Why California Z Town nightclub murder suspect is in ICE detention in Texas

Nicole Buss and Madison Smalstig, The Sacramento Bee on Mar 1, 2026

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A man wanted in a fatal November shooting at an Elk Grove, California, restaurant remained beyond the reach of Sacramento-area law enforcement and was awaiting federal sentencing at an ICE detention facility in Texas after admitting he was caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border using a false identity.

Last month, Elk Grove police announced that Roderick Randall had been located after more than two months on the run and said he would be extradited to face charges in connection with the Nov. 2 shooting at Z Town Asian Gastro Bar, which killed two people and wounded two others. The restaurant at 8409 Elk Grove Florin Road was crowded as usual for a Saturday night when gunfire erupted around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, police said.

Authorities identified Randall as the suspect but were unable to find him.

Police who investigated the shooting said Randall and another man argued before the confrontation escalated into gunfire . Two men — Kim Kha Huynh, 18, of Chino Hills and Phuc Minh Vo, 34, of San Jose — died and two other men were hospitalized following the gunfire and later released.

According to court records and previous Bee reporting, Randall was convicted in 2014 of premeditated attempted murder in a January 2012 gang-related shooting at a south Sacramento-area shopping center. He was sentenced to 88 years to life but was released in 2023 due to changes in the state’s sentencing laws.

Randall also is a registered sex offender following a 2003 conviction for lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and pimping a minor under 16, according to the California Department of Justice.

But how Randall, 43, was apprehended was less clear. Elk Grove police said at the time that he was “currently being held on federal charges for providing false information to federal law enforcement officers in Texas.”

According to federal court documents, Randall was arrested Dec. 10, 2025, after U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents stopped a box truck at a checkpoint near Freer, Texas, about 80 miles north of the Rio Grande. Agents found him among 20 people hiding in a secret compartment inside the truck, which was loaded with produce, according to prosecutors.

After being discovered, Randall identified himself to authorities as Mohamed Billo Sow and presented a U.S. passport card and Social Security card, officials said. Agents ran his fingerprints through Border Patrol databases and determined his true identity, as well as the outstanding Sacramento County warrant for the Elk Grove case.

He was charged later that month in federal court in Laredo, Texas, with providing false information to law enforcement. On Feb. 5, he pleaded guilty without a plea agreement, the court noted in filings. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 7.

Until then, he remains in the custody of the Rio Grande Processing Center, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility operated by the GEO Group, a for-profit correctional company. The facility on the edge of Laredo regularly houses defendants in custody on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service.

A facility employee confirmed by phone Wednesday that Randall remained in custody there.

After he’s sentenced on May 7 in Laredo federal court, Randall will be transferred to the custody of the Sacramento County Main Jail to face the Elk Grove charges, according to Sacramento County Assistant Chief Deputy DA Rochelle Beardsley. She said the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office was working with the Marshals Service to coordinate his return.

As for Randall’s then-girlfriend, who was taken into custody days after the shooting on suspicion of being an accessory to a crime and assault with a deadly weapon, the District Attorney’s Office said there was insufficient evidence to file charges against her, and she was released.

Z Town Asian Gastro Bar, meanwhile, has not reopened “out of respect for the victims and their loved ones,” the restaurant said in an Instagram post.

A call to the restaurant went unanswered on Friday.

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