Store Owner Kills Robbery Suspect, Another Cuffed

One suspect is dead, the other under arrest after they allegedly tried to rob a coin and jewelry store in Carmichael CA and were confronted by the armed store owner.

It's happened on Marconi Avenue near Walnut just after 4 a.m. The owner of Marconi Coin And Jewelry Exchange called 9-1-1 saying two men with ski masks on were trying to break-in to his business. The 911 operator heard gunshots while still on the line with the business owner. The 65-year-old business owner said one of the suspects was lying in the parking lot and the second subject was trying to help him.

When deputies arrived and they found an unidentified Hispanic male lying on the ground and suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper body. Paramedics pronounced the suspect dead at the scene. The second suspect had fled from the scene.

About an hour after the first call, deputies found and arrested the second suspect, 22-year-old Sergio Antonio Arauza, at the corner of Marconi Avenue and Eastern Avenue. He is being charged with one count of burglary and violating his probation. He is being held on $100,500 bail.

The store owner has not been arrested. The Sheriff's department will investigate and then turn the case over to the District Attorney's office. But deputies say the shooting could be justified.

"The business owner has the right to protect himself and his business," said Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesperson Tim Curran. "And he has a right to be armed."

The business was apparently robbed about three weeks ago on April 29th. The owner told deputies he believed the two suspects trying to break in this morning were the same men who burglarized the store before.

"Bill's always prepared. He's always on his toes," said a friend of the shop owner. "If they hit the place three weeks ago, they know what's in there and they either told his friends or came back again. That gun was in his shop because he's got them to protect himself."

Investigators are looking for a possible connection between Arauza and a series of other Sacramento-area burglaries that occurred this morning.

Arauza is scheduled to be arraigned on May 20, 2009 at 1:30 p.m.