Breaking News

Fire crews responding to federal courthouse

2009-06-17T21:29:10Z

Sacramento firefighters responded to a fire alarm at the federal courthouse just after 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

Fire crews made their way into the Robert T. Matsui Federal Courthouse, at 501 I St., after a fifth-floor fire alarm was reported at 1:58 p.m., said Battalion Chief Marc Bentovoja.

Three engines and one truck are at the scene. Bentovoja and 12 other firefighters are investigating the cause of the alarm.

Homeless man's death apparently not homicide

2009-06-17T23:17:55Z

Sacramento Police investigators don't believe a homeless man found dead near an American River levee Tuesday morning was the victim of a homicide.

The Sacramento County coroner must determine the cause of death. The man, believed to be in his 30s, died at his secluded campsite below a popular bike trail near the former Tent City.

The family has not yet been notified, so officials are not releasing the man's name, said Sacramento Police Sgt. Norm Leong.

Another homeless person found the man dead in a wooded area behind a commercial/residential neighborhood near 16th and North C streets and reported the death to police at 7:56 a.m.

The area, which is used by homeless campers, sits between several nonprofit organizations serving homeless people and the fenced-off former Tent City site.

Body found near levee

2009-06-17T16:35:00Z

Sacramento Police are investigating after the body of a homeless person was discovered Wednesday morning behind a levee near 16th and North C streets.

He was described as a white male in his 30s, and appears to have sustained injuries. Homicide detectives have been called to the scene, said Sgt. Norm Leong.

The man was identified as a transient by a police officer who has been assigned to work with the homeless.

The body was found behind a levee near Capitol Casino, 411 N 16th St., and reported to police at 7:56 a.m., he said.

The area where the body was found is located between a former Tent City near the American River and several nonprofits that serve the homeless and the poor.

Update: Package found outside post office not an explosive

2009-06-16T23:26:51Z

Sergeant Norm Leong, spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department, announced at 3:05 p.m. that the package found outside the Fort Sutter post office at 1618 Alhambra Blvd. was not an explosive.

Sacramento Post Office spokesman Ralph Petty described the item as a glass bottle that had been wrapped up with a wire protruding from it.

Shortly after 1 p.m., when a customer found the package, the Sacramento Fire Department and the Sacramento Police Department were contacted by the post office and traffic was blocked off by squad cars.

The block of Alhambra Boulevard between P and Q Streets, half of one lane of P Street between 30th and Alhambra, as well as Q Street between Alhambra and 30th Streets were blocked while police and fire crews waited for the Explosive Ordinance Disposal to arrive.

Post office employees and other employees from surrounding businesses watched as the event unfolded.

Ginger Mott, 48, who works for a state agency in Libby's Cannery, found out about the incident when she went on break with her coworker.

"We don't even know what's going on here, but if it's so suspicious, why aren't [they] evacuating everyone?" she said while watching the post office from across the street.

"We take these matters very seriously. If anyone has any information regarding this suspicious item, they should call the Postal Inspection Service at 1-877-US-MAIL5," said Misty Racimo, federal agent with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which is the law enforcement branch of the postal service.

The mission of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is to protect the safety of employees and customers and the security of the postal service, facilities and operations.

They investigate crimes that were committed using the postal system or its facilities.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service will work with the other law enforcement agencies to determine who left this package and what the intent was.

Colleen Belcher also contributed to this story.

Collision damages 1929 building

2009-05-20T05:07:34Z

A 25-year-old man and three friends narrowly escaped being hit by a car involved in a collision that destroyed part of a vacant, historic building at 16th and U streets Tuesday afternoon.

Witnesses said a silver SUV, which was westbound on U Street, ran a stop sign and was hit by an Icee truck heading north on 16th Street. Northbound drivers have no traffic signal or sign at that intersection.

The building's front end was destroyed. Tuesday night, a city crew was working to stabilize the remaining walls of the unreinforced masonry building. Three-quarters of the building remain intact. The damaged parts of the roof and structure will be collapsed, said building inspector Josh Pino, overseeing the stabilization efforts.

“Right now, we’re securing the building to prevent anyone from going in and hurting themselves, and we’ll make sure nothing else is going to fall,” said Pino, who works in the Housing & Dangerous Building Division of the city’s Code Enforcement Department.

Residents and the owner of Harry’s Café, a restaurant next door, appeared stunned by the destruction that the truck wreaked on the front of a brick corner building built in 1929. People inside nearby buildings heard a loud explosion. For hours after the accident, they gathered on sidewalks in this section of Midtown to take a look at the damage and talk.

Both drivers were treated at local hospitals for minor injuries, said Sacramento Police Officer Tristan Piano. The building has been vacant since Mayor Kevin Johnson used it as his campaign headquarters.

Sam Luong, 25, was sitting with his buddies at a table outside his father’s restaurant, Harry’s Café, at 2026 16th St., when a crash in the intersection sent both vehicles up onto the sidewalk at about 2:20 p.m., said Sam’s father, Harry Luong.

The truck rammed into the outside corner of the building. The SUV swerved to the right, Piano said.

The young men jumped and ran from the oncoming vehicle, which crushed the table and chairs. They suffered minor cuts and bruises, Luong said. Another patron received minor injuries from flying glass shards, police said.

The devastation has shut down Luong’s popular Chinese restaurant for an unknown period.

“I’m worried for him," said Nelda Mackey, who lives at 17th and S streets. "I wonder if they’ll have to take down the whole building. That just makes me sad that he’s had this misfortune.”

Luong said his building won’t be affected because the two buildings are separate. However, his $3,000 neon sign and other property were damaged, and he’ll lose business until the city approves his reopening.

