Sunday, October 26, 2014
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, CALIF.
A man suspected of killing two deputies during a shooting rampage in Northern California was deported twice to Mexico and had a drug conviction, federal authorities said Saturday.
The suspected shooter told Sacramento County Sheriff’s investigators that he was 34-year-old Marcelo Marquez of Salt Lake City. However, his fingerprints match the biometric records of a Luis Enrique Monroy-Bracamonte in a federal database, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.
Monroy-Bracamonte was first removed from the country in 1997 after being convicted in Arizona for possession of narcotics for sale. Monroy-Bracamonte was arrested and repatriated to Mexico a second time in 2001, Kice said.
“The fingerprints were the basis for our request for an immigration detainer,” she said.
The detainer requests that local authorities transfer him to federal custody after his case is adjudicated so ICE can purse his deportation, Kice said.
The suspect was being held without bail on suspicion of two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and two counts of carjacking.
His wife, 38-year-old Janelle Marquez Monroy, also was in custody on suspicion of attempted murder and carjacking in connection with the attack Friday that left two deputies dead and two other victims were wounded.
Investigators spent Saturday at the multiple crime scenes “trying to kind of sort through the chaos so we can methodically rebuild this,” Placer County Sheriff Ed Bonner said.
The two suspects were questioned for hours as authorities sought a motive for the shootings that began when Sacramento County sheriff’s Deputy Danny Oliver, 47, was shot in the forehead with an assault rifle at close range as he checked out a suspicious car in a motel parking lot.
The suspects have talked to investigators, Bonner said, but what sparked the shootings remained unclear. It was also unclear what brought the heavily armed suspects from Utah to California, Bonner said.
Oliver, a 15-year veteran of the department, left a wife and two daughters.
After he was killed, the gunman shot Anthony Holmes, 38, of Sacramento at least twice, including once in the head, during an attempted carjacking. He was in fair condition.
The attackers then stole a pickup truck and fled about 30 miles northeast into neighboring Placer County.
Two deputies who approached the pickup while it was parked alongside a road were shot with an AR-15-type assault weapon.
Homicide Detective Michael David Davis Jr., 42, 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.
Dozens of law-enforcement vehicles, with lights silently flashing, escorted a hearse carrying Michael Davis’ flag-draped coffin to a funeral home as bystanders and law-enforcement officials hugged, saluted and wiped away tears.
“It’s a nightmare for all of us,” Bonner said.