Staff Reporter: Police in California are searching for at least one suspect in connection with a mass shooting early Sunday in downtown Sacramento that claimed six lives and left 10 other people injured.
Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester said at a news conference that police were patrolling the area at about 2 a.m. when they heard gunfire. When they arrived at the scene, they found a large crowd gathered on the street and six people dead. Another 10 either took themselves or were transported to hospitals. No information was given on their conditions.
Authorities don’t know whether one or more suspects were involved and are asking for the public’s help in identifying who is responsible. Lester did not give specifics on the type of gun used.
This is “a very complex and complicated scene,” she said. Lester issued a plea to the public, asking for witnesses or anyone with recordings of the incident to contact police.
The Sacramento Police Department said 9th Street to 13th Street is closed between L Street and J Street.
Video posted on Twitter showed people running through the street as the sound of rapid gunfire could be heard in the background. Video showed multiple ambulances had been sent to the scene.
Residents were asked to avoid the area, which is packed with restaurants and bars that leads to the Golden One Center, where the Sacramento Kings play basketball.
Berry Accius, a community activist, said he came to the scene shortly after the shooting happened.
“The first thing I saw was like victims. I saw a young girl with a whole bunch of blood in her body, a girl taking off glass from her, a young girl screaming saying, ‘They killed my sister.’ A mother running up, ‘Where’s my son, has my son been shot?’“ he said.
He told that he did not believe video of a fight seen on social media was the spark for the shooting. Instead, he believed that “this was something separate” and that gun violence has become “a citywide issue”
Kay Harris, 32, said she was asleep when one of her family members called to say they thought her brother had been killed. She said she thought he was at London, a nightclub at 1009 10th Street.
Harris said she has been to the club a few times and described it as a place for “the younger crowd.”
Police have the streets around the club closed, with yellow police tape fluttering in the early morning breeze. She has spent the morning circling the block waiting for news.
“Very much so a senseless violent act,” she said.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg tweeted that “words can’t express my shock & sadness this morning” and called gun violence “the scourge of our city, state and nation.”
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