Double homicide suspect dead after shooting himself near Arden Fair mall, sheriff says

A man wanted in connection with a double homicide Wednesday night in Arden Arcade was taken into custody and later died after shooting himself in a parking lot near Arden Fair mall Thursday afternoon, Sacramento County authorities said.

Sheriff’s detectives had obtained an arrest warrant for Ricky Hunter, 32, on suspicion of homicide in the late Wednesday shooting that killed two women at a Howe Avenue apartment complex in Arden Arcade, said Sgt. Amar Gandhi, a spokesman for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators tracked Hunter to Arden Fair mall and spotted him shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday inside the nearby AT&T store.

Gandhi said sheriff’s officials, not wanting to risk the safety of anyone else inside the store, waited for Hunter to exit the store and return to his car. Investigators at the time considered Hunter to be “armed and dangerous,” according to a sheriff’s news release.

Minutes later, Hunter walked out of the store and got into his car. Gandhi said the detectives and deputies moved in to take him into custody at gunpoint, using their vehicles to block Hunter’s car from leaving his parking spot.

The sheriff’s spokesman said Hunter then spotted the sheriff’s officials and reached for a shotgun in his car and shot himself once in the chest.

Deputies moved in and provided immediate lifesaving measures before medics took him in an ambulance to a hospital, Gandhi said. Hunter was alive at the hospital. Gandhi said deputies and detectives at the scene did not fire any gunshots.

Shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday, Gandhi announced that Hunter had just been pronounced dead at the hospital.

Shortly after noon Thursday, Sacramento police officers responded to a report of a possibly armed suicidal person in the 1400 block of Expo Parkway, less than 2 miles west of the Arden Fair mall.

Officer Anthony Gamble, a Sacramento Police Department spokesman, said the officers’ investigation led them to believe the possibly armed suicidal person on Expo Parkway was possibly related to the Sheriff’s Office homicide investigation from Wednesday night.

Shortly after 2 p.m., the Police Department was notified by sheriff’s officials that they had spotted that person near the mall, Gamble said.

The incident drew a large law enforcement presence to the area. The Sacramento Police Department in a social media shortly before 3 p.m. asked people to avoid the scene, near Arden and Challenge ways. Gamble later confirmed that the Police Department asked customers and employees at nearby stores to shelter in place until the area could be secured.

By 3:45 p.m., a large portion of the parking lot in front of the AT&T store remained closed off with yellow crime scene tape as investigators examined the parked dark-colored car where the suspect reportedly shot himself. The driver-side window was shattered, presumably from the shotgun blast.

Investigators asked anyone with information about Wednesday’s homicide to call the Sheriff’s Office at 916-874-5115 or Sacramento Valley Crime Stoppers at 916-443-4357.

The Bee’s Ishani Desai contributed to this story.