A woman was shot and killed Tuesday afternoon outside the Panera Bread location on Howe Avenue in Arden Arcade, Sacramento County sheriff’s officials said.
Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office
A woman was chased and gunned down Tuesday afternoon in a brazen shooting in front of witnesses outside a Panera Bread in Arden Arcade not long before the suspect took his own life after stopping his vehicle on a busy Highway 50 in Sacramento.
About 3 p.m., several callers reported the shooting in the 800 block of Howe Avenue near Northrop Avenue, said Sgt. Edward Igoe, a spokesperson for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies arrived at the shooting scene outside a Panera Bread restaurant and found a woman who was unresponsive. Igoe said medics arrived and pronounced her dead at the scene.
About 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Igoe said deputies had pulled over a vehicle along the eastbound lanes of Highway 50 between Howe and Watt avenues. He said the vehicle stop on Highway 50 is possibly related to the deadly shooting. The California Highway Patrol’s South Sacramento office in a social media post said all eastbound lanes were closed at Howe due to police activity.
Sheriff’s Office Lt. Amar Gandhi said witnesses gave deputies a description of the suspect’s vehicle. Gandhi said that vehicle description was entered into the sheriff’s automated license plate reader system, and deputies soon learned of the vehicle’s last location.
He said deputies assigned to Sacramento Regional Transit found the suspect vehicle minutes later on Highway 50 near Watt Avenue.
As the deputies tried to pull over the vehicle, its driver immediately slammed on the brakes and came to a stop on the highway, Gandhi said.
Deputies, for some time, ordered the driver to get out of the small car, Gandhi said, but they eventually learned the man driving the suspect vehicle was dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Preliminary information in the investigation shows that the man had chased down the victim and shot her in front of several witnesses, Gandhi said.
A KCRA helicopter was showing live footage of the vehicle stop on the highway that showed a small vehicle surrounded by sheriff’s vehicles including an armored Bearcat. Deputies were seen with their guns drawn.
Deputies approached the small car’s driver-side window and broke it before an aerial drone was flown into the car through the broken window, the KCRA video showed. Seconds later, a group of deputies rushed up to the driver-side door and pointed their guns into the vehicle. It did not appear that any of the deputies fired their guns.
The live news video showed deputies pull someone out of the car from the driver’s seat. The person, on the ground at that point, did not appear to be moving.
Deputies at the scene on Highway 50 were trying to look into the stopped vehicle and found what appeared to be the driver slumped over behind the wheel, according to law enforcement radio dispatch recordings reviewed by The Sacramento Bee. The deputies were having difficulty seeing through the car’s tinted windows, according to the dispatch audio.
There were no further details released about the shooting victim or the circumstances that might have led to the shooting. The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office will release her name and age after her family has been notified.
Officer Michael Harper, a spokesperson for the CHP’s South Sacramento Area Office, said around 4:15 p.m. that one of the eastbound lanes had reopened, but he urged drivers to take alternate routes. He said the westbound lanes on Highway 50 were not affected by the investigation.
Investigators asked anyone with information about the deadly shooting to call the Sheriff’s Office at 916-874-5115.
This is a developing story; check back with sacbee.com for updates.
This story was originally published September 8, 2026 at 3:53 PM.
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Rosalio Ahumada writes breaking news stories related to crime and public safety for The Sacramento Bee. He speaks Spanish fluently and has worked as a news reporter in the Central Valley since 2004.