SACRAMENTO, Calif (AP) \u2014 Six people were killed and 12 injured before dawn Sunday in Sacramento when shots were fired into crowds as bars and nightclubs emptied for the night in\u00a0the second mass shooting in five weeks\u00a0in California\u2019s capital city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The suspect \u2014 or possibly suspects \u2014 were still at large 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. Police in a statement said it\u2019s not yet clear if the fight was related to the shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 battled life-threatening gunshot injuries in hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kelsey Schar was staying on the fourth floor of Citizen Hotel when she said she heard gunshots and saw flashes in the dark. She walked to the window and \u201csaw a guy running and just shooting,\u201d Schar told The Associated Press in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her friend, Madalyn Woodard, said she saw a crowd in the street scatter amid the gunfire and a girl who appeared to have been shot in the arm laying on the ground. Security guards from a nearby nightclub rushed to help the girl with what looked like napkins to try to stanch the bleeding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 (120 kilometers) from San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The area where the violence occurred on the outskirts of the city\u2019s main entertainment district is packed with restaurants and bars. Nightclubs close at 2 a.m. and it\u2019s normal for streets to be full of people at that hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The district is anchored by the Golden One Center that attracts big-name concerts and is home to the NBA\u2019s Sacramento Kings. City officials have invested heavily in the area to promote development in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis morning our city has a broken heart,\u201d Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know all the facts but we know there were mass casualties in a very short amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officers were patrolling the area near the shooting site two blocks from the Capitol at about 2 a.m. when they heard gunfire and rushed to the scene, Police Chief Kathy Lester told reporters. They found a large crowd gathered and six people dead in the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Twelve other people were also shot and wounded in the melee and at least four of them suffered critical injuries, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authorities recovered \u201cat least one firearm\u201d from the scene, a police statement said, and officials urged witnesses or anyone with recordings of the shooting to contact police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re asking for the public\u2019s help in helping us to identify the suspects in this,\u201d Lester said. Asked if authorities were searching for one or more than one suspects, Lester told reporters that she did not know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pop duo Aly & AJ performed Saturday at Sacramento\u2019s Crest Theatre and their tour bus was caught in the gunfire,\u00a0the musicians said on Twitter.\u00a0No one in their touring group was hurt, the tweet said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunday\u2019s violence was the third time in the U.S. this year that at least six people have been killed in a mass shooting, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University. And it was the second mass shooting in Sacramento in the last five weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Feb. 28, a father killed\u00a0his 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, even though he was under a restraining order that prohibited him from possessing a firearm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Councilmember Katie Valenzuela, who represents the area where the shooting happened, said she\u2019s fielded phone calls reporting many violent incidents in her district during her 15 months in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valenzuela cried at a news conference as she told reporters that the latest phone call woke her up at 2:30 a.m. Sunday with details about the latest tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m heartbroken and I\u2019m outraged,\u201d she said. \u201cOur community deserves better than this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The city\u2019s downtown development effort was working until the pandemic hit and forced many businesses to close, according to Grant Gorman, a bartender who lives near the place the shooting happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJust when we were reaching some semblance of it being a bustling downtown area that was safe and we had a bunch of open businesses to go to, the pandemic hit it and just crushed it,\u201d Gorman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Steinberg, the mayor, said in recent years it \u201chas been a very difficult time in downtown Sacramento and Sacramento as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that the shooting \u201cgives pause to our entire community\u201d but urged people to continue visiting the area despite the recent violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that his administration was working closely with law enforcement officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kay Harris, 32, told AP she was asleep when one of her family members called to say they thought her brother Sergio Harris had been killed. She said she thought he had been at the London nightclub, which is near the shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harris said she has been to the club a few times and described it as a place for \u201cthe younger crowd.\u201d She spent the morning circling the block waiting for news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVery much so a senseless, violent act,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pamela Harris, Sergio Harris\u2019 mother, told\u00a0The Sacramento Bee\u00a0the family has not heard from him yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe just want to know what happened to him,\u201d Pamela Harris told the newspaper. \u201cNot knowing anything is just hard to face.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Berry Accius, a community activist, said he came to the scene shortly after the shooting happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe 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, \u2018They killed my sister.\u2019 A mother running up, \u2018Where\u2019s my son, has my son been shot?\u2019\u201c he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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