Authorities on Thursday identified the suspect who shot and killed a sheriff's deputy and wounded two other officers in a Sacramento hotel shootout as a man from the San Francisco Bay Area and said he was hospitalized in critical condition.
The suspect, Thomas Daniel Littlecloud, 32, of Castro Valley, was suffering from life threatening injuries but has not been booked with any charges, said Sacramento County Sheriff's Sgt. Tony Turnbull.
Littlecloud fatally shot Deputy Robert French, 52, on Wednesday with an assault rifle as Littlecloud tried to flee a hotel after officers knocked on his hotel room door as part of a stolen vehicle investigation, Turnbull said.
French died on the way to the hospital. Two California Highway Patrol officers who were shot and wounded were expected to survive.
Littlecloud has a long criminal history. The Alameda County probation department said he was on the run, wanted on two felony warrants. Assistant Chief Esa Ehmen-Krause said Littlecloud has served time in the California prison system and was facing warrants on other charges ranging from federal drug violations and weapons charges.
"Mr. Littlecloud failed to appear for a court date, and a bench warrant was sent thereafter," Ehmen-Krause said.
Littlecloud was released from the Soledad state prison in 2014 as part of California’s re-alignment program to relieve prison overcrowding, Ehmen-Krause said.
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Six other sheriff's deputies involved in the shooting will be placed on paid administrative leave while an investigation is conducted, which Turnbull described as routine when officer-involved shootings happen. The Sacramento County District Attorney's office will also conduct an independent review, he said.
Priscilla Prendez, of Oakland, California, faces charges of vehicle theft and felony evasion in connection with Wednesday's events, which began as part of a routine stolen vehicle investigation. The police believed Prendez was connected to a stolen vehicle ring inside the hotel, Turnbull said.
The hotel's guests were trapped Wednesday in their rooms for most of the day as police methodically cleared the area and confirmed no other gunmen stayed behind in the hotel room.
In another shooting of California police Wednesday night, two officers in Bakersfield were hospitalized in stable condition they responded to a call about a disturbance at a home and ended up in a shootout in which the suspect was killed.
The events leading to Sacramento shooting started with a routine investigation by a car-theft task force involving officers from multiple agencies. Investigators suspected a car-theft ring was being run out of a Ramada Inn in an unincorporated neighborhood of Sacramento.
Two women who got into a stolen vehicle were chased for 20 miles before being apprehended in Elk Grove, south of Sacramento. Arresting officers learned Prendez of Oakland, California, was on probation and had booked a room in the Ramada Inn.
No details have been disclosed about her relationship to Littlecloud, and the police have not named the second woman in her car.
When officers knocked on the hotel room door, a gunman opened fire through the door and walls, striking two California Highway Patrol officers before turning to the balcony and shooting French, who was outside monitoring the back door, and fleeing.
Littlecloud was found with a rifle and high-capacity magazine, which are illegal to purchase in California, Turnbull said. The car he attempted to flee in was also stolen, Turnbull said.
It was unclear why the suspects responded so aggressively when police arrived, Turnbull said.
"Maybe that will come out in the investigation. Maybe we'll never know," Turnbull said. "Either way, it's irrational."
Jeff Marshall, who lives near the hotel, said he heard gunshots and tires squealing and saw a gray Dodge speed by his home, going the wrong way down a busy street as vehicles and pedestrians scrambled to get out of the way.
"It was like the wild West," Marshall said.
French was a 21-year veteran of the sheriff's office.
Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones described French him as a well-known, well-respected deputy.
He trained new officers and was a "go-to guy for advice and counsel, not just career advice but tactical advice and things like that," Jones said.
French is survived by his live-in girlfriend, adult children and grandchildren and a sister.
"Words aren't going to make an appropriate appreciation of him as a man or his career," Jones said.
