The suspect in the fatal Arnold Drive shooting Saturday night was subdued three miles away by a Sheriff K-9 unit after bursting randomly into the home of a woman alone in her Pueblo Avenue residence.
When Salvador Camargo barged through her kitchen door, “I assumed there was a wreck, and he was in shock,” said resident Theresa Lee. “He told me to call 911. I thought he needed help. He was terrified.”
Camargo, 26, was charged Tuesday with homicide in the fatal shooting of Kenneth Swolley, 52. Drug paraphernalia was found at that scene, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department. Camargo was carrying a glass pipe when apprehended in her home, Lee said.
Camargo, she said, became increasingly agitated but did not overtly threaten her. “He said ‘They’re going to kill me and they’ll shoot you, too.’ He was wild-eyed, hysterical.” Lee said she then thought she might be in “the middle of a drug deal gone bad.”
“It was very chaotic,” said Lee, who was on the phone with a friend when Camargo rushed in. They ended that call and both called police.
Camargo took the phone for a moment, she said, and spoke Spanish to the 911 operator before handing the phone back to Lee. He huddled in the hallway while she communicated with police. “I could hear the helicopter and see the lights,” she said, as deputies advanced on the house.
“He was on his knees, begging, ‘Don’t leave me alone,’” Lee said. She told him, “I did what you asked. I have to go. Stay where you are.”
As Lee and her dog stepped out the back door, officers, lead by a police dog, came in the front. Camargo sustained a dog bite but surrendered without further incident.
Police initially thought they were dealing with two different emergencies on Saturday night. One of two other people in the Arnold Drive house at the time of the shooting went to the Sonoma Police Station at 9:35 p.m. to report that his friend had been murdered and that the suspect had fled by car. He described Camargo and his vehicle to officers, and gave the approximate location of the house where the victim was found (just south of Watmaugh).
Deputies were searching the area for the suspect when another emergency call came in at about 10:45 p.m. It was Lee.
Officers quickly realized the shooting and the home invasion were related. “Patrol did a fantastic job pulling the pieces together,” said Sergeant Tim Duke of the Violent Crimes Investigation Unit.
Camargo’s car was found near Lee residence, which he apparently chose to enter “at random,” according to Duke. The investigation, including results of toxicology tests for drug use and the search for the gun, continue.
“It could have been so much worse,” said Lee, thankful that “everybody did their jobs so well” and that nobody else got hurt. “He was a desperate man. Luckily, the ‘what-ifs’ didn’t happen.”
Camargo is being held without bail at the Sonoma County Jail. His next court date is May 18.
