Call for safety upgrades, community funding in wake of Sacramento double shooting
In the wake of the killing of an 7-year-old girl and 42-year-old man on Seavey Circle, a Sacramento councilwoman wants the city to invest millions of dollars on safety upgrades for the aging public housing complex.
Flanked by more than a dozen Black community leaders Wednesday, Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela also urged her fellow leaders on the city and county level to allocate more funding toward community groups that work to prevent gun violence.
“No city is a great city if it doesn’t take care of its children,” said Chet P. Hewitt, president and CEO of the Sierra Health Foundation, who spoke at Wednesday’s news conference at City Hall. “It takes one council member to show up to say something is wrong in this city. We’re demanding city leadership act immediately.”
Berry Accius, founder of Voice of the Youth, criticized the council for allowing the police department budget to hit an all-time high of $165.8 million for the fiscal year that started in July.
“In 2019 we had a press conference just like this and we said ‘a storm is coming,’” Accius said. “We asked for funding. What they did was slap us in the face as they continued to fund law enforcement.”
Valenzuela, who has pushed for the police budget to be cut, said she does not care where in the city budget the new funding would come from.
“We have highest police funding ever and also we have had some of highest crime ever,” Valenzuela said.
With increased funding, Accius said that the Voice of the Youth would be able to hire more employees to expand services such as crisis intervention, job readiness, tutoring and summer employment.
For the Roberts Family Development Center, based in North Sacramento, more funding would mean increased mentoring, mental health services and intervention, said Derrell Roberts, its co-founder and CEO.
“It would stop this cycle,” Roberts said. “The entire council should support a dedicated youth fund. East Sacramento and Land Park should not be the only safe neighborhoods in the city.”
Mayor Darrell Steinberg issued a social-media statement Thursday morning in support of that idea: “There has never been a more important time for the city to create a new dedicated source of annual funding for youth. 2022 is the year. Let’s make this happen together. Our youth deserve nothing less.”
Second juvenile homicide of 2021
Alder Grove and Marina Vista, home to nearly 2,000 residents, are just blocks from midtown, but feel isolated, Valenzuela said.
“This is about a community, and so many communities in Sacramento, who are so close to the central city but may as well be miles and miles away,” Valenzuela said.
In 2019, there were 34 homicides in the city and no juveniles were the victim of a homicide. In 2020, the number of homicides jumped to 41, and there were four juvenile victims, including a 9-year-old girl killed in a Del Paso Heights park. Tuesday’s shooting marked the second juvenile death this year after a 17-year-old was slain in August.
Several hours after the news conference downtown, the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office identified the victims of Tuesday’s shooting as 7-year-old Isabel Agnes Delgadillo Martin, less than a week shy of her 8th birthday, and Clifford Hall, 42.
Police late in the day also announced the arrest of the girl’s uncle, Tyrice Martin, 22. Court records show Martin had been released from custody in October amid two pending gun violence charges — he had several other felony cases in three years including a 2018 conviction for carrying a loaded firearm
“We’ve come off a season where at one point we had zero youth homicides,” said Pastor Les Simmons. “Let’s get back to that place.”
Valenzuela wants the city to spend millions on safety upgrades for the public housing complex, similar to funding that was set aside for Old Sacramento following two high-profile shootings this summer. The city allocated $5 million for downtown and Old Sacramento, including installing 19 security cameras at key locations in Old Sacramento, along with lighting improvements to existing streetlights and buildings.
“We put millions into that plan and this community deserves no less,” Valenzuela said.
In a proposal led by Steinberg, the council earlier this year allocated $2.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan funding toward afterschool and youth enrichment programs, including youth pop-up activity nights, the #SacYouthWorks program and youth mental health services. It also allocated about $1.5 million to enhance gang prevention and intervention efforts by partnering with local organizations.
Valenzuela said she wants to see additional funding that’s ongoing for the organizations.
A neighborhood in mourning
On Wednesday afternoon, before her work shift, it was the usual time that Kami Tidwell sat on the porch with her friend, Cliff, talking about life.
Instead, Tidwell, 47, stood smoking a cigarette looking down at a memorial set up for Hall in the parking lot, where candles and a Bible were set up in a circle. Across the street was a matching memorial where Delgadillo Martin was struck that included candles, flowers and a pink teddy bear
“We used to sit in those two chairs and talk about everything — sports, family,” Tidwell said. “He was a good guy.”
Hall had a 10-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son, Tidwell said.
If the city put more money toward youth programs, Tidwell said, it would give the youth something productive to do. Also, if the city put money toward lighting and cameras, it could make the area safer. When she heads off to work at night, it’s pitch black, she said.
The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, which operates the public housing complexes, did not immediately return an email seeking comment about the incident or the complex’s security.
Mary Ann Olivas, who lives nearby with her four children, said there have been multiple homicides in Upper Land Park in the last several years. Just feet from the memorials sits a tree with spray paint — the location where another homicide occurred. A few feet in the other direction, a school bus dropped children off.
“I should be able to let my kids play outside, but I don’t,” Olivas, 37, said.
This story was originally published November 18, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
