At least six people were shot dead and ten others injured in a mass shooting in downtown Sacramento on Sunday, according to local police.
The Sacramento Police Department announced about 8 a.m. in a tweet that officers at the scene “located at least 15 shooting victims, including 6 who are deceased,” in the early morning incident.
Police officers patrolling the area heard an unknown number of gun shots fired about 2 a.m. Sunday and encountered a “large crowd,” Police Chief Kathy Lester told reporters.
“This is a really tragic situation,” she said, adding that ten people were either rushed or took themselves to local hospitals.
The conditions of the ten who were wounded by gunfire was not immediately disclosed. It’s unclear how many shooters fired off bullets.
No arrests have been made.
“We are asking for the public’s help in helping us to identify the suspects in this,” Lester said.
People ran through the street as the sound of gunfire could be heard, video posted on Twitter shows. The footage showed multiple ambulances were sent to the scene.
Earlier, in a tweet posted just before 7 a.m., the Sacramento police department announced that 9th St to 13th St was closed between L St & J St so officers can investigate the shooting and that a “large police presence will remain and the scene remains active” there.
“ADVISORY: 9th St to 13th St is closed between L St & J St as officers investigate a shooting with multiple victims. Conditions unknown at this time,” the department wrote. “Please avoid the area as a large police presence will remain and the scene remains active.”
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg expressed “shock and sadness” after the mass shooting. “Words can’t express my shock & sadness this morning. The numbers of dead and wounded are difficult to comprehend,” he said about 9:30 a.m. Sunday in a tweet. “We await more information about exactly what transpired in this tragic incident.”
“Rising gun violence is the scourge of our city, state and nation, and I support all actions to reduce it,” Steinberg tweeted. “Our new Police Chief, Kathy Lester, has made it a top priority, and I stand firmly behind her.”
Berry Accius, a community activist, recalled the grisly scene shortly after the shooting.
“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. “You know, commotion, trauma. It’s just a lot of things that, you know, you don’t want to see.”
Kay Harris 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, characterizing it as a spot for “the younger crowd.” Police closed the streets around the club with yellow police tape.
Harris, 32, has spent the morning circling the block waiting for updates on her brother.
“Very much so, a senseless violent act,” she said.
The shooting came a month after five people were shot dead when a man killed his children inside a California church before killing himself. The gunman fatally shot the group, including three children under the age of 15, inside The Church of Sacramento in late February, according to law enforcement officials.
The man who was killed when a distraught gunman opened fire on his three daughters inside the church was a “generous and selfless” church elder who allowed the shooter to live on church property, The Post subsequently reported.
Reporting by The New York Post.
