From Kim Minugh:
Sacramento County sheriff's deputies have arrested a 20-year-old man in connection with Sunday's fatal shooting in North Highlands.
Dmitri Goodie was booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail early this morning on suspicion of murder. He is accused of killing 44-year-old Edward Guy Patterson during a dispute on Rockwell Drive, said sheriff's Sgt. Tim Curran.
Based on witness statements, detectives initially believed that Patterson was involved in an altercation between two groups that led to an exchange of gunfire, Curran said. However, detectives now believe Patterson was unarmed and an innocent bystander caught in the gunfire, Curran said.
Detectives are investigating witness accounts that more than one person fired a gun in the dispute, Curran said.
Detectives believe the shooting stemmed from an argument earlier Sunday between two men, one living on Rockwell Drive and one -- believed to be Goodie -- living on nearby Omega Court, Curran said. That fight was over an unpaid debt, Curran said.
About 1:30 p.m., Goodie and other men from Omega Court returned to Rockwell Drive to confront the man they argued with earlier, and gunfire erupted, Curran said. The two groups apparently were some distance away when shots were fired, Curran said, so there might not have been any words exchanged between the two groups.
Patterson was shot multiple times and died at an area hospital several hours later.
Curran said detectives could make further arrests.
Goodie is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday. He has no formal criminal history in Sacramento County, Superior Court records show.
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