“I slept through the whole thing," said 39-year-old Fred Fong, who has lived behind the building on 15th Street since 1996. "My buddy called me and said, ‘Dude! Did you know a building collapsed in your neck of the woods?’ I said, ‘I hope it wasn’t the taco place.’”

The damaged building has been a big part of the neighborhood for 80 years. The structure was reportedly one of Sacramento’s first grocery stores – possibly one of the earliest Safeways, said Fong. Standing across the street checking out the damage, Fong said he once worked in the building when a family friend ran an antique store, Old Land Park Antiques, out of it.

Over the years, the building has seen many reincarnations. The structure housed a hardware store, cigar shop, printing shop, Chinese grocery and massage parlor.

Residents wondered whether the building would be torn down or restored. Unreinforced masonry buildings are “pretty stout” unless something hits them and compromises the supports, Pino said.

The building's owner is based in Reno, Nev. The structure sits in a neighborhood that has been deemed a preservation area by the city, so the city will have a say in whether the building is demolished or restored, he said.

A city worker later said there are plenty of pictures of the building that can be used if the city and the owner decide it will be restored.

Suspicious package left at Fort Sutter Post Office

2009-06-16T21:41:31Z

The Sacramento Police Department have blocked off streets around the Fort Sutter post office at 1618 Alhambra Blvd while they investigate a suspicious package left outside.

According to Sacramento Police Department spokesman, Sgt. Norm Leong, people inside the post office and the surrounding areas have been told to remain inside.

The post office employees notified the Sacramento Fire Department of the package at 1:13 p.m., Capt. Jim Doucette told The Sacramento Press. Leong said the fire department notified the police department at 1:17 p.m.

The police and fire crews are currently waiting for the Explosive Ordinance Disposal to arrive on scene to evaluate the package.

Photo courtesy of Ed Fogle; click the following link to view website: Maverick Photography

Fire crews find no fire at courthouse

2009-06-17T23:35:52Z

Sacramento firefighters responded to a fire alarm at the federal courthouse downtown Wednesday afternoon.

Steps are being taken to fix the problem after a faulty detector or possibly a bad ballast inside a light fixture set off a fifth-floor fire alarm at the Robert T. Matsui Federal Courthouse, 501 I St., said Fire Department Station 2 Capt. Scott Visser.

The alarm was reported at 1:58 p.m. Four fire stations -- 1, 2, 13 and 14 -- sent 13 firefighters, three engines and one truck to the scene.

Couple arrested for courthouse keg bomb

2009-05-21T04:17:21Z

A Sacramento couple is in jail Wednesday night on charges related to allegedly hiding an explosive device outside the downtown federal courthouse last weekend.

The FBI on Wednesday arrested Matthew Fraticelli, 30, and Stephanie Ann Shinn, 35, of South Sacramento on charges of attempted arson of a federal facility and possession of an unregistered destructive device.

Wednesday afternoon, the two had an initial appearance in federal court at the Robert T. Matsui Federal Courthouse at 501 I St. -- the same building where the device was found.

Fraticelli was convicted about two years ago in the state court system for possession of a destructive device, said the FBI’s Sacramento Division Special Agent in Charge Drew Parenti. The FBI has not yet uncovered a motive and has no reason to believe the couple is affiliated with a political organization.

The name “Fraticelli” was written in bold black letters on the explosive’s container, said FBI spokesperson Steve Dupre.

“We would describe that as a very useful clue in the investigation,” Parenti said.

The device was built with a five-liter aluminum Heineken keg filled with one gallon of flammable liquid and what appeared to be an M-80 pyrotechnic device with a fuse strapped to the keg with duct tape. The M-80 stuck out of a pill bottle containing a dark powder later found to work as a pyrotechnic material.

“That’s a high-powered firecracker,” Dupre said. “It’s not a little bitty firecracker you light on the Fourth of July. It’s a more powerful device.”

A federal protection service officer on a routine perimeter check discovered the device in front of the door of a small security kiosk on 6th Street just before 5 a.m. Sunday. The kiosk is a one-person booth outside a courthouse security gate. No one was in the kiosk when the bomb was left, Dupre said.

Surveillance cameras showed a couple fitting Fraticelli’s and Shinn’s descriptions near the courthouse, according to a sworn FBI affidavit. The woman was walking behind the man and pushing a stroller with a toddler inside northbound on 6th Street between I and H streets. The man was filmed carrying a brown paper shopping bag on 6th Street and then leaving video surveillance near the guard kiosk.

He soon reappeared on camera, running without the paper bag. He met up with the woman and baby stroller, and they jogged out of view. FBI agents can’t yet comment on why the device was apparently not set off.

Fraticelli and Shinn were arrested just after 7 a.m. after FBI agents tracked them to the house where they appear to live together with other adults and several children.

The FBI believes a 1-year-old child at the house was the one in the stroller. Wednesday afternoon, authorities did not yet know which adults were the parents of the children. Child Protective Services was called in after the couple was arrested.

Fraticelli is being held without bail. Shinn, who doesn’t appear to have a previous record involving explosive devices, has a detention hearing set for May 27, when a judge will determine whether she’s a flight risk or a danger to the community.

The arson charge carries a possible sentence of at least five but no more than 20 years. Possession of a destructive device carries a sentence of up to 10 years, Dupre said.

Fraticelli has a criminal record stretching back to 2000 that includes a report of a possible attack on Shinn on Valentine’s Day, 2009.

Sacramento Police and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives aided in the investigation.

Sunday morning, Sacramento Police investigated another call about a suspicious item found on the street near Denny's at the northeast corner of 3rd and J streets. The item was a water bottle whose top was on fire, said Sacramento Police Sgt. Norm Leong.

On April 30, two “suspicious packages” were reported to have been left on a statue outside the Capitol. One was a paper bag containing clothes. Neither was found to be a bomb.