By admin 
Three people died in separate incidents that repeatedly shut down Highway 50 across Sacramento on Tuesday, disrupting traffic along the region’s main east-west freeway from the morning commute into late Tuesday night.
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The incidents began with a pursuit that ended in a fatal shooting involving law enforcement near Hazel Avenue. Hours later, a man suspected of killing a woman outside an Arden Arcade Panera Bread was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after deputies stopped his vehicle on Highway 50. Then, just before 10 p.m., a pedestrian was struck and killed on the freeway near downtown Sacramento.
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The unrelated incidents closed lanes for hours at different points along the freeway, sending drivers onto a handful of surface streets and causing major delays for commuters traveling between Sacramento and its eastern suburbs.
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Here’s how the day unfolded:
- Westbound Highway 50 shut down for hours after law enforcement officers fatally shot a man on the freeway just after midnight between Hazel Avenue and Sunrise Boulevard near Rancho Cordova.
- Caltrans routed morning commuters onto alternate routes including Folsom Boulevard, with vehicles seen diverting off westbound Highway 50 at Hazel Avenue just after 6 a.m.
- A 38-year-old woman was shot and killed Tuesday afternoon outside the Panera Bread on Howe Avenue in Arden Arcade in what sheriff’s officials called a brazen attack in front of witnesses.
- The gunman, identified as 22-year-old Rohit Rohit, fled the scene and later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside his vehicle on Highway 50, triggering another closure and standoff with deputies minutes after the Panera shooting.
- Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies said Rohit had stalked the woman for months before Tuesday’s deadly shooting in Arden Arcade.
- Tuesday night, a pedestrian was struck and killed on westbound Highway 50 east of Interstate 5 just before 10 p.m., the CHP said. The incident shutdown the westbound lanes for several hours.
- The back-to-back incidents landed on a corridor already known for gridlock — drivers in major California cities lose more than 100 hours annually to traffic, experts say.
- Transport for America has argued that widening highways and major roads adds more congestion for drivers, complicating the debate over how to ease bottlenecks on arteries like Highway 50.
- Highway 50 commuters are no strangers to disruptions. The freeway has been under construction since 2021 as part of Caltrans’ $511 million Fix 50 project, a 14-mile overhaul that has added carpool lanes, replaced pavement and widened portions of the freeway. Originally expected to be finished in 2025, the project is now nearing completion this month, though nighttime lane closures have continued as crews finish remaining work.