Suspects arrested in 2024 Sacramento homicide. One was linked to 2022 deadly shootout
Homicide detectives investigating a fatal shooting last year in Sacramento’s Northgate neighborhood have arrested two suspects, including a man involved in a 2022 deadly shootout outside a midtown sports bar.
Michael Escobar, 25, of West Sacramento, and Pedro Carrillo Jr., 23, of Galt, were arrested on suspicion of murder and being a felon in possession of a fireram in connection with the shooting death of 26-year-old Kejion Cousins-Starkes.
About 2:45 a.m. Feb. 17, 2024, officers responded to a report of a shooting at the intersection of Edmonton and Northstead drives in a residential neighborhood just west of Northgate Boulevard.
Police said officers arrived and found a man, later identified as Cousins-Starkes of Sacramento, with at least one gunshot wound inside a vehicle. Medics took Cousins-Starkes to a hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Escobar and Carrillo were booked in connection with Counsins-Starkes’ death on Dec. 19 at the Sacramento County Jail. The Sacramento Police Department announced their arrests on Tuesday in a social media update.
The arraignment for Escobar and Carrillo was held Dec. 23 in Sacramento Superior Court. Both men remained in custody Tuesday and were being held without bail. They were scheduled to return to court March 26 for further proceedings in the murder case.
This was second time in three years that police investigators arrested Escobar in connection with his alleged role in a fatal shooting in Sacramento, the Police Department and prosecutors confirmed.
In late September 2022, Sacramento police arrested Escobar on felony charges of assault on a person with a semi-automatic firearm and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm stemming from the shooting death of Alfonso Martinez Jr., 34, of Elk Grove.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, however, formally charged Escobar with a single count of being a felon in possession of a gun; not the assault with a firearm charge. Escobar was released from jail after posting a $50,000 bail bond.
Martinez was fatally wounded in the shootout outside BarWest, a midtown sports bar on J Street near 28th Street. The shooting occurred about 12:45 a.m. Sept. 25, 2022, shortly after a disturbance inside BarWest led to staff ejecting a group of people from the sports bar.
At the time of Escobar’s arrest, a police spokesperson said it was unclear to investigators whether anyone involved in the disturbance was armed with a gun inside the bar. But investigators had determined that at least one of the people involved in the shooting had been ejected from the bar before going outside and retrieving a gun.
The police spokesperson also said investigators still believed there were only two people who fired a gun in the shooting, and the Police Department at that time did not expect to make additional arrests.
Court records show Escobar resolved his criminal case in the midtown shootout on March 7, 2023, after pleading no contest was to the charge of being a felon in possession of a gun. He was sentenced to a year and four months in prison, the District Attorney’s Office said on Tuesday.
Public records do not indicate when Escobar was released after serving his prison sentence. His current criminal charges do not include alleged violations of probation or parole.
This story was originally published March 11, 2025 at 2:34 PM.
