No suspect after SWAT situation ends at Arden Arcade apartment tied to car-to-car shooting

Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies were unable to locate a subject after SWAT personnel surrounded an Arden Arcade apartment Tuesday linked to an earlier car-to-car gunfight yards away on a busy thoroughfare.

Deputies believed at least one person was barricaded in a unit of the complex in the 3500 block of Watt Avenue for several hours near the 1:20 p.m. incident. The standoff in the back of the Regalia Crest Apartments lasted several hours until SWAT personnel breached the unit just before 9:45 p.m.

Tenants, including children, from other units on the third floor were evacuated around 7:30 p.m. Deputies made a steady repetition of orders instructing those inside to come outside and used a flash grenade just before 8 p.m.

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Rodney Grassmann said the SWAT activity was connected to the earlier incident near Watt and Whitney avenues where “a fair amount of ammo was expended” when two vehicles fired upon one another in the middle of the day.

No injuries were reported in the afternoon exchange, but several windows were broken as bullets hit nearby buildings. Authorities were initially sent to the area when a burglary alarm at a nearby business was activated. Grassmann said the alarm likely was activated when gunfire struck the business.

As deputies were processing the scene, Grassmann said, they learned that one of those subjects was “in an apartment close by.” He described the person sought inside the apartment as a subject in the shooting, but could not provide additional details.

Residents near the complex said law enforcement had been in the area since late afternoon.

This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 8:00 PM.