SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As Sacramento mourned the worst mass shooting in the United States this year with sidewalk shrines near the Capitol, authorities on Monday arrested a suspect in connection with the shooting.
The suspect, Dandre Martin, 26, was booked on assault and possession of an illegal firearm charges, authorities said, adding that they’ve executed several search warrants and recovered a handgun.
Authorities also identified the six people who were killed Sunday night in a barrage of gunfire outside a stretch of popular downtown nightclubs.
The dead include three men and three women. The youngest victims, Johntaya Alexander and Yamile Martinez-Andrade, were both 21 years old. The oldest victim, Melinda Davis, was 57, according to the Sacramento County coroner.
Also identified were Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32; Devazia Turner, 29; and Sergio Harris, 38, who was previously identified by family members.
Seven of the 12 injured victims being treated at hospitals were reported to have been released. Authorities remained at the crime scene until early Monday, where hundreds of evidence markers were laid out on the pavement, including vestiges of at least 75 shots fired.
“The scale of violence that just happened in our city is unprecedented during my 27 years here,” said Sacramento City Police Chief Kathy Lester during a Sunday news conference at police headquarters. “We are shocked and heartbroken by this tragedy. But we are also resolved as an agency to find those responsible and to secure justice for the victims and the families.”
Police were searching for what they called “multiple shooters” Sunday evening, and offered few details about what happened or why except to say that just after 2 a.m., a car drove up 10th Street and unleashed a sustained fusillade of bullets into a crowd of people before fleeing.
At least one other person fired a gun, although it was not yet clear whether that person was in the car or in the crowd firing back at the car shooter. It was not even certain Sunday whether that was the only crime scene, as a victim was also transported from another location a block away.
The killings took place on and near the city’s K Street mall, within view of the grand white dome of the state Capitol, where in recent years lawmakers have enacted the nation’s toughest gun control laws but remain confounded by how to stem mass shootings. Already this year, Sacramento has been shaken by two of the four worst spasms of gun violence in the nation, including an incident in February when a man killed his three children, a man supervising their family visit, and himself.
Police radio traffic and videos posted to the internet revealed a chaotic series of events early Sunday. A melee broke out in front of a club just before the shooting, although it was not clear whether it was related or just a coincidence. Afterward, three men and three women were killed in the street. Many more people were transported in ambulances, while at least two people dragged themselves to hospitals for treatment of gunshot wounds.
At least one handgun — later discovered to be stolen — was recovered. The rapid gunfire heard on videos suggested a semiautomatic weapon may have been used, but a police spokesman, citing the ongoing investigation, did not offer information on the weapon used.
“This morning our city has a broken heart. This is a senseless and unacceptable tragedy,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said at a news conference Sunday. “Thoughts and prayers aren’t nearly enough. We must do more as a city, as a state and as a nation. This senseless epidemic of gun violence must be addressed.”
Steinberg’s office said the city plans to hold a vigil for the victims at 7:30 p.m. on Monday at Ali Youssefi Square in downtown.
A block from where the mayor and other city leaders spoke, family members of some of the victims gathered at a line of police tape on 10th and L streets, staring at a desolate scene of asphalt pocked with blue plastic tags marking shell casings.
“Why did they have to do this to my baby?” wailed Pamela Harris, whose son, 38-year-old Sergio Harris, himself a father of three, was among the dead.
Harris’ father, Fred, said he had been circling the streets around the crime scene since 2:30 a.m., looking to make sense of things. His daughter, Kay, had called him to report that her brother had been shot. “I hope people are brought to justice,” Kay Harris said, before pulling her father away.
Fred Harris Jr., 41, described his younger brother, Sergio, as a “pretty good guy, well rounded and well liked.”
“Everybody pretty much knew him and loved him for being who he was,” he said. “Everybody who knew Serg just knew he was all about a good time.”
He said Sergio was a father to three kids, two girls and a boy, and that he loved his cars, shoes and drinking champagne.
Harris said that everyone is “pretty distraught” and that his phone has been going off all day. He is not on the scene, but said that his father, sister and stepmother are there.
Harris heard that several fights broke out and that a car came down the street “and started letting off a bunch of shots.”
“I’m not sure if it’s associated with the fights that were happening at the clubs, or it was one of those random occurrences of violence,” he said. “I feel like my brother wasn’t targeted. I feel like it was a random act of violence.
“Everybody’s going to remember Sergio, he was just a good guy, well liked in the community. He did everything for everybody.”
DeVazia Turner was Sergio Harris’ cousin, according to family.
“He was a young man of the streets, he was a good guy,” Turner’s father told a TV reporter at the scene. “He was at a party, at a club. As I understand, he walked out the club and walked into some shit and got shot. ... Tell these young men to stay out the streets, quit playing these games.”
John Alexander, the father of one of the youngest victims, Johntaya, was awakened by a phone call just after 2 a.m. Sunday.
It was his daughter Johntezha and he could hear terror in her voice, as she explained that she was cradling her younger sister in her arms.
“Daddy,” she said, “Taya’s been shot.”
“You’re lying,” he said in disbelief.
