2 injured in Citrus Heights shooting in same area where 4 were hit by gunfire this month
Two people were struck by gunfire early Sunday during a fight in a Citrus Heights parking lot in the same area where four people were injured in a late night shooting a little more than week earlier.
Sunday’s shooting was reported shortly after 2 a.m., when police officers were called to the parking lot in the 7400 block of Auburn Boulevard. This was the same block where officers found several fights in and around the parking lot and four people suffering from gunshot wounds outside a Citrus Heights nightclub on May 8.
Officers arrived in the area again Sunday and discovered a large fight had just ended “in the parking lot of an adjacent business,” the Citrus Heights Police Department announced in a news release.
After the officers gained control of the scene, they confirmed two people had been struck by gunfire. Police said bullets also hit three parked vehicles.
The injured victims received medical treatment and were expected to survive, according to police. Detectives were called to the scene and are investigating this shooting. Authorities closed southbound Auburn Boulevard between Kanai and Pratt avenues while investigators worked at the scene.
Police did not release any further details about the shooting.
The police investigation into the May 8 shooting has resulted in one arrest. That shooting was reported about 1:25 a.m., when officers were called to the nightclub, also in the 7400 block of Auburn Boulevard.
Investigators later determined there were two separate shootings that occurred that night; the first occurred about 1:25 a.m. and the second moments later likely in retaliation, according to a Police Department news release issued Wednesday.
Police said both shootings were gang-related and stemmed from an incident that occurred earlier in the evening.
Detectives identified Camilo Saenz, 39, as a suspect in the May 8 incident and the department’s SWAT team took him into custody while serving a search warrant about 7 p.m. May 11.
On Monday, Saenz remained in custody at Sacramento County Main Jail. He was being held without bail. Saenz faces felony charges of firing a gun from a vehicle and being a felon in possession of a gun, according to jail records.
The detectives continue to “pursue all leads” in this investigation as they search for the other shooting suspect and other people involved, police officials said.
Investigators asked anyone with information about these shootings to call the Citrus Heights Police Department’s crime tip line at 916‐727‐5524.
