 10 p.m. and refused to comply with deputies’ orders. During a shootout with officers, he shot two deputies and a K-9. One of the deputies – a six-year veteran with an infant child – and the K-9 were killed.

Calderon’s mother, Jenny, told The Bee that her son had been on drugs in the past and “I think he was bi-polar.”

“He saw people coming out of the walls,” she said. “They would come and they would abuse him. And he was mad at me because he thought I was letting them into his room.

“That’s why he got the gun.”

Calderon said she “had no idea” how her son obtained the firearm.

“I told him to get rid of it, I told him you have to go get some help and you have to get rid of that gun.”

Calderon said her son had assured her that he had gotten rid of the weapon. She said she had been adamant about that because she considers herself an anti-gun advocate.

She broke down several times speaking about her son and what he had done. Speaking in her apartment, Calderon said she was mourning not only her son, but especially the fallen deputy and his family.

“I’m glad he’s dead because if he knew what he had done to that deputy’s family, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself,” she said.

Robert Calderon was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and moved to Sacramento with his mother when he was a young child. He attended Encina High School but had difficulty with his studies and graduated from an alternative program, El Sereno High School, in 1993.

Calderon had a history of drug use and brushes with the law.

His family described Calderon as a former truck driver and in-home health services worker who loved animals and had a small pug named Max. They said he was frequently homeless and living in a Chevrolet Suburban, frequently parking it outside the used clothing store where deputies contacted him Monday night.

Jenny Calderon said she wasn’t sure if her son even knew the people he confronted were deputies. She said deputies came to her door between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Tuesday to tell her what had happened and searched her apartment.

“My son leaves nothing here on earth except for me and Max and the people who love him,” she said. “But that poor deputy leaves behind a family.”

Suspect’s long criminal history

Calderon cycled in and out of custody for decades, according to court records.

He had a combined nine felony and misdemeanor cases out of Sacramento County dating to 1993, Superior Court records show. The cases generally involve drugs and stolen vehicles. His most recent local case, a felony, came in 2012. He was sentenced to 16 months in state prison for vehicle theft.

Calderon reported a history of mental illness and said he had been treated by a Sacramento doctor in 2013 for drug-induced psychosis, according to court papers filed in 2016 in Oklahoma.

He also has a decades-long criminal history that includes vehicle thefts in Sacramento and near Lake Tahoe, according to records. Calderon also reportedly fled law enforcement at one point.

In June 2016, he pleaded guilty in Custer County, Oklahoma for methamphetamine possession and felony destruction of property after he ransacked a Hampton Inn hotel room and destroyed a microwave cart.

He was sentenced to four years in prison. On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections told The Bee that Calderon had completed his sentence and was no longer on parole. Online records say he was discharged in November, 2017.

This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 10:46 AM.