Sitting at home reading a book late that morning, I heard on my scanner about the shooting of a sheriff's deputy in Sacramento. The dispatcher described the suspect and his vehicle. The suspect was sighted a short time later in Auburn, the seat of Placer County. By then I was listening to the police transmissions on Broadcastify. I counted 12,867 listeners on the connection.
When the afternoon ended, the authorities had the suspect in custody in Auburn. He is an illegal alien, twice deported, and details on his criminal past are still coming to light. He was charged with the murders of Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County sheriff's Deputy Mike Davis Jr.. He was also charged with the attempted murders of Placer County sheriff's Deputy Jeff Davis and a citizen in Sacramento, both wounded by gunfire. Finally, he was charged on two counts of attempted carjacking.
Deputy Mike Davis Jr. died on the same October 24 day that his father, a Riverside County deputy, died in the line of duty in 1988.
Early this afternoon, I took a bike ride to downtown Roseville. Strapped to my brake cables was a Baofeng UV-5R, a UHF/VHF handheld ham radio that also receives some emergency frequencies. At about $35, I'm not going care if it gets broken or lost. I scan various frequencies as I pedal along. When I passed by the train yard and Amtrak station, I heard a transmission from the Placer County Sheriff's Department about a procession leaving Sacramento and getting onto Interstate 80, en route to Roseville. I knew this pertained to yesterday's shooting.
I got onto Miner's Ravine Trail and rode along Dry Creek. A side trail took me to Center Street. At Atlantic Street, a Roseville police officer was standing at the side of his vehicle, emergency lights flashing. People were scattered along Atlantic Street, some with small American flags in hand. I realized the procession from Sacramento would pass here. A man near me said it was going to a local funeral home.
The procession arrived a few minutes later, a motorcycle officer in the lead. The Roseville police officer at the intersection saluted as he passed. Some citizens along the route including me put hand to heart. Next came several police sedans, emergency lights flashing, followed by the hearse. Then followed many sedans from various law enforcement agencies - the California Highway Patrol, several counties, many cities and towns, and others.
After the procession passed, I followed it a few blocks to the Chapel of the Valley funeral home on Vernon Street. The time was about 2:45 PM. About one hundred citizens stood across the street and watched in silence as the Placer County Sheriff's Department honor guard carried the casket from the hearse into the funeral home. The crowd included a Boy Scout leader and some of his troops with an American flag. People had hats off and many had hand to heart. The press had large video cameras atop tripods at one corner of the funeral home's parking lot. Several police officers and their vehicles were on the opposite side of the parking lot. On Vernon Avenue, the Roseville fire department flew a large American flag from the raised ladder of a fire truck. After the body of Deputy Mike Davis Jr. was taken inside the funeral home, Placer County Sheriff Edward N. Bonner came outside to meet with several individuals. The crowd continued to watch in silence. A passing Union Pacific freight train in the nearby train yard sounded its horn at a level lower than normal.
The crowd started to disperse around 3:15 PM, and I rode home.
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