Source: New York Post · 2026-09-23 · Original article ↗

Gunman who sparked terror in small California town was arrested three times in a month before shooting dead elderly homeowner

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Three arrests in September. Bond on the 11th and the 17th. Cheryl Macy is dead.

Summary

  • The New York Post reports Derek Spencer, 44, was detained three times in September before he killed Cheryl Macy, a longtime former Placer County District Attorney's Office employee, over the weekend in Northern California.
  • Sacramento County Sheriff's Office said he was arrested Sept. 3 for felony vandalism, assault with a deadly weapon on a Sacramento sheriff's deputy, and resisting arrest. Eleven days later he was arrested in Folsom on burglary. On Sept. 16 Sacramento nabbed him for stealing a vehicle.
  • He was released on bond Sept. 11 and again Sept. 17. On the third arrest a judge granted pre-arraignment release, KCRA reported. Officials believe he killed Macy, who was not known to him, while running from further crimes that included pointing a firearm at people in Placer County.
  • He rammed a police vehicle Sunday, later shot at a helicopter and deputies, and died in a more-than-two-hour shootout around 4:30 a.m. Monday. Officials suspect he started the Mineral Fire, 18 acres and 20 percent contained as of Tuesday. Macy worked for Placer County from 2006 to 2020.

Commentary

A mill dad still clocks a Placer shift and knows three September cuffs are supposed to mean a hold, not a bond on the 11th and the 17th. He did not pay the levy so a DA-office colleague could meet a stranger on the run.

Sept. 3. Folsom burglary. Sept. 16 car theft. Bond, bond, pre-arraignment walk. The vinyl chair in that DA lobby still remembers Cheryl Macy.

Look every working father who still locks a California porch after a night shift in the eye and answer this: if three September cuffs already walked, who still owns the next DA colleague a pre-arraignment stamp tries to leave empty?

Comments

If three September cuffs already walked, who still owns the next DA colleague?
u/border_dad · 5h

Sept. 3, 11, 16, 17. Macy dead. Keep those stamps.

u/midwest_vet · 4h

I stood a gate so a deputy-assault file still meant a hold. A third walk is not a weather report.

u/rule_first · 4h

Bond twice. Pre-arraignment on the third. Print both.

u/tokyo_ally · 3h

Allied docks still treat a deputy-assault cuff as a breach, not a calendar gap.

u/docket_rat · 3h

Felony vandalism, deadly-weapon assault, vehicle theft. File the three.

u/night_shift · 2h

I still smell diesel at 2 a.m. I want the next Placer walk empty of a load.

u/texas_mom · 90m

A three-cuff month is not a vibe. It is a warning the street already paid.

u/gulf_watch · 55m

A pre-arraignment stamp next to a DA colleague's name is a second border around every honest porch.

u/press_clip · 30m

NY Post printed three arrests, two bonds, and Macy. Argue those nouns.

u/soc_lead · 15m

Hold the three cuffs. Keep the hold. A pre-arraignment walk is not a souvenir.

Paraphrased comments. Not attributed.

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