Fairfield police have arrested a suspect in the shooting that killed a woman and wounded six other people inside a Spirit Halloween store at the Solano Town Center mall, the department announced on Monday, November 2 — three days after the Friday-night attack that this newsroom reported when it happened. Police announced the arrest on Monday but did not immediately identify the suspect or release details of the charges, saying more information about the arrest was expected to be released at a 4:30 p.m. briefing.

Source: KION / CBS Sacramento (Cecilio Padilla)

The arrest ends the public manhunt phase of one of the most serious shootings in Solano County this year. A second, independent report of the Monday arrest, published the same evening, likewise said Fairfield police had taken a suspect into custody in the case and had not yet released the person's identity or the charges they may face. Until police name the suspect and prosecutors file charges, the person arrested is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and nothing in Monday's announcement establishes a motive.

Source: Pulptastic

What happened on Friday night

Gunfire erupted at about 8:30 p.m. on Friday, October 30, inside the Spirit Halloween store — a seasonal costume and décor shop operating in the former Best Buy space at Solano Town Center, 1350 Travis Boulevard in Fairfield. Officers who responded found seven people with gunshot wounds inside the store, which was busy with last-minute Halloween shoppers on the night before Halloween. One woman died at the scene. Fairfield Police Chief Dan Marshall confirmed the toll at a late-night news conference on Friday and said detectives were working to identify the person responsible for what he called a horrific shooting.

Police identified the woman who died as Constance Hages, 31. Her family told investigators she was pregnant at the time of her death, and later reporting described her as a mother of four; police said confirmation of the pregnancy would come from the Solano County Coroner, and that confirmation was still pending in the latest reports. The six surviving victims' names have not been released. As of Sunday, a 19-year-old man remained in critical condition, while three other wounded people remained hospitalised in stable condition, according to CBS Sacramento's reporting.

The investigation, Friday to Monday

Investigators said from the start that they believed the shooting stemmed from a targeted incident involving one suspect inside the store — not a random attack on shoppers — though they have not publicly said who was targeted or why. Detectives interviewed witnesses and reviewed mall surveillance footage through the weekend, calling the store a very active crime scene. The FBI's Sacramento field office deployed its Evidence Response Team to help process the scene, Suisun City police provided mutual aid, and the California Highway Patrol assisted with traffic control and clearing buildings, according to KCRA's reporting from the scene. Police have not said what evidence led them to the person arrested on Monday, or where the arrest was made.

Solano Town Center, a mall of about 130 stores and restaurants on the Interstate 80 corridor, stayed open on Saturday but cancelled a trick-or-treating event planned for Halloween, citing the shooting. Fairfield, a city of roughly 120,000 people in Solano County, sits on I-80 between Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area — a corridor driven daily by Punjabi truckers and commuters from the Sacramento and Bay Area diaspora communities. Police stressed that the Fairfield shooting was not connected to a separate fatal shooting the same night inside a Spirit Halloween store in Madison Heights, Michigan, where a suspect was taken into custody at the scene.

What happens next

The next step is the police briefing trailed for 4:30 p.m. Monday, at which the department is expected to name the arrested suspect and set out the charges. After that, the case moves to the Solano County District Attorney, who decides on formal charges, and to a first court appearance for the arrested person. Separately, the Solano County Coroner's confirmation on Hages's pregnancy remains outstanding. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when the suspect's name and charges are released; until then, the arrest — not a conviction — is what police have announced.