‘The violence in this city has to stop.’ Four dead in wave of Sacramento shootings
A well-manicured apartment complex in South Natomas. A narrow side street in Oak Park. A row of aging apartment buildings that back up to a levee in North Sacramento.
Three more crime scenes and four more dead in a year of violence in Sacramento.
Sacramento police are investigating three deadly shootings that broke out between 11 p.m. Monday and 9 a.m. Tuesday, a remarkable wave of gun violence that followed yet another shooting outside a central city night spot over the weekend. The death toll brings the city’s homicide total to 45 this year, on pace to surpass last year’s 57 homicides that were the most since 2006.
“We should all be concerned about what we’re seeing. It is absolutely unacceptable,” said Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester. “We have had homicides in our city and really what that translates to is we have people that have lost loved ones from their family, and these repercussions throughout our community, our city and our neighborhoods are just irreversible.”
Lester said there have been 120 shootings in the city this year, a decrease over last year’s 170 by late September.
“But 120 is still too many people, and that just shouldn’t happen in our community,” Lester said. “I think that Sacramento is better than that.”
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg tried to assuage concerns about the recent rash of shootings, calling them “random acts of violence” while noting they weren’t believed to be linked.
“Is the community safe? I believe the community is still safe,” Steinberg said. “I don’t think that there’s a pattern here in terms of these several incidents, but it is troubling, obviously.”
“I’m under no illusion about the way that people feel, not just in the city but throughout society,” the mayor added. “They’re living in a very fragile state, and public safety is real, and we’re doing everything (we can).”
The COVID-19 pandemic and George Floyd’s murder by police deepened long-festering wounds, none of which will be fixed overnight, said Sacramento City Councilman Jay Schenirer, whose district includes Oak Park. While the city tries to increase its youth partnerships and programs, generations of injustice combined with feelings of isolation may have pushed some people toward violence, Schenirer said.
Tuesday morning’s shooting was far from the first issue in the rapidly-changing Oak Park neighborhood this year. Two people were injured in a shooting last month, and a 19-year-old man was arrested in May after bringing a handgun to his high school, though he said he hadn’t planned to use it.
“I think there’s an overall unease that we have in our neighborhood, clearly,” Schenirer said. “We’ve had a lot of incidents. I don’t know if you can ascribe some of that to Covid and … what’s happened with a lot of the racial injustice that we’ve had. I think there’s a lot of pieces to that puzzle, and there’s no silver bullets to that.”
In Central Oak Park on Tuesday, police vehicles and investigators flooded quiet Sixth Avenue at mid-day, shutting down the narrow street between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 37th Street. Neighbors gathered at the end of the block, some approaching the yellow crime scene tape after shopping at nearby Boss’ Market.
Hours earlier, a man was shot on the street and had taken himself to the nearby UC Davis Medical Center. He died while in surgery, Sacramento police Sgt. Zach Eaton said.
L.C. Curtis, 69, walked his 10-speed bicycle to the crime scene to take a look. He’s lived in the neighborhood since 1977 and said he is well aware of the dangers that lurk for everyone, especially those who get involved or try talking to police.
“But it’s like that, you know, some people can’t walk the street out there,” Curtis said. “I don’t even walk with my family no more out here.”
He said some in the neighborhood might see him talking to reporters and think he’s trying to cooperate with law enforcement. He says his sons warn him to watch out for himself.
“They tell me ‘Dad, be careful,’” Curtis said. “I think the Lord has protected me this far.”
Two shootings minutes apart
The night before, three men were killed in separate shootings that took place just a few minutes apart.
Neighbors heard several gunshots around 11 p.m. near the Woodbridge Apartments, a sprawling complex at the corner of San Juan Road and Azevedo Drive in the city’s South Natomas neighborhood. A man and a 17-year-old boy were found shot inside a vehicle; one of the victims was dead when police officers arrived.
There were a few reminders of the shooting by noon Tuesday. A small group of mourners had gathered outside the apartment complex, but declined a request to speak about the incident.
About 4 miles away, in the Strawberry Manor neighborhood of North Sacramento, police were called to the area of Eleanor Avenue and Arcade Boulevard, a row of small apartment buildings wedged between Johnston Park and Steelhead Creek.
Two men were struck by gunfire in the area before trying to drive themselves to a hospital, Eaton said. The men made two stops, including one in Sacramento County where authorities found them. One of the men was pronounced dead at that scene, while the other was being treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
No arrests have been reported in any of the shootings, which do not appear to be linked, Eaton said. “Obviously, that can change as we learn more in the investigation,” he said.
Over the weekend, Elk Grove resident Alfonso Martinez Jr., 34, was killed Sunday morning near the intersection of 28th and J streets in midtown after an altercation outside the BarWest sports bar, according to police and the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office. A SWAT team arrested Michael Escobar, 23, in connection with the shooting on Monday in West Sacramento.
He appeared in court Tuesday afternoon, though it was only to face one charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.
Court records showed an original charge of assault with a semiautomatic firearm was dropped. Officials at the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the pending case.
“The violence in this city has to stop,” Eaton said. “This violence is ridiculous. People are losing their lives and these tragedies are horrible.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2022 at 3:37 PM.
