SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento police were searching for a gunman after six people were killed and 10 wounded Sunday in a mass shooting in the heart of the city’s downtown.
Sacramento Police Chief Katherine Lester said the shooting occurred around 2 a.m. in a bustling entertainment district that was filled with people. She said officers heard shots and arrived at the scene at 10th and K streets, roughly two blocks northwest of the state Capitol.
“They found multiple people had unfortunately been shot,” she said. “This is a really tragic situation.”
The officers rendered aid to victims, she added.
A motive for the shooting was unclear, and Lester said police were not sure whether it was tied to any event going on at the time.
Berry Accius, a community activist, arrived on the scene around 2:30 a.m. He received a call from a city council member with whom he’s done a lot of work on gun prevention and gun violence.
He described a few night clubs and bars in the area. Little fights have broken out there before, he said, but nothing on this level.
As soon as he got there, Accius said, he saw a young woman bleeding from her forehead. Her clothes were covered in blood.
“She was just screaming on the phone, ‘They killed my sister,’” he said.
There was a mother who believed her son might be a victim and was trying to figure it out. Accius said another young woman described her sister dying in her arms.
He said victims went to the hospital on their own “because they didn’t have enough medical teams to deal with what was going on.”
“It’s tragic, just tragic. On all levels,” Accius said. “Just continually hearing the number count, the number going from three to four to five and then finally getting a number of six people dead. I just shook my head. Never in a million years would I think the precious downtown area would ever be in a moment where’s this much tragedy, this much lawlessness and a cowardly act of senseless violence.”
A video provided to KCRA-TV showed a large group of people fighting on a street before shots rang out. Other images on social media showed a swarm of ambulances and bystanders huddled around the wounded on the sidewalk.
Alexandra Arellano was just leaving work at the El Santo Ultra Lounge near the corner of K and 10th streets when the shooting started. The club closed at 2 a.m. and people had begun pouring out of the club onto the sidewalk.
Arellano, 26, was about to walk outside when she heard a gunshot followed by a rapid succession of “like 30 or 50 rounds being shot.”
“After that, everybody started panicking,” she said. Some ran back into the club.
Arellano’s fiancé, Jesse Fuentes, who works as a security guard outside the club, said there are three other venues in the area. Earlier that night they’d seen an entire crowd run off, but there were no gunshots at that point. Later, around closing time, he and another security guard heard a commotion at a nearby garage.
“Once we went over there, it was pretty much a gunfight going on,” the 32-year-old said. “We were just trying to take cover because we couldn’t tell where the shots were coming from at first because they were coming from two different areas. But the one that really just freaked everybody out was the automatic weapons. That’s when everyone was running and pushing.”
He said they were trying to get everybody near the exits back inside the club. After the gunshots stopped, he went outside, crossed the street and saw at least three or four people lying on the ground.
Darell Gomes was sleeping about two blocks from where the shots rang out early Sunday. He heard a spurt of automatic fire accompanied by single shots. He remembers thinking it sounded like more than one type of gun was being fired.
“I must have heard about 40 shots all together, like a Mac-10 and a whole bunch of singles,” he said.
Lester called it a complicated crime scene and urged any witnesses to reach out to Sacramento police, including anyone with video.
“Words can’t express my shock & sadness this morning. The numbers of dead and wounded are difficult to comprehend. We await more information about exactly what transpired in this tragic incident,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said on Twitter.
“Rising gun violence is the scourge of our city, state and nation, and I support all actions to reduce it,” he added.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., added: “Horrified and deeply saddened by the gun violence we witnessed this morning in Sacramento. My prayers are with the victims and their families — and the entire Sacramento community.”
The shooting took place in a part of Sacramento that has been filled with hopes for a downtown renaissance in recent years, but has delivered numerous disappointments.
Just a block from City Hall, the K Street mall between 10th and 12th streets — the area now sealed off by police — includes a mix of restaurants and bars.
Farther to the west are blocks of shuttered and underutilized storefronts, not far from the Golden 1 Center, where the Sacramento Kings play their games and a concert was held Saturday featuring Tyler, the Creator.
Sacramento City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela said the shooting happened in a vibrant part of the city that is typically crowded on weekends.
“This is a national epidemic. We see the numbers, we know that this isn’t just affecting the city of Sacramento, but it is heartbreaking and completely overwhelming that this keeps happening on our streets,” she said.
On Sunday morning, the downtown area was calm. Even at the Capitol — only a few blocks from where the shooting occurred — most people seemed unaware of what had happened.
Jedrick Andrés, 28, said he and his friend heard about the shooting as they were driving in Sunday morning to run a 5K in the city.
“I was kind of shocked,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Relatives gathered about a block from the bar where the shots first rang out, hugging each other and looking for information about their loved ones.
“Why did they do this to my baby?“ one woman cried as she stood with Stevante Clark, whose brother was shot by Sacramento police in 2018.
“Sadly, we once again mourn the lives lost and for those injured in yet another horrendous act of gun violence,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “Jennifer and I send our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and to the wider community impacted by this terrible tragedy.
“As it is early in this investigation, my administration will continue to work closely with local and state law enforcement as we monitor the situation,” he added. “What we do know at this point is that another mass casualty shooting has occurred, leaving families with lost loved ones, multiple individuals injured and a community in grief. The scourge of gun violence continues to be a crisis in our country, and we must resolve to bring an end to this carnage.”
The incident comes a month after another shocking act of violence in the city.
On Feb. 28, a man killed four people, including three of his children, before turning the gun on himself inside a church in the Sacramento suburbs.
The killings took place during a supervised visit between the father and his children inside the church.
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(Los Angeles Times staff writer Stuart Leavenworth contributed to this report.)
