A Sacramento County sheriff's deputy fatally shot a suspect in Rancho Cordova this afternoon, according to authorities.
The shooting was reported behind the Mills Shopping Center in the 10000 block of Folsom Boulevard, said sheriff's Deputy Jason Ramos. The shooting occurred after a call was made to the Sheriff's Department regarding suspicious activity, Ramos said.
The man was transported by ambulance to a local hospital, where he was declared dead, Ramos said.
At 2 p.m. a caller reported to dispatcher seeing a man on a bike at the intersection of Folsom Boulevard and Dawes with a "bayonette on his back" who also had pulled what looked like a large-caliber handgun out of his pocket, Ramos told reporters. The caller followed the man and continued reporting to dispatchers until the caller lost sight of the man.
Ramos said sheriff's deputies responded to the call and searched for the man. Two deputies spotted a man matching the description on a bike behind the shopping center with what appeared to be a machete between a packpack the his back.
The man got off his bike, Ramos said, and "spun around very quickly in the direction of officers" and one deputy fired several shots, "striking the man in the upper body," Ramos said.
When the man fell to the ground, deputies saw what appeared to be a handgun fall beside him and saw the man reaching for it, Ramos said.
When deputies reached the man, they discovered a realistic-looking replica of a handgun, Ramos said.
An employee of a nearby cell phone shop and his uncle said the man was armed with a machete when entered the shopt and hurriedly paid his bill. They said he acted paranoid, as if someone was after him.
Metro PCS employee William Ryan said he recognized the victim as someone who visited the shop each month to pay his bill. "He always has been kind of odd when he's been here," Ryan said.
The man left the shop on a bicycle and shortly after that, deputies drove up and yelled at him to "hold it," said Jess Silva, Ryan's uncle.
Silva said he heard gunshots and saw the suspect fall.
No deputies were injured during the incident.
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