Former Santa Rosa man slain in Sacramento

A former Santa Rosa resident and Cardinal Newman High School graduate was fatally stabbed inside a Sacramento apartment Monday night and the suspected killer was arrested Wednesday in Roseville, Sacramento police reported.

Zachary Kane, 23, was identified as the stabbing victim Wednesday by the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office.

He was pronounced dead at a Sacramento hospital following the stabbing, which was reported in a 911 call about 10:55 p.m. Monday at an apartment near the 3300 block of Arena Boulevard in Sacramento’s Natomas neighborhood, a police department statement said. Kane appeared to have been stabbed multiple times, a news release said.

Detectives interviewed numerous witnesses at the apartment and quickly identified the suspect as Aaron Ramzy, 24, whom they described as Kane’s roommate, the statement said.

Ramzy was apprehended by Roseville police just before noon Wednesday during a search based on a reported sighting of the man.

Edward Kane said his son, born and raised in Santa Rosa, had moved to Sacramento two years ago to study auto mechanics at a vocational school. “His real passion was automobiles,” Kane said.

Zachary Kane had recently completed the trade school program and obtained a paid internship in auto mechanic work for the state of California, his father said.

A Catholic and former altar boy at St. Rose Church in Santa Rosa, Kane graduated from Cardinal Newman in 2010.

During his high school years, Kane volunteered as a mentor and tutor to children at local elementary schools, his father said. “He really enjoyed that,” Edward Kane said. “He touched a lot of people that way.”

Kane said the suspect was the brother of one of his son’s roommates, noting that he had met all the roommates.

Graham Rutherford, principal at Cardinal Newman, said he heard about Kane’s death Wednesday morning. “We’re pretty stunned,” he said.

Kane was “a quality guy,” well-liked by students and a “caring, positive person,” Rutherford said. “It’s really hard to imagine” Kane as the victim of a violent crime, he said.

Kane, a wrestler at Cardinal Newman, was a friend of Rutherford’s son, Edward, now a Marine corporal based in San Diego.

In a text message to his father on Wednesday, Edward called his friend’s death “really a shocker.”

Edward Kane said his son loved Sonoma County and “wished he was living back here.”

Sacramento police said the investigation was ongoing and “a specific motive is not yet known.”

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @guykovner.