Suspected carjacker fatally shot by Sacramento deputies on I-5 ID’d; had GA warrant
Sacramento County coroner’s officials identified the suspected carjacker shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies following a lengthy pursuit early Tuesday as a man wanted on a felony warrant in Georgia.
Tyler Allen Gress, 33, was fatally shot by deputies after a chase that began with a carjacking in Citrus Heights and followed with a tense pursuit through northern Sacramento County, and onto Sacramento International Airport property before its end near a Natomas freeway offramp.
The long chase ended, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said, when Gress left the stolen car on Interstate 5 near Arena Boulevard in Natomas and pointed a weapon at pursuing deputies.
Gress was shot dead. Four deputies are on paid administrative leave while an investigation into the shooting continues.
Gress had been wanted on a felony warrant out of Augusta, Georgia, for failure to appear. Gress was involved in an altercation in Georgia’s Richmond County that ended with a female EMS worker and a sheriff’s deputy injured while attempting to transport him to the hospital, according to Augusta television stations WRDW and WAGT.
In a sheriff’s report cited by the TV stations, a deputy was following an ambulance carrying Gress when the ambulance’s rear doors opened to Gress and the emergency worker wrestling in the back when the vehicle stopped at an intersection. Deputies ultimately restrained Gress, but the man repeatedly grabbed for a deputy’s taser.
Gress continued to fight deputies at the hospital while in restraints before he was ultimately sedated to allow medical staff to treat him for a head injury he suffered in a previous encounter.
It was unknown how Gress found his way to Northern California and Sacramento before the early morning carjacking that led to his death.
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