Deputies shoot alleged carjacking suspect
by Brad Smith
United Reporting Crime Beat Reporter
SACRAMENTO (March 9) — One man was shot and another arrested Monday morning after sheriff deputies responded to a 911 call early Monday morning. Sgt. Tim Curran, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department spokesman, said that a woman had made the call at around 1:47 a.m., claiming that her boyfriend had been kidnapped at gunpoint by two men.
“(She) told the deputies that the two suspects and her boyfriend were in a white Toyota Tercel,” Curran reported.
He said that a deputy responding to the call located a white Toyota Tercel and stopped it at the corner of Larchwood Court and Walnut Avenue. “The deputy saw three men inside the Tercel. The deputy asked one of the men to step out of the car.” At that point, the man identified himself as the victim.
“He also told the deputy that one of the suspect was armed.”
Curran stated that the deputiy waited for backup to arrive. When the deputies ordered the suspects to leave the the vehicle, the suspects attempted to flee on foot. Deputies apprehended on the men, 18-year-old Ronnie Rentie of Sacramento, while the other eluded capture.
“The deputies established a perimeter and called in a K9 unit,” Curran said. The K9 unit tracked down the suspect, he said, who had been hiding in the backyard shed of residence located along the 5100 block of Atlanta Way.
“Deputies ordered the suspect to surrender,” Curran said during a phone interview, “but he (the suspect) attempted to escape.”
According to a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department press release, one of the deputies had “reasonable belief the suspect had committed a violent crime involving the threat of death or great bodily injury” so he fired his shotgun at the suspect.
The suspect continued to run until he was taken down by the K9. After taking a large-caliber handgun from the suspect, deputies discovered that he had been injured in the shoulder and the neck. The 39-year-old suspect was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.
“He’s expected to survive,” Curran said. Once the suspect is released from the hospital, Curran said he will be booked into the county jail charged withsuspicion of kidnapping, carjacking, false imprisonment and conspiracy.
Rentie was booked into the jail at around 8 a.m. this morning, charged with suspicion of kidnapping, carjacking and conspiracy. His bail is set at $1 million.
Curran said that an investigation “is still on going.”
The second suspect’s identity will be released later on, he said, after being booked into jail.
In the departmental press release, it stated that the deputy involved in this shooting is 40-years-old and a 20-year veteran with the department. In accordance with the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department policies and procedures he will be placed on paid administrative leave. The circumstances surrounding this incident will be investigated by the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Unit, Internal Affairs Unit and the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
