A Northern California man is dead after attempting to keep his pickup from being stolen early Monday in Magalia, a town 90 miles north of Sacramento in Butte County. The suspect, a minor, has been booked into juvenile hall on manslaughter charges, officials said.

Robert Etta, 50, apparently jumped into the back of his pickup as the thief tried to steal the vehicle near Crescent Drive around 2 a.m. in the unincorporated community, the Butte County sheriff said in a news release. Magalia, which was established after the Gold Rush and extensively damaged in the 2018 Camp Fire, has a population of 9,245.

Etta called police while in the truck bed as the suspect was driving away. Dispatch stayed on the line with Etta as deputies and California Highway Patrol officers responded to the incident. While on the phone, the dispatcher heard a collision.

Officers found the truck along Carnegie Road engulfed in flames, which had spread to nearby vegetation. The fire was extinguished by Cal Fire crews.

The crash and fire downed power lines and caused hundreds of homes in Butte County, which has 207,172 residents, to lose power. Nearly 350 homes in the area were reporting outages, according to a PG&E outage map on Monday morning, local station KRCR reported.

Etta was pronounced dead at the scene. The suspect, who was injured in the crash, remained at the scene and was taken to a hospital for treatment. The suspect was later booked into the Butte County Juvenile Hall on charges of manslaughter. The Sheriff’s Office said it would not release his identity because he is a minor.

California’s Welfare & Institutions Code sections 827 and 828 restrict the public’s access to juvenile court records and law enforcement records regarding juveniles.

Butte County saw a 30.7 percent increase in vehicle thefts in 2023 over the previous year.

The Epoch Times reached out to the office of Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea and the District Attorney’s Office for comment, but as of publication had not heard back.

The Butte County sheriff has asked anyone with information to call (530) 538-7671.