A man is in critical condition after an argument inside a Sam's Club in South Sacramento County escalated into a car-to-car shooting that left him wounded outside a nearby Costco. Sacramento County Sheriff's Office deputies were dispatched to the Costco parking lot on Stockton Boulevard just after 6 p.m. Wednesday, responding to reports of gunfire outside the warehouse store.
According to FOX40, the confrontation began as a verbal argument between two parties inside a Sam's Club located at Power Inn and Calvin Roads. Both parties then got into their vehicles and drove roughly two miles to the Costco Wholesale on Stockton Boulevard, where the dispute turned into a car-to-car shooting, per the same report. The Sam's Club sits in unincorporated Sacramento County near Gerber Road, according to Sam's Club, while the Costco location is roughly two miles west along the same busy Stockton Boulevard corridor, according to LoopNet.
The man was reportedly shot in front of a nearby Wendy's restaurant, per the sheriff's office, and was taken to an area hospital for treatment. The Sacramento Bee reported Wednesday that he remained in critical condition at a local hospital following the shooting. The suspect fled the scene before deputies arrived, and no suspect information was available as of the sheriff's office's account.
Potential Charges Under California's Drive-By Shooting Law
If the fleeing suspect is identified and apprehended, California law provides specific penalties for shootings that occur from inside a vehicle. Under Penal Code Section 26100(c), willfully and maliciously discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle at another person is a felony punishable by three, five, or seven years in state prison, according to legal information published by the Kraut Law Group. The same statute can also expose a driver to criminal liability if they knowingly allow a passenger to bring a firearm into the vehicle or to fire from it, with penalties ranging from misdemeanors to more serious wobbler charges depending on the driver's intent and knowledge, per Eisner Gorin LLP.
A Rare Violent Incident Amid Falling Homicide Numbers
The shooting comes even as unincorporated Sacramento County has seen violent crime trend downward. Sheriff Jim Cooper said in January that the county recorded 18 homicides in 2025, the lowest annual total logged by the sheriff's office in more than 50 years, according to CBS News. Cooper credited the department's standalone Gang Unit, which seized 382 firearms in 2025 as part of targeted violent crime prevention efforts, the outlet reported.
Statewide, California Highway Patrol data compiled in recent reporting shows that personal altercations and road rage were cited as contributing factors in roughly a quarter of all vehicle-related shooting incidents, according to prior Hoodline reporting on a separate shooting near Keyes. The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office had also issued a public safety alert earlier this month warning shoppers about crimes occurring in retail parking lots, specifically naming Costco and Sam's Club among high-traffic locations where caution is urged.
Investigators have not released a description of the suspect or the vehicle involved, and it remains unclear whether the two parties knew each other before the argument broke out. The sheriff's office has not said what charges it intends to seek once a suspect is identified.
