Sacramento sees slight drop in homicides in 2022, a year of brazen deadly shootings
In a year of gun violence that included Sacramento’s deadliest mass shooting, the homicide rate in the capital city and the surrounding region was slightly lower than the year before — but remained among the deadliest in a generation — according to records reviewed by The Sacramento Bee.
The city tallied 54 homicide deaths in 2022, including the six killed in the April 3 mass shooting in which alleged rival gang members sprayed over 100 bullets indiscriminately in the downtown intersection of 10th and K streets as people were leaving nearby nightclubs and bars. Another 12 were wounded in the shootout.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office has filed murder charges against Mtula Payton and brothers Smiley Martin and Dandrae Martin for their alleged roles in the April 3 shootout.
There were two other fatal shootings outside nightclubs and bars before the year’s end. That included a July 4 eruption of bullets outside Mix Downtown nightclub at 16th and L streets, which killed Greg Najee Grimes and wounded four other people. No arrests in the case have been made, according to police.
Another was a Sept. 25 shootout after a group of people were kicked out of BarWest, a midtown sports bar on J Street near 28th Street. Police arrested Michael Escobar on suspicion of assault with a firearm and being a felon in possession of a gun in the shooting death of Alfonso Martinez Jr., 34, of Elk Grove.
The downtown shooting and 2021’s surge in gun violence renewed a sense of urgency among city leaders, police and community groups to reduce gun violence. Still, the brazen deadly shootings continued throughout the year.
For all of 2022, Sacramento recorded four fewer homicide deaths in the city than 2021, when 58 occurred, the deadliest year since 2006.
Across Sacramento County, the number of homicide deaths also dipped slightly to 110 people in 2022 from 113 in 2021 and 123 in 2020, according to the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office saw a slight increase to 39 homicides in 2022 from 38 in 2021 and 49 in 2020.
Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper, who was sworn in last month after winning in June’s primary election, said he wants his office to work in partnership with community groups to increase resources for neglected neighborhoods in the county. Areas with little to no arts or sports programs for children, underperforming schools and a lack of jobs — Cooper says those are the root causes of crime and violence.
“We’ve done a lot of things for other areas of Sacramento,” Cooper said shortly before he was sworn at a ceremony in December. “But those impoverished areas have been that way for 30, 40, 50 years. And that’s the issue: putting those resources in those communities and giving those kids a chance.”
Rash of deadly Sacramento shootings in September
The shooting outside BarWest was the first of four shootings over three days throughout Sacramento that left five people dead. In response to the September deadly shootings, Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester said surging gun violence is a problem impacting not only Sacramento but the nation.
“But that doesn’t mean it’s right. And so if I sound frustrated and upset, I absolutely am because we shouldn’t live in these conditions and have these challenges,” she told The Sacramento Bee in late September. “And that’s why our department and our city is working so hard to try and reduce gun violence.”
In June, Lester unveiled her strategy to combat the rising trend of gun violence. It’s a plan her department had been developing since she started the job a year ago when she replaced Daniel Hahn.
Her department identified that most violent crime occurs in three geographic areas: Del Paso Heights in North Sacramento, Oak Park near the city’s core, and Meadowview and Valley-Hi to the south. That’s not to say violent crime doesn’t occur elsewhere, she said.
But Lester said she wants to focus investigative and crime prevention efforts on those neighborhoods most affected. Her crime reduction strategy involves law enforcement, social services and community efforts.
That seems to have led to some reductions in shootings and shooting victims, at least through the first 11 months of the year.
Through the month of November, 653 shootings had been reported in 2022 in Sacramento and 163 people had either been killed or wounded by gunfire, according to the Sacramento Police Department. That’s a 6.6% drop in the number of shootings reported during the same time period last year (699) and a 32.1% drop in the number of people (240) struck by gunfire.
Sacramento police seized 1,274 guns on the street through November. The department pulled about 1,600 guns off the street in 2021 and confiscated about 1,200 guns in 2020.
Disturbing and heartbreaking acts of violence
Some of the more disturbing and heartbreaking homicides in 2022 were investigated by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, which also is contracted to provide police services in Rancho Cordova, a city that recorded four homicide deaths in 2022. The suburb had three homicides in 2021 and six in 2020.
In early February, sheriff’s officials described a horrific murder scene in Rancho Cordova. They said a homeless man sexually assaulted and killed Emma Roark in late January in a campsite along the American River Parkway. The issue of homelessness became entangled with violent crime and became of a focal point of the campaigns to replace retiring Sheriff Scott Jones.
Cooper, the newly elected sheriff, said homelessness would be a top priority in his office, and he wants to push the idea of conservatorships for homeless people who are unwilling to accept help.
On Feb. 28, sheriff’s officials rushed to a church in the Arden Arcade neighborhood. There, they found a father had used an assault rifle to kill his three daughters, 9, 10 and 13-years-old, and a fellow church member during a supervised visit. He then used the weapon to take his own life.
The girls’ mother had obtained a temporary restraining order against the estranged father, which should have prevented him from having the assault rifle. The arranged family visit at the church was monitored to prevent violence.
Homicides in Elk Grove, Citrus Heights and Placer County
Other police agencies in Sacramento County also saw a slight decrease in homicide deaths, such as the Elk Grove Police Department with two in 2022, down from four in 2021. One of them was a February stabbing that killed Eric Allen Roberts, 40, near a bus stop on Sheldon Road. The other homicide was a shooting that killed Jaylen Iverson Tolbert, 18, during a party in April at an Airbnb rental home.
The Citrus Heights Police Department has had a slight increase each of the past three years; two homicides in 2020, three in 2021 and four in 2022. One of the deadly confrontations occurred in April, when Jose Maldonado reportedly shot Jerzain Trenado Orozco. Police said Maldonado chased Orozco into Citrus Heights from a nearby Fair Oaks park, where Orozco reportedly shot to death Felix Maldonado Garcia. The shooting at the park was in the Sheriff’s Office’s jurisdiction.
The Placer County Sheriff’s Office jumped from one homicide in 2021 to seven in 2022, including the deaths of Kathy Lynch, a California lobbyist, and her boyfriend, Gerald Upholt. They were found dead in March at their Loomis home. Their 19-year-old adopted son, Dennis Lynch, was arrested on suspicion of homicide. Deputies shot the son after they found him still armed with a gun, sheriff’s officials said. He survived and remains in custody awaiting trial.
