Sacramento weekend roundup: White House dinner shooting, shelter shakeup and more
Sacramento saw major stories break over the weekend, from a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, leadership upheaval at the Front Street Animal Shelter, a Lodi man’s death in Africa and a city effort to honor a demolished landmark tied to civil rights history.
Here’s what you may have missed:
- White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting: A shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night led to the evacuation of President Donald Trump and the first lady from the event. The investigation into the shooting is ongoing, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Todd Blanche, who said charges are expected to be filed soon. Political leaders in California expressed relief that no one was hurt at the dinner as the gunman fired shots while trying to enter the ballroom. Here’s what The Sacramento Bee reported on the armed gunman accused of trying to breach a security perimeter near the event.
- Shelter shakeup: Sacramento’s Front Street Animal Shelter Operations Manager Staycee Dains has been removed from her role after a year of scrutiny. Before her Sacramento hire, Dains was accused of racial discrimination and workplace bullying in Los Angeles, where a third-party investigation corroborated many of the complaints. During a March town hall, Sacramento City Manager Maraskeshia Smith said, “I’m a little bit disappointed that I had to walk into almost 15 pages of emails and complaints from the community.” Because I believe those are things we should address immediately.”
- Hunter killed in Africa: Lodi resident Ernie Dosio, 75, owner of Pacific AgriLands Inc., was crushed to death by elephants while hunting for a yellow-backed duiker, a type of antelope, in Gabon’s Lopé-Okanda rainforest April 17. The five female elephants and a juvenile reportedly appeared “as if from nowhere.”
- Historic hotel honored: Sacramento’s preservation commission voted to support nominating Hackett House — a Black-owned hotel demolished in the 1960s to build I-5 — for the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program. In the 1850s, an enslaved man named Archy Lee was brought to California and fled to the hotel, where he was arrested. Later, he had his freedom affirmed in court.