Shooting at Grant High football game kills 1, is Sacramento’s 50th homicide of the year
An exciting football game at Grant Union High School was marred by a fatal shooting in a school parking lot late Friday night.
According to the Sacramento Police Department, an unidentified male in his mid-20s died at a nearby hospital after a disturbance involving about 20 people broke out. The disturbance came near the end of the game between Monterey Trail and Grant in a parking lot on the north side of Grant’s campus on the 1400 block of Grand Avenue in Del Paso Heights.
At some point during that disturbance, the man was shot and wounded. He was transported by private vehicle to a hospital where he died, Sacramento Police Sgt. Zach Eaton said.
“This marks the 50th homicide in our city,” Eaton said. “This violence is unacceptable.”
The shooter was still at large Saturday morning, Eaton said, and police were unaware of any additional victims. A firearm was recovered at the scene. Bullet casings and a baseball hat were marked as evidence by investigators. A gold Toyota Camry was hit with at least one bullet and there was broken glass still on the surface of the parking lot as police worked the scene.
The police said the incident was being investigated as a homicide. The Crime Scene Investigation unit arrived to the scene just after midnight. Sacramento Police took the lead on the case at the request of Twin Rivers Unified School District, which had 11 of its police department’s officers at the high school.
Authorities believe none of those involved in the disturbance were high school students, though Eaton said it’s early in the investigation and more information could come to light.
“If anybody has any information that may have seen something or knows something they have heard through the neighborhood, we strongly encourage them to contact our police department and our investigators to provide that information to them,” Eaton said.
There were roughly 2,000 attendees at the game who watched Monterey Trail win the game on a touchdown coming with 13 seconds remaining, 49-42. The victory gave Monterey Trail the regular season title for the Metropolitan League.
It’s not the first time gun violence has rocked the Grant community, which has been a football stalwart for decades. In 2015, J.J. Clavo, a starting cornerback, was killed and fullback Malik Johnson was wounded the afternoon before a game at a restaurant about a mile from campus.
The shooting came a little more than 24 hours after Sacramento’s 49th homicide death. That shooting involved a daylight robbery outside the Sutter Lawn Tennis Club in East Sacramento.
This story was originally published October 22, 2022 at 2:17 AM.
