California deputy dies in gunfight
2 troopers wounded; suspect hospitalized with critical injuries
The hotel’s guests were trapped Wednesday in their rooms for most of the day as police cleared the area and confirmed that no other gunmen stayed behind in the hotel room.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The suspect in a hotel shootout in which a California sheriff’s deputy was killed and two state troopers were wounded has a violent criminal history, court records show.
Thomas Daniel Littlecloud, 32, of the San Francisco Bay Area did prison time for assault with a semi-automatic weapon and vehicle theft, the records show.
Littlecloud was in critical condition Thursday at a hospital with life-threatening injuries after he got into a gunfight with other officers Wednesday while fleeing the hotel in a car, Sacramento County sheriff’s Sgt. Tony Turnbull said.
Littlecloud is accused of fatally shooting Deputy Robert French, 52, on Wednesday with an assault-style rifle as Littlecloud made his getaway from the hotel after shooting through the door at the officers who had knocked on the door of Littlecloud’s hotel room, Turnbull said. Police went there because they believed a stolen-vehicle ring was being run from the room.
His criminal history dates to 2004, including a six-year sentence for assault with a semi-automatic weapon and prison time of more than a year for vehicle theft, court records show.
He also was sentenced in 2013 to three years for evading a police officer and possessing an illegal gun, and he twice violated parole in 2015.
French died on the way to the hospital. Two California Highway Patrol officers who were shot and wounded were expected to survive.
They were identified Thursday as John Wilson and David Woodward by California state Sen. Jim Nielsen, a Republican who said he was given the information by the highway patrol.
Six other sheriff’s deputies involved in the shooting will be placed on paid administrative leave while an investigation is conducted, which Turnbull described as routine after officer-involved shootings. The Sacramento County district attorney’s office also will conduct an independent review, he said.
Priscilla Prendez, 23, of Oakland, Calif., faces charges of vehicle theft and felony evasion in connection with Wednesday’s events, which began as part of a stolen-vehicle investigation. The police believed Prendez was connected to a stolen-vehicle ring operating inside the hotel, Turnbull said.
The hotel’s guests were trapped Wednesday in their rooms for most of the day as police cleared the area and confirmed that no other gunmen stayed behind in the hotel room.
In another shooting of California police Wednesday night, two officers in Bakersfield were hospitalized in stable condition after they responded to a call about a disturbance at a home and ended up in a shootout in which the suspect was killed.
The events leading to the Sacramento shooting started with a routine investigation by a car-theft task force involving officers from multiple agencies. Investigators suspected a car-theft ring was being run out of a Ramada Inn in an unincorporated neighborhood of Sacramento.
Two women who got into a stolen vehicle were chased for 20 miles before being apprehended in Elk Grove, south of Sacramento. Arresting officers learned that Prendez was on probation and had booked a room in the Ramada Inn.
No details were disclosed about Prendez’s relationship to Littlecloud, and the police have not named the second woman in her car.
When officers knocked on the hotel room door, a gunman opened fire through the door and walls, striking the two troopers before turning to the balcony and shooting French, who was outside monitoring the back door, and fleeing.
Littlecloud was found with a rifle and high-capacity magazine, which are illegal to purchase in California, Turnbull said. The car he attempted to flee in was stolen, Turnbull said.
Jeff Marshall, who lives near the hotel, said he heard gunshots and tires squealing and saw a gray Dodge speed by his home, going the wrong way down a busy street as vehicles and pedestrians scrambled to get out of the way.
“It was like the Wild West,” Marshall said.
French was a 21-year veteran of the sheriff’s office.
Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones described French as a well-known, well-respected deputy.
He trained new officers and was a “go-to guy for advice and counsel, not just career advice but tactical advice and things like that,” Jones said.
French is survived by his live-in girlfriend, adult children and grandchildren and a sister.
“Words aren’t going to make an appropriate appreciation of him as a man or his career,” Jones said.