Six people were killed and 12 injured when multiple attackers fired among crowds as bars and nightclubs emptied for the night in the second mass shooting in five weeks in California’s capital city, a police chief said.
Three of those killed were women and three were men, Sacramento police chief Kathy Lester told reporters.
The suspects were still at large on Sunday afternoon and authorities said they had recovered at least one firearm and were reviewing video footage posted to social media that showed what appeared to be an altercation before the gunfire erupted.
The crime scene stretched across multiple city blocks, with dozens of blue and yellow evidence markers dotting the pavement. Several of those who were wounded were being treated for life-threatening gunshot injuries in hospitals.
Kelsey Schar, 18, was staying on the fourth floor of a nearby hotel when she said she heard gunshots. She walked to the window and “saw a guy running and just shooting”, she told The Associated Press.
She saw flashes from the gun in the dark.
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.
“These security guards from the nightclub I think it was where she was right by, they brought, like napkins. I could see the bloody napkins they were using,” Ms Woodard said.
A video posted on Twitter showed people running through the street amid the sounds of rapid gunfire in the city of about 525,000 located 75 miles from San Francisco.
The area where the violence occurred on the outskirts of the city’s main entertainment district is packed with restaurants and bars. Nightclubs close at 2am and it is normal for streets to be full of people at that hour.
“This morning our city has a broken heart,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said. “We don’t know all the facts but we know there were mass casualties in a very short amount of time.”
Officers were patrolling the area near the shooting site two blocks from the Capitol at about 2am when they heard gunfire and rushed to the scene, Ms Lester told reporters. They found a large crowd gathered and six people dead in the street.
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
Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement that his administration was working closely with law enforcement.
“What we do know at this point is that another mass casualty shooting has occurred, leaving families with lost loved ones, multiple individuals injured and a community in grief.
“The scourge of gun violence continues to be a crisis in our country, and we must resolve to bring an end to this carnage.”
Meanwhile, one person was killed and 11 others were injured during a shooting at an outdoor concert in Dallas, police said.
A shooting at a trail ride concert left multiple people injured and one deceased.https://t.co/qGWFPKJLEK
— Dallas Police Dept (@DallasPD) April 3, 2022
Officers were called to a field in the southeast of the city where an event was being held on Saturday evening, the force said in a statement.
Police said a preliminary investigation found that during the concert, one person fired a gun into the air, then another unknown individual fired a gun in the crowd’s direction.
Officers found 26-year-old Kealon Dejuane Gilmore lying on the ground near the concert stage with a gunshot wound to the head. He died at the scene.
Police say that 11 other individuals were shot during the concert. All the people who were hurt were taken to hospitals either by ambulance or by private vehicles.
One person was in a critical condition and the others were in a stable condition. Three of the people hurt were juveniles, police said.
No arrests had been made as police continued to investigate what prompted the shooting.
