Update: Per Placer County Sheriff’s Office: We are identifying the suspect in Thursday night’s officer involved shooting that left one of our deputies seriously injured as 37 year old Stephen Todd Sharp who is originally from Tennessee, but had been living out of his van in the Colfax area . We are still actively investigating this case, and do not have any additional information to provide at this time.
May 4, 2024 - Placer County Sheriff’s Office officials report first and foremost, we want to offer our prayers and support to our deputy, who was shot during Thursday evenings incident, and also for his family. He is currently being treated for his injuries. He is listed in critical condition but stabilized. We also want to thank our community for the outpouring of support we have already received.
On Thursday evening, at approximately 11:00 PM, multiple deputies were patrolling the area of South Auburn Street in Colfax when they located a van in the McDonald’s parking lot. The van matched the description of a burglary that occurred in the area the day before. The deputies contacted a white male adult in his 30’s who was in the van. The suspect immediately became uncooperative with deputies. The deputies attempted to use de-escalation techniques in the hopes of gaining compliance from the suspect. At some point in time during the contact the suspect opened fire on the deputies.
Deputies immediately returned fire after being fired upon. During the exchange of gunfire, our deputy was struck and evacuated by the other deputies on the scene. Additional responding deputies were able to secure the immediate area, and our Special Enforcement Team (SET) was called to respond to a barricaded suspect. Once our Special Enforcement Team was on the scene, they were able to approach the van and they determined the suspect was deceased.
Further information on this incident and the suspect will be released once next-of-kin notifications have been made. Our detectives have partnered with the Placer County District Attorney’s Office to investigate this incident. This incident is in no way associated to an earlier incident in the city of Colfax.
Source: Placer County Sheriff’s Office
