SRJC students arrested in motel shooting of prostitute

Two Santa Rosa men who were stopped by police, then released, in the aftermath of gunfire that seriously wounded a prostitute at a Rohnert Park motel were in custody Saturday at the Sonoma County Jail, authorities said.

Suspected gunman Ronnie Paul Threadgill, 22, of Santa Rosa was being held on $1 million bail on suspicion of attempted homicide and assault with a firearm in the July 2 shooting, police officials said. His roommate Koa James Sibley, 19, was being held on $500,000 bail on suspicion of being the getaway driver, an accessory to the attempted homicide, Sgt. Jeff Justice said.

Police said Threadgill shot a 24-year-old Sacramento woman he was paying for sex during the 2 a.m. July 2 encounter at the Motel 6 on Commerce Boulevard. Threadgill hit a Sacramento man, later arrested on suspicion of pimping, in the head with a gun as he ran out of the room, according to police.

Shot in the neck and leg, the woman was still hospitalized Saturday “with serious injuries, and is still unable to communicate with detectives,” Justice said. She is expected to survive, he said.

Threadgill and Sibley were enrolled in Santa Rosa Junior College’s summer football camp weightlifting and conditioning courses, and lived with a group of student football players at a North Street apartment, police said.

Dr. Frank Chong, college president, said that Threadgill and Sibley both are relatively new students and would be suspended until the criminal case is resolved.

“It is really regrettable; we never want to see that happen,” Chong said of the crime and arrests. “We emphasize to students that they represent the college in all of their activities.”

In the aftermath of the July 2 shooting, an officer responding to the gunfire pulled over a red Toyota Tercel leaving a Jack in the Box restaurant in the same business strip as the motel in an “investigative stop,” Justice said.

Sibley, who was behind the wheel, and Threadgill told officers they were SRJC football players and had only come to the area to get food, Justice said.

The officer noted the men had hot food in the car and - with other officers calling for backup because they had a suspicious person at gunpoint - noted their names and told Sibley and Threadgill they could go, Justice said.

Police did not arrest anyone in connection with the shooting that night, and the man held at gunpoint was ruled out as a suspect.

Detectives released surveillance footage to the public depicting the silhouette of a shirtless man leaving the motel as well as images of distinctive Bulgari eyeglasses and clothing left behind.

On Wednesday, six days after the shooting and with no prime suspects, detectives began revisiting notes from the night, including information taken during the traffic stop, and finally began connecting Threadgill and Sibley to the case.

The surveillance footage shows a man getting out of a car and heading to the motel. Sixteen minutes later, the man is seen running from the motel back to the same car waiting across the street.

The Toyota that Sibley drove matched the one seen on surveillance cameras, Justice said. Detectives also found photographs of Threadgill wearing a pair of Bulgari glasses similar to ones the suspected shooter left in the woman’s room, he said.

On Friday, detectives tracked Threadgill to a weight-training class on the SRJC campus, Justice said. A law enforcement team including Rohnert Park, SRJC and Santa Rosa police, as well as detectives from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, stopped Threadgill at about 4:30 p.m. as he drove away from the school’s main parking garage on Mendocino Avenue and arrested him.

Just before 7 p.m., police arrested Sibley at his job at the Santa Rosa Plaza Macy’s store, Justice said.

Officers then searched their apartment on the 1500 block of North Street, where they “located several items of evidence related to the crime,” Justice said.

Longtime SRJC football coach Lenny Wagner said that neither man was on the team, but the two were among about 130 students enrolled in the summertime weightlifting and conditioning course series that is a training ground for people trying out to play football.

“I have parents calling me from all over whose kids play for us,” Wagner said. “Everyone is really concerned for the person who was injured, so we are saying prayers for her.”

Threadgill started taking classes last year but then stopped showing up, Wagner said. He reappeared in April.

“Ronnie is a really timid guy; this is shocking that he was involved in something this bad,” Wagner said. “He is not a guy who seems to have a big ego. He’s real quiet. It is really bizarre.”

Sibley played football at Ukiah High School and Mendocino College, transferring to study at SRJC in the spring. Wagner said that Sibley is well liked and a good student.

Threadgill and Sibley were unlikely to make the football team and were not recruited, Wagner said.

“I’m just blown away that those two guys were even together,” he said.

Threadgill’s father and namesake, Ronnie Paul Threadgill, was killed by lethal injection in April 2013 at age 40. The elder Threadgill was sentenced to die for fatally shooting a man in 2001 outside Dallas during a carjacking, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Wagner said Threadgill had mentioned his grief over his father’s execution to him during class.

The coach said he planned to talk about the case with his summertime athletic program students.

“If there is any positive to this, it might be an eye opener for students to see how serious the consequences are for making bad decisions,” Wagner said.

Attempts to contact other members of Threadgill’s family were unsuccessful.

Threadgill and Sibley are scheduled to appear in court Tuesday afternoon.

Justice said that the wounded woman and the man they arrested on suspicion of acting as her pimp had checked into the motel the day before the shooting. Several hours after the shooting, police arrested another Sacramento pair, a suspected prostitute and pimp, at the same motel, but they did not appear connected to the wounded woman, Justice said.

The sergeant said that it is common for people from Sacramento and the East Bay to travel to Sonoma County to sell sex.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.