Suspect killed by sheriff’s deputies wanted in armed Elk Grove carjacking

Deputies Monday fatally shot a man at a Natomas FoodMaxx who had allegedly eluded law enforcement for two days after being suspected of an armed carjacking in Elk Grove on Saturday.

Officers made contact with the suspect as he was sitting in white SUV in the FoodMaxx parking lot around 1 p.m. Monday.

Within seconds of approaching him, shots were fired, according to scanner audio from the online archive Broadcastify.com.

“I heard the ‘boom boom’ and didn’t go outside for a while,” said Sam Khabra, owner of Natomas Liquor and Deli, located next to FoodMaxx. “I didn’t know who was shooting or what was going on.”

Sacramento Police Department spokesman Sgt. Vance Chandler said deputies fired because the suspect “posed an immediate threat to both deputies.”

Both deputies fired their weapons, Chandler said. The Sacramento Police Department was involved in the investigation because it happened inside city limits, he said.

Chandler said the suspect died of gunshot wounds at the scene after attempts at CPR. A weapon was recovered near the suspect’s body, and he was wearing a holster, Chandler said.

The suspect first came to police attention Saturday when he and two other men allegedly shoplifted from the Walmart on Elk Grove Boulevard, according to Elk Grove Police. The store alerted the Elk Grove Police Department of the theft and gave officers a description of the men and their SUV. Officers spotted the SUV on Elk Grove Boulevard and pulled it over, said Jason Jimenez, spokesman for the Elk Grove Police Department.

During the vehicle stop, the suspect, who was in the backseat, became “agitated,” Jimenez said.

The suspect, who The Bee is not naming because it was not immediately known if his family had been informed of his death, was convicted of burglary charges in 2010, according to court records, and was a parolee-at-large.

When the two men with the suspect exited the SUV, the suspect jumped into the driver’s seat and fled, said Jimenez.

“He pointed the gun at himself, he jumped into the driver’s seat after a brief exchange of words with the officers and drove away, which started a pursuit through that city,” Jimenez said.

Officers chased him but eventually canceled the pursuit because he was driving “erratically,” Jimenez said.

Officers later found the man on Chablis Way where he abandoned the SUV and took off on foot, running through residential neighborhoods and backyards on Waterman Road, according to police radio communications.

He jumped over a retaining wall into a parking lot of Heroic Wholesale Outlet, where he allegedly carjacked a white Toyota Forerunner at gunpoint and fled a second time, Jimenez said.

“Based on the investigation, we were able to identify the suspect and asked for assistance in helping locate the suspect,” he said.

Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies began surveillance Sunday and found the man in the FoodMaxx parking lot Monday morning, said Hampton.

The sheriff’s deputies reported they were following a white Isuzu Rodeo with an “armed and dangerous subject” to Food Maxx about 12:05 p.m., according to audio obtained via Broadcastify.

Neither deputy involved in the shooting was harmed, said Hampton. One of the involved deputies is a 15-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department currently assigned to the major crimes unit, Hampton said. The other is a three-year veteran of the department currently assigned to the SWAT team.

On Monday afternoon, the body of what appeared to be a white man in his 40s was lying face-up on the ground next to a white SUV in the parking lot.

Chandler said the shooting portion of the investigation is “very active.”

This article was updated Dec. 17 at 12:55 p.m. to reflect corrected information from the sheriff’s department on the location of the shooting. This is a breaking news story. Please check sacbee.com for updates.

This story was originally published December 17, 2018 at 12:37 PM.