Sacramento police have arrested a 26-year-old man in connection with the mass shooting in the city that killed six people and wounded 12 others.
Dandre Martin was taken into custody and booked on charges of assault with a firearm and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, said Police Chief Kathy Lester.
“Right now that’s really all we’re able to share about him. As you know this is a complex investigation and we’re looking for multiple suspects and so we’re currently working to identify what his role was the night of the shooting,” she told KCRA3.
Authorities said that Sacramento Police Department SWAT members and detectives have served search warrants at three residences in the area and recovered at least one handgun.
The shocking violence unfolded at around 2am on Sunday as bars and clubs were closing and people filled the streets of the downtown area near the state’s Capitol.
Sacramento County’s coroner has identified the three women killed as Johntaya Alexander, 21; Melinda Davis, 57; and Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21. The three men killed were Sergio Harris, 38; Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32; and Devazia Turner, 29.
Chief Lester says that investigators have established that more than 100 shots were fired by the gunmen, and that three buildings and three cars were struck by bullets during the mayhem.
“The scale of violence that just happened in our city is unprecedented during my 27 years here,” Chief Lester said at a press conference at police headquarters. “We are shocked and heartbroken by this tragedy.”
Officials say that four of the 12 people wounded in the shooting suffered critical injuries, but seven other were released from hospital by Monday.
Chief Lester added: “Gun violence is truly a crisis in our community and has increased not only here in Sacramento but across the nation.”
She said that investigators had “worked this nonstop since the shooting first happened” and insisted that the community was safe, despite other suspected shooters still being at large.
“But obviously, we do need to get the people that were responsible for this horrific act into custody,” she said.
Videos posted on social media showed people running for cover through the street as the sound of gunfire could be heard in the background.
President Joe Biden called for action on gun crimes in a statement Sunday.
“Today, America once again mourns for another community devastated by gun violence,” Biden said. “But we must do more than mourn; we must act.”
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg slammed the violence but urged residents to still attend events downtown, such as NBA games.
“We can never accept it as normal and we never will,” Mr Steinberg said of the shooting. “But we also have to live our lives.”
Kelsey Schar, 18, was staying on the fourth floor of Citizen Hotel when she said she heard gunshots. She walked to the window and “saw a guy running and just shooting”, Ms Schar said. She saw flashes from the gun in the dark, she added.
Madalyn Woodard, 17, who was also staying at the same hotel, said she saw a crowd of people sprinting down the street. She saw one girl who appeared to have been shot in the arm and lying on the ground. Security guards from the nightclub rushed to help her.”
The shooting was the third time in 2022 that at least six people have been killed in a mass shooting in the US, and the second mass shooting in Sacramento in the last five weeks.
Last month, a father killed his three daughters, a chaperone and himself in a church during a weekly supervised visitation. David Mora, 39, was armed with a homemade semiautomatic rifle-style weapon, though he was under a restraining order that barred him from possessing a firearm. His daughters were 13, 10 and 9 years old.
