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AUBURN-

Jose Cruz Juarez Salas owns a lawn care business, and his work truck was allegedly stolen by Marcello Marquez, the man police say is a cold-blooded killer, accused of going on a crime spree from Sacramento to Auburn.

The man stands accused of killing Sacramento County deputy Danny Oliver, and Placer County, Michael Davis Jr., wounding another deputy, and Anthony Holmes who refused to hand over the keys to his car.

“He was close; all he had to do was pull it and I’m dead.”

During that spree though, he encountered Jose and his F-150, the truck Marquez used to get to Auburn.

“He said ‘I need a favor from you’,” said Salas. That favor quickly turned into a scary ordeal, face to face with a suspect on the run, bleeding and in a rush to get away.

“He pulled a gun on me, and I said ‘I don’t want to hurt you, just help me with the truck’.”

The 48-year-old says he convinced Marquez to unhook his trailer, and says blood was on his arm and on the gun. “He agreed to help, but told me to hurry,” he added.

And the suspect wasn’t alone. According to Salas, the woman identified as Janelle Monroy asked for help as well.

“When he stepped out, he told her to move the car across the street. She went into the back seat like, hiding and they took off. He was close; all he had to do was pull it and I’m dead.”

He says it was visible the suspect was armed with ammunition. He had two magazines, one for the gun and another for a rifle.

It was a day on the job that could’ve ended differently for this husband and father of two. “Thank God I’m alive, but I feel very sorry for the families who lost their fathers.”