A woman and a dog were found fatally shot inside an apartment at the Kennedy Meadows complex in Jackson, and the man accused in their deaths spent a brief period barricaded inside before surrendering peacefully. Officers say 39-year-old Michael Patrick Oriley II told them he had attached a bomb to the front door as the standoff unfolded, before a family member talked him into giving himself up over the phone.
The chaos began when a woman at the Kennedy Meadows apartment complex called 911 to report that a man was trying to shoot her, according to FOX40. The Jackson Police Department says the call captured the sound of gunfire and a male voice in the background before it disconnected. Jackson police officers responded to the scene on New York Ranch Road with backup from the Amador County Sheriff’s Department, the Sutter Creek Police Department and the Ione Police Department.
Suspect Barricaded Himself Before Victims Were Found
When officers arrived, they encountered Oriley, who barricaded himself inside the apartment. After his surrender, officers entered and found a woman and a dog suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Both were pronounced dead at the scene, the station’s report states. Police have not released the woman’s identity, saying it is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
During the standoff, he told officers he had rigged a bomb to the front door. Jackson police say a family member eventually reached Oriley by phone and convinced him to surrender peacefully, bringing the standoff to an end without further violence.
Suspect Faces Multiple Felony Charges
Oriley was arrested and booked into the Amador County jail on felony first-degree murder, felony animal cruelty, and felony possession of a firearm and ammunition by a prohibited person, along with a misdemeanor charge of violating a domestic-violence restraining order, per the Jackson Police Department. The charges listed include first-degree murder, animal cruelty, firearm and ammunition possession by a prohibited person, and violating a domestic-violence restraining order.
Anyone looking to track the case as it moves through the courts can search records through the Superior Court of California, County of Amador, which maintains an online case-search portal.
Statewide, the California Department of Justice has reported that in 2024, 69.9% of homicides where the weapon was identified involved a firearm. The same data shows that for homicides where the victim-offender relationship was known and reported to the department, 50.5% of victims were killed by a friend or acquaintance.
