LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Two police officers were killed and two people wounded in California on Friday when a man went on a shooting spree, officials said, having finally caught up with the suspect after he went on the run.

The violence - which was stretched over several bloody hours and two counties and sparked a massive police manhunt - began around 10.30am when a police deputy went to investigate a suspicious vehicle parked at a hotel in Sacramento.

As he approached, the driver opened fire and struck the deputy in the forehead, Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones told a news conference. The deputy, officer Danny Oliver, a 15-year veteran who was married with two daughters, was killed.

The shooter and a woman accomplice who was also in the car sped away from the scene. A short time later, they carjacked a vehicle and when the driver resisted, he too was shot in the head, Sheriff Jones said. His condition was not immediately known.

The duo then carjacked another vehicle, this time a red pickup truck, without injuring the driver, and raced off into neighboring Placer County.

Somewhere along the way, two more police officers were shot. One of them was killed, the authorities told local media.

A police spokesman in Placer County, Ms Dena Erwin, said a suspect had been tracked down and taken into custody.

Local media identified him as Marcelo Marquez, 34, and said he was arrested by police in a home in Auburn and carried away on a stretcher. He had not been shot, police said, and was alive.

"Residents can rest assured, they can go back outside again," Ms Erwin told reporters.

The woman suspect was arrested earlier.