A deputy with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office shot and killed a disabled 67-year-old man who fired his gun in his backyard and through fences before taking a shot at deputies, law enforcement officials said Monday.
Kenneth Vaughn, who lived in a house in Orangevale, a suburb of Sacramento, had fired his gun through a neighboring fence into someone else’s pool, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies arrived on the block around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and evacuated nearby residences or instructed neighbors to shelter in place.
Sheriff’s deputies parked armored vehicles outside Vaughn’s house and were able to get in contact with him, they said, but Vaughn said he had mobility issues and could not come out. He told deputies that he was armed with a loaded gun, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
He told the deputies they could help him walk by meeting him at his door, but then, at 7:30 p.m., he closed all the blinds to the house, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Vaughn repeatedly refused to surrender and began threatening to shoot deputies, the agency said.
Around 9:50 p.m., Vaughn fired a shot at deputies outside the house, and a deputy returned fire, hitting Vaughn once in the chest, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
He died at the scene.
A neighbor who witnessed much of the scene but asked not to be identified said that Vaughn was a quiet, older man who was visited by caretakers and mostly kept to himself.
He would wave to passing neighbors, but that was about it, the neighbor said.
The neighbor listened throughout the evening as sheriff’s deputies spoke over a loudspeaker, asking Vaughn to safely exit his home and surrender.
After the shooting, the neighbor said he spoke to Vaughn’s son and was told that Vaughn had been suffering from drug and alcohol problems. The son told the neighbor that they had been trying for years to get police to confiscate Vaughn’s weapons.
“I feel bad because nobody around here knew the extent of how bad he was doing,” the neighbor said. “It’s just tragic.”
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