Marysville officer, an Army veteran, killed during search warrant operation in Yuba County
A Marysville Police SWAT officer and his killer were shot dead in Olivehurst, Yuba County, as authorities served a search warrant in a wide-ranging operation targeting transnational drug dealers across Northern California.
The slain officer, identified late Wednesday as Officer Osmar Rodarte, was a U.S. Army veteran who had served two years with the department. The warrant Rodarte was serving when he was shot at the Kestrel Court address was one of more than 20 served in Yuba, Sutter, Butte and Tehama counties as part of the operation, officials said at the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department headquarters in Marysville.
The Marysville officer, the department’s first to die in the line of duty in more than a century, was pronounced dead at Adventist Health and Rideout hospital in Marysville. Law enforcement leaders at the somber afternoon news conference said Rodarte left behind a wife and family.
“This is a sad day in the city of Marysville,” said Marysville police chief Chris Sachs.
The shooting unfolded after several law enforcement agencies converged on the cul-de-sac in Olivehurst, about 40 miles north of Sacramento, about 7:50 a.m., sheriff’s officials said.
Yuba County Sheriff Wendell Anderson said tactical officers exchanged gunfire with one of the two people inside the home, killing the shooter. The gunman’s name was not released. A second person, also unidentified, was taken into custody.
Televised images showed a large law enforcement presence on and near Kestrel Court and at Rideout, where officers gathered to await news of their comrade.
Investigators from NET-5, the multiagency Yuba-Sutter Narcotics and Gang Task Force Unit, were leading the prolonged operation that targeted dozens of suspected dealers and netted fentanyl, hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine and weapons.
“It’s important to note that the targets, the suspects, were part of a transnational organization” trading in methamphetamine and fentanyl, said Yuba County District Attorney Clint Curry.
An unknown number of people were arrested and guns and drugs were seized during the other 20 searches, said Sierra Pedley, a Sutter County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson. The suspects are now being detained in federal, state and local custody, Pedley said, adding that more details on the numbers of arrests — and the weapons and drugs seized — would be released in the coming days.
Yuba-Sutter Critical Incident and Officer-Involved Shooting investigators are now working the deadly shooting.
News of the officer’s death was first announced by Assemblymember James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, on his social media feed.
“This morning we have learned that one of our young brave Marysville police officers has been killed in the line of duty,” Gallagher wrote on X. “Our hearts and our prayers are with this young officer’s family and our local law enforcement family.”
Rodarte is the fifth from the Marysville’s force to die in the line of duty and the first for the agency in 103 years, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a website that tracks law enforcement fatalities.
This story was originally published March 26, 2025 at 9:07 AM.
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