Sacto 9-1-1

It happened so fast, yet it seemed like forever, Deb Coil said. In one moment, she was backing off from a guy with a chip on his shoulder, mad that someone with the city was taking photos of his house earlier in the day. In the next, that same guy was pointing a gun to the head of a fellow worker.

The gunman had this look on his face, she said -- not crazy, but mean.

Coil, a crime prevention specialist with the Rancho Cordova Police Department, was out on a blight sweep with Rancho Cordova Code Enforcement officer Richard Hodnett in Rancho Cordova's Sunriver neighborhood the morning of March 19.

She was walking the streets talking to residents about starting a neighborhood watch while Hodnett checked for any city code violations visible from the street - cars parked in lawns or falling down balconies, for example.

She said she encountered a man on a motorcycle, later identified by Rancho Cordova police as Steven Quilling, 51, and tried to hand him a pamphlet.

"He asked if I lived around here," Coil said. She explained she didn't, that she worked for the police department and was out talking to residents.

"He made a comment that he knows where I live and where I sleep," she recalled Quilling saying. "It creeped me out."

Figuring the guy just didn't like police, even though Coil wasn't wearing a gun or a badge and isn't a sworn police officer, Coil decided she'd better just leave before the situation escalated.

"He obviously doesn't like our department, and that's cool," Coil said. "So I told him to have a nice day."

The man took off on his motorcycle, she said. As he drove down the street, something told Coil to write down his license plate number, which she did a neighborhood watch flier.

She and Hodnett were about to step back into their truck when Quilling came around the corner, Coil said.

"He pointed a gun at me," she said. "I just had knee surgery, so you know how well I can run."

Then, Hodnett stepped between the two of them, she said.

Quilling stuck the gun against Hodnett's head, Coil said.

"He asked Richard, 'Why were you on my property? Why were you taking pictures?' " Coil said.

Hodnett stayed calm and told Quilling he'd better get going, the cops were on their way and that he was already in enough trouble, Coil said.

While the man focused on Hodnett, Coil called her boss at the police department.

"I said, 'Hey Sarge, it's Deb, I need Code 3 cover,'" she said.

Quilling saw Coil with the phone, lowered the gun and told them both, "It's your lucky day," she said. Then he turned and left.

Coil called police dispatchers with Quilling's license plate number, she said.

Police cordoned off the area around Klamath River Drive, said Detective Sgt. Pete James of the Rancho Cordova Police Department. Using the license plate number, they tracked Quilling to his house around noon in the 2000 block of Klamath River Drive, about a mile from Chemo River Court where the incident took place, James said.

Police took him into custody and then got a search warrant for the house, which he shares with his mother, James said. Inside, they found the gun he allegedly used earlier.

Quilling is currently in custody on $1,000,000 bail, James said. He's being charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of threatening a public officer, jail records indicate.

"They both handled themselves with extremely well under pressure," James said.

A call to Hodnett's cell phone was not returned late Thursday afternoon.

Last weekend, Coil introduced her family to Hodnett over a pancake breakfast, she said.

"By being so calm and steadfast, I wanted Richard to see what he saved," she said.