Sonoma County deputy kills kidnap suspect SONOMA COUNTY

A kidnapping suspect whose victim was able to text details of her ordeal to a friend was shot and killed by a Sonoma County sheriff's deputy in Guerneville late Thursday at the end of a chase, authorities said.

The incident began around 10:45 p.m. when San Rafael police got a call from the friend, who said the woman was texting details of the kidnapping in real time by cell phone, sheriff's Lt. Tim Duke said Friday.

Among the details the woman was able to relay were a description of the kidnapper's Toyota Camry and their approximate location. San Rafael police contacted the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office, whose deputies spotted the car and tried to pull it over on Guerneville Road in Santa Rosa, Duke said.

The driver, Richard Shreckengaust, 37, of Marin County refused to stop and led deputies on a chase west on Highway 116 toward Guerneville, at one point swerving around a "spike strip" that deputies put on the road to flatten the car's tires, Duke said.

Shreckengaust lost control of the vehicle at 11:22 p.m. and crashed into an embankment near Odd Fellows Park Road and Riverside Drive. When he leaned and reached to the right inside the car, a deputy, fearing Shreckengaust was reaching for a weapon, shot him several times, police said. No gun was found.

Deputies freed the woman, who was not hurt, authorities said. Shreckengaust was an acquaintance of hers who "acted bizarrely" during the incident, police said, including saying he had explosives in the car.

The name of the deputy who killed Shreckengaust hasn't been released. The shooting is under investigation by Santa Rosa police and the Sonoma County district attorney's office.