Buyer wounded in Orangevale shooting after trying to steal fentanyl, Sacramento sheriff says

Detectives arrested a 20-year-old Sacramento man accused of shooting another man who went to an Orangevale apartment to buy fentanyl last week but instead tried to take the synthetic opioid drug without paying for it, sheriff’s officials said.

The man arrested faces charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon stemming from last week’s shooting. He remained in custody Monday evening at the Sacramento County Jail, where he was being held without bail.

The shooting was reported shortly after 8 a.m. Nov. 28 at the Folsom Gateway apartment complex in the 9200 block of Greenback Lane, a few blocks east of Hazel Avenue, sheriff’s officials said.

Detectives later learned that the man hit by gunfire that morning had gone to an apartment to meet with the residents living there to make a fentanyl purchase, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday evening in a news release.

Pills laced with fentanyl, a dangerous synthetic opioid, can shut down breathing, cause cardiac arrest and kill within minutes.

Sheriff’s officials said the man seeking to buy the drugs was invited inside the apartment, but he tried to take the fentanyl without paying for it. Then, the arrested suspect chased the buyer out of the apartment.

The buyer drove away in a vehicle. Sheriff’s officials said the suspected shooter fired a handgun; the gunfire entered the vehicle through a rear window and struck the buyer at least once in the upper arm.

The buyer suffered serious injuries from the bullet wound but ultimately survived, according to the Sheriff’s Office. He drove himself to a nearby fire station to seek help, before he was taken by ambulance to a hospital.

Deputies investigating at the shooting scene learned the suspect left before they arrived. Sheriff’s robbery detectives conducted an investigation and identified the shooting suspect. The detectives obtained an arrest warrant for him, and he turned himself in at the jail Sunday evening.

The suspect’s arraignment hearing is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in Sacramento Superior Court.