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CNN Live Sunday

Sacramento Police Search for Man Suspected of Killing Four

Aired September 09, 2001 - 16:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: In Sacramento police are on the hunt for a former security guard they considered armed and dangerous. They say that 20-year-old Joseph Ferguson shot and killed four coworkers overnight in an angry rage after being fired last week.

CNN's James Hattori joins us now from the Sacramento police headquarters with more -- James.

JAMES HATTORI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Donna.

Police to have a statewide -- in fact, nationwide alert out for the suspect. He is a 20-year-old Sacramento man, as you say, Joseph Ferguson, who was apparently laid off from his job as a Burns private security guard last week. He is now apparently the suspect in a series of shootings that left four people dead last night.

Two victims were found at a local marina in Sacramento. One was wearing a Burns uniform. The other they think was not an employee. Two more guards were found dead at a city equipment yard. They were found -- all had died, apparently, from multiple gunshot wounds.

At 3:00 this morning police found another Burns guard. She was unharmed, but she was handcuffed at the Sacramento Zoo. The suspect Ferguson apparently took her car, a 1992 dark green Toyota Tercel, left the scene. They have not seen him since.

He is armed with several rifles and handguns, we are told. But that's not all of the story. Police say that sometime after the shootings he took a cell phone and called one of the managers at Burns security and said he was going to a downtown entertainment, Old Sacramento, and threatened to shoot patrons on the street. Police converged on the area, found nothing, of course, but -- and did not find Ferguson either. They still consider him very dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. DANIEL HAHN, SACRAMENTO POLICE DEPARTMENT: It was very brutal, very violent. This person has threatened numerous people other than security personnel, such as the Old Sacramento. Now whether he really meant to carry those out, we don't know, but we're proceeding as if he might.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HATTORI: Now, the alert is out for Ferguson, not only in this area, but nationwide. They don't know if he's still in the Sacramento area.

This, of course, comes in the wake of the tragic shootings in the Ukrainian community here, Donna. Nikolay Soltys now in custody for the suspected murders of seven members of his family. So everybody is pretty much on edge. Some more bad news here in Sacramento -- Donna.

KELLEY: All right, James Hattori there in Sacramento. Thanks very much for the information.

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