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Killing of Calif. deputies brings complexity

Investigation involving number of agencies

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – More than 100 law-enforcement officers from across Northern California responded without being asked after hearing that one of their own had been killed at the start of a shooting rampage, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said Saturday.

Federal, state and local officers eventually swarmed six separate crime scenes across a 30-mile region encompassing two counties, Placer County sheriff’s spokeswoman Dena Erwin said.

The officers from the state Department of Justice, FBI, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other agencies will be questioned as part of the complex, ongoing investigation into the attack on Friday that ended after two deputies were dead and two other victims were wounded.

Two suspects were questioned for hours as authorities sought a motive for the shootings that began when Sacramento County sheriff’s Deputy Danny Oliver was shot in the forehead with an assault rifle at close range as he checked out a suspicious car in a motel parking lot.

One suspect was being held without bail on suspicion of two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and two counts of carjacking. A woman with him was in custody on suspicion of attempted murder and two counts of carjacking.

No attorneys were listed for either suspect in jail records.

Oliver, a 15-year veteran of the department, left a wife and two daughters. After Oliver was shot, his partner fired at the attackers, who drove about a mile before attempting a carjacking..

The attackers then stole a pickup truck from a gardener and fled to Auburn in neighboring Placer County, about 30 miles northeast of Sacramento.

Two deputies who approached the pickup while it was parked alongside a road were shot with an AR-15-type assault weapon, Erwin said.

Homicide Detective Michael David Davis Jr. died at a hospital 26 years to the day after his father, for whom he was named, died in the line of duty as a Riverside County deputy.

Deputy Jeff Davis was treated for a gunshot wound to the arm. The two deputies are not related.



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