He jumped out of bed, threw on clothes and drove toward the entertainment district. When Alexander arrived at the scene, he saw someone trying to resuscitate a man who had crumpled to the ground.
Then, his eyes shifted toward his little girl. His beautiful, strong-willed daughter, whose name was a combination of his own and his older sister’s, whose energy she shared. His daughter, who adored her nieces and nephews and dreamed of one day becoming a social worker so she could work with children.
“She was already gone,” Alexander said, softly. “Lifeless.”
Since then, he said, that image has been replaying in his mind on repeat. He’s trying to focus, instead, on joyful memories — on holidays and birthdays past.
Johntaya, he said, would have turned 22 on the last day of the month.
“She was just beginning her life,” he said, sobbing. “Stop all this senseless shooting.”
Lester vowed that her department would find and arrest those responsible, but emphasized that detectives were facing a “really complex and complicated scene” involving “hundreds of pieces of evidence,” including video from a police camera that captured portions of the shooting along with videos submitted by the public.
The yellow police tape sealing off the K Street mall added more pain to a Sacramento district that was struggling before the COVID-19 pandemic, but more so now, with fewer lobbyists buying lunches and drinks at bars and restaurants. Crowds show up on weekends and nights when the Golden 1 Center hosts the Sacramento Kings and arena concerts, including one on Saturday night featuring Tyler, the Creator. Other times, the mall is largely empty, especially on its blighted west side.
Lester said officers on the beat in the downtown core heard the gunshots ring out just after 2 a.m. and came running. They saw a horrific scene: Bullets pocked the street and buildings while 18 people were dead, dying or wounded. It was believed to be the largest mass shooting in Sacramento history.
Officers immediately began to give medical aid and perform CPR. Police and fire radio traffic gave a window into the horror. “I’m getting reports from [Sacramento police] that we may have more victims, up to 10,” one dispatcher said. “Go ahead and start me five more ambulances, another command unit.”
As they began to piece together what happened, police learned that a large group of people had been fighting in the street moments before the shots rang out, but officers said they did not yet know whether that melee was related to the shooting. They are reviewing videos, from the public and from fixed cameras, to try to piece it all together.
“The scale of violence that just happened in our city is unprecedented during my 27 years here in Sacramento,” the police chief said. “We are shocked and heartbroken by this tragedy, but we are also resolved as an agency to find those responsible and secure justice for the victims and their families.”
Berry Accius, a community activist, arrived on the scene about 2:30 a.m. after receiving a call from a City Council member who he has worked with on gun violence. He saw a young woman bleeding from her forehead, her clothes covered in blood. “She was just screaming on the phone, ‘They killed my sister,’” he said, adding that another young woman described her sister dying in her arms.
Alexandra Arellano was 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 began pouring out of the building 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.
“It was pretty much a gunfight going on,” added Arellano’s fiancé, Jesse Fuentes, who works as a security guard outside the club. “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.”
Advocates for gun control, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, pointed to the incident as yet another example of why reforms are needed to reduce gun violence.
“Sadly, we once again mourn the lives lost and for those injured in yet another horrendous act of gun violence,” Newsom, who is on vacation in South America and Central America, said in a statement. “The scourge of gun violence continues to be a crisis in our country, and we must resolve to bring an end to this carnage.”
Sacramento City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela said the shooting happened in a 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.
President Joe Biden issued a statement, urging Congress to act on proposed gun control legislation and take other measures to protect victims of violence.
“I want to thank the first responders in Sacramento, and all those across the United States, who act every day to save lives,” the president said. “We know these lives were not the only lives impacted by gun violence last night. And we equally mourn for those victims and families who do not make national headlines.”
Though the shooting was California’s single deadliest in 2022, there have been worse in the last year, including one in May at a San Jose transit yard where a disgruntled worker shot and killed nine people before killing himself.
Speaking at a Sunday afternoon news conference, Steinberg, the mayor, added: “Thoughts and prayers are not enough. It’s not enough. That’s too easy, and it will be too easy to mourn for a week and then move on. We can’t do that.”
On Monday, Biden issued a statement praising first responders and demanding more action on guns.
“We must do more than mourn; we must act. That is why my administration has taken historic executive action to implement my comprehensive gun crime reduction strategy — from standing up gun trafficking strike forces to helping cities across the country expand community violence interventions and hire more police officers for community policing,” he wrote.
“We also continue to call on Congress to act. Ban ghost guns. Require background checks for all gun sales. Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Repeal gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability.”
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WORST MASS SHOOTINGS IN U.S. IN 2022
1. Sacramento, April 3: Six killed, 12 wounded.
2. Corsicana, Texas, Feb. 3: Six killed, two wounded.
3. Milwaukee, Jan. 23: Six killed.
4. Sacramento, Feb. 28: Five killed.
Source: News reports, Gun Violence Archive.
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(Garrison and Chabria reported from Sacramento and Gerber from Los Angeles. Los Angeles Times staff writers Hannah Wiley in Sacramento and Jack Dolan, Brittny Meija, Hannah Fry and Ian James in Los Angeles contributed to this report..)
