Ex-guard sought in Sacramento killings

SACRAMENTO, California (CNN) -- Authorities began a nationwide manhunt Sunday for a 20-year-old former security guard accused of shooting and killing three co-workers and a park employee in Sacramento late Saturday night.

Sacramento police said the suspect -- Joseph Ferguson -- is armed and dangerous. They said Ferguson was suspended from his job last week and despondent after breaking up with his girlfriend.

The killings were the second series of multiple slayings to hit the Sacramento area in less than a month. Ukrainian immigrant Nikolay Soltys, 27, was arraigned last week on seven counts of murder in the killings of his pregnant wife and five other family members in late August.

After a 10-day nationwide manhunt, Soltys was found hiding under a desk in the back yard of his mother's home in a Sacramento suburb.

"We're living yet another nightmare in Sacramento," said FBI spokesman Arthur Balizan. "It is our responsibility to collectively band together and put this to an end."

Police responded to a phone call at 11:18 p.m. reporting shots fired at a city equipment yard. Inside the guard booth they found a 9 mm pistol and the bodies of two uniformed Burns security guards, both women, ages 20 and 32. They had been shot several times.

The 20-year-old victim was the suspect's ex-girlfriend, according to Lt. Sam Somers of the Sacramento Police Department. Somers said she may have been the reason Ferguson went to the equipment yard.

Thirty minutes later, officers responded to a call that said two people were on the ground at the Miller Park Marina, about 10 miles away from the first scene.

Officers found the bodies of two men, ages 19 and 48, who had been shot several times -- one a Burns Security guard and the other a park employee. Police also discovered an assault rifle.

At about 3 a.m. Sunday, officers located another Burns Security employee, a woman, handcuffed in the Sacramento Zoo. Sacramento Police Chief Arturo Venegas said the suspect stole the guard's 1992 green Toyota Tercel and fled. After the shootings, Ferguson called a manager at Burns Security and said he was going to Old Sacramento, a downtown entertainment district, and shoot people on the street.

Authorities converged on the area, but did not find the suspect.

"He's very brutal, very violent," said Hahn. "This person has threatened numerous people other than security personnel, such as the [people in] Old Sacramento. Now, whether he really meant to carry that out, we don't know, but we're proceeding as if he might."

Police searched the house where Ferguson had been living with his father and brother for more than a decade. Venegas said they found numerous weapons and white supremacist and survivalist literature.

Somers said Ferguson is believed to be carrying handguns, rifles and a shotgun, as well as a satchel of pipe bombs.

A neighbor who lives two houses away told CNN the family has had run-ins with police before. He declined to elaborate.

Several law enforcement agencies -- including the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, California Highway Patrol, Sacramento County sheriff's office and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms -- are working with the Sacramento police department on the case.

Don Walker, CEO of Burns Security, said his company was offering $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of Ferguson, described by police as 6-feet-1, 150 pounds with a shaved head, blond hair and blue eyes.

The state of California has offered $50,000, the city of Sacramento $20,000 and the U.S. Marshals Service $10,000.

"There's nothing I can say that would express my profound condolences for the families of these security officers," Burns said. "We're going to do everything we can to cooperate."

Burns said that 150 Burns Security officers in the Sacramento area have been taken off the job. Venegas told reporters Ferguson had said "he was going to take care of Burns Security."