Police arrest 22 for looting, 3 for failure to disperse from downtown, midtown Sacramento
The Sacramento Police Department arrested a total of 25 people Sunday, a day that started with a peaceful protest in the downtown area and near the state Capitol but eventually saw bands of looters smash windows and steal merchandise from numerous midtown businesses.
City police arrested 22 people in connection with “looting” and three others for failure to disperse after assemblies in the streets were declared unlawful, department spokesman Officer Karl Chan said Monday morning.
That’s in addition to 22 who were arrested Saturday — four by the California Highway Patrol, who were cited and released; and 18 by city police, who were booked into jail. Of the Police Department arrests, seven were for burglary and 11 were for unlawful assembly, Chan said Sunday.
Chan said demonstrators threw frozen water bottles and other projectiles for a second straight day, causing minor injuries such as bruising to more officers, but no serious injuries to Sacramento Police officers have been documented as of Monday morning.
Sacramento Bee reporters at the scene observed city police firing tear gas canisters and rubber bullets into crowds of protesters in the area of 10th and L streets, the northwest corner of the Capitol grounds, starting after 9 p.m. Bee journalists estimated that a crowd of about 200 broke off from the main group of protesters about an hour earlier, some of whom began looting and vandalizing businesses along J and K streets.
The Police Department reported on Twitter that the majority of the crowd was “dispersed” as of about 12:30 a.m. Monday, but that “pockets of looting and vandalism” were still happening downtown as of that time.
Bee reporters on Sunday night witnessed windows being shattered at an optometrist’s office; a fire erupting at the Rite Aid store at 9th and K; and looting at the 7-Eleven at 8th and J and the BevMo store on J street, both of which had also been hit one night earlier.
The CVS store at 17th and K was also badly damaged, and windows were smashed at Mikuni’s and PF Chang’s near 16th and J street before police established a heavy presence near the intersection.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg and the city council on Sunday afternoon briefly considered instituting a curfew, but one was ultimately not put into place that night.
Cleanup efforts were underway Monday morning after the weekend’s chaos.
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 7:59 AM.
