Rural roadways were shut down and runway traffic at Sacramento International Airport rerouted for several hours Tuesday as Yolo County sheriff’s deputies and the county bomb squad investigated a possible explosive device on a pickup truck.

The bizarre series of events began at about 12:30 p.m., when deputies were advised of a medical aid call in the area of County Road 124 west of West Sacramento, where a fire department crew arrived to find a man lying in the roadway, sheriff’s Capt. Larry Cecchettini said. The man reportedly became combative as he was being treated, prompting a call for sheriff’s deputies to respond to the scene.

“While en route, a deputy witnessed a black pickup truck on County Road 124 with one end of an electrical cord sticking into the fuel tank and the other end of the cord leading into the bed of the truck,” Cecchettini said in a news release. Further inspection revealed the wiring protruding from the fuel tank was connected to a homemade device in the bed of the truck, which was determined to be registered to the subject of the medical-aid call.

Suspecting a possible destructive device, deputies set up a quarter-mile perimeter around the truck and called in the Yolo County Bomb Squad. As a precaution, authorities also notified the control tower at Sacramento International Airport, which, according to Cecchettini, opted to move flights to a different runway during the investigation.

Bomb squad agents determined the device was not explosive, and the roadways were reopened at about 3 p.m., Cecchettini said.

Meanwhile, the subject of the medical aid was transported to an area hospital, where he continued to be uncooperative with law enforcement, Cecchettini said. However, investigators did make contact with a female acquaintance of the man, who reported that he had been “acting strangely” for the past few days.

On Tuesday, the man “became enraged and incoherent while the two were in the truck on County Road 124,” Cecchettini said. “The female said the male then began shooting from a handgun into and out of the vehicle” while also making comments about explosives. The woman then left the scene and obtained a ride to her West Sacramento home.

Cecchettini said officers checked nearby residences to determine whether anyone had witnessed the incident or were hurt by the gunfire, but no injuries were reported. Citing health privacy laws, Cecchettini did not release the man’s name until it is determined whether he was suffering from a medical emergency at the time of the incident.

No arrests had been made as of Tuesday evening.

— Reach Lauren Keene at [email protected] or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene

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