Sacramento shooting: At least six dead and 12 injured

Six people were killed and 12 others injured, some critically, in a shooting early Sunday morning in California’s state capital of Sacramento.

The city’s police chief, Kathy Lester, told reporters that around 2am, officers on patrol heard gunshots in the downtown area.

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Sacramento shooting

Victims hospitalised

“We had a large crowd in the area. We don’t know if it was part of a club or an event,” she said.

In a press release, the Sacramento Police Department said that despite measures by responding officers, “six victims were pronounced deceased at the scene.”

“Twelve victims are being treated at area hospitals,” the department said in a tweet.

At a press conference Sunday morning, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg described some of the hospitalised as “seriously and critically injured.”

He also called on anyone with information to contact authorities or submit evidence via a scannable QR code.

Unverified footage

A video posted online Sunday appeared to show people scuffling in the street, then starting to run as gunfire can be heard.

AFP could not verify the footage, and it was not known if there was a direct relation, but local police said they were aware of the video.

“It was just horrific,” said community activist Berry Accius, who arrived minutes after the shooting.

“Just as soon as I walked up you saw a chaotic scene, police all over the place, victims with blood all over their bodies, folks screaming, folks crying, people going, ‘Where is my brother?’ Mothers crying and trying to identify who their child was,” he told local broadcaster KXTV.

The shooting happened in the downtown area, blocks from the state capitol and close to the venue where the NBA’s Sacramento Kings play.

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California shooting eyewitness accounts

The Sacramento Bee newspaper reported broken glass and police investigation markers were strewn over two blocks.

The San Francisco Chronicle quoted a woman at the scene as saying she had been told that her husband of 12 years was among the dead.

The woman, whom the paper did not name, said a stranger had answered her husband’s telephone when their daughter called, but that she had been unable to find out what had happened, despite being on police lines for several hours.

“It sounds like a lot of innocent people lost their lives tonight,” the Chronicle quoted the woman saying.

“We haven’t gotten an answer.”

‘Difficult to comprehend’

Mayor Steinberg said it was difficult to find the right words to describe the tragedy.

“The numbers of dead and wounded are difficult to comprehend,” he said, adding that he was waiting for more information about the incident.

“Rising gun violence is the scourge of our city, state and nation, and I support all actions to reduce it,” he said.

The mass casualty shooting is the latest in the United States, where firearms are involved in approximately 40,000 deaths a year, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

Gun violence ‘the new normal’

In a post on Twitter, California Governor Gavin Newsom said, “We cannot continue to let gun violence be the new normal”, and described gun violence as a “crisis” for the United States.

Yet another mass casualty shooting – leaving families with lost loved ones, people injured, and a community in grief.

We are working closely with law enforcement to monitor the situation.

We cannot continue to let gun violence be the new normal. https://t.co/W2GIPnQJwM

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) April 3, 2022

Lax gun laws and a constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms in California have repeatedly stymied attempts to clamp down on the number of weapons in circulation, despite greater controls being favoured by the majority of Americans.

Three-quarters of all homicides in the US are committed with guns, and the number of pistols, revolvers and other firearms sold continues to rise.

More than 23 million guns were sold in 2020 (a record) on top of 20 million in 2021, according to data compiled by the website Small Arms Analytics.

That number does not include “ghost” guns, which are sold disassembled, lack serial numbers, and are highly prized in criminal circles.

According to a Pew survey, in June 2021, 30% of American adults said they owned at least one gun.

© Agence France-Presse