Bay Area Ex-Con Identified As Suspect In Sacramento Deputy Killing
SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) -- The suspect arrested in the fatal shooting of a Sacramento County sheriff's deputy was identified by the sheriff's office as a Castro Valley man with a criminal past.
Thomas Daniel Littlecloud, 32, was in critical condition at a local hospital with life-threatening wounds after being shot by officers following a vehicle chase and crash Wednesday.
Littlecloud is accused of killing Deputy Robert French at a Ramada Inn in Sacramento where he had been confronted by officers. During an investigation into a stolen car case, officers knocked on the door of one of the rooms and were met by gunfire from inside the room, according to the sheriff's office.
Two California Highway Patrol officers were hit by the gunfire, suffering non-life threatening wounds. The CHP said both are undercover investigators assigned to the county's auto theft task force and were not identified.
Littlecloud then escaped to a balcony in the back of the motel and opened fire with an assault rifle on officers, hitting Deputy French.
The 52-year-old French died of his injuries on the way to the hospital, the sheriff's office said. The 21-year veteran of the department leaves behind three adult children, grandchildren, a sister and a live-in girlfriend.
Authorities have also charged 23-year-old Priscilla Prendez of Oakland with vehicle theft and felony evasion in connection with the incident.
CHP officers discovered Prendez had registered a room at the Ramada Inn where the shootout later occurred after she led them on a 20-mile chase in what is believed to be a stolen vehicle.
She is being held in lieu of $90,000 bail. Another female who was with Prendez in the stolen vehicle was questioned and released.
In 2015, Littlecloud was arrested on drug and weapons charges in Rohnert Park after a plainclothes detective saw him make an unsafe maneuver in his vehicle. Responding patrol officers determined he had an outstanding felony warrant for his arrest out of Alameda County for violating his Post Release Community Supervision as a convicted felon, police said.
Court records show Littlecloud has been sentenced to prison for grand theft, vehicle theft, assault with a semi-automatic weapon, illegal possession of a gun and evading a police officer. The charges date back to 2004.
Records show Littlecloud violated his parole twice in 2015.
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