To find shooting suspects, new Sacramento police chief seeks a distrustful public’s help

In the waning moments of 2021, Kathy Lester officially took over as Sacramento’s police chief during a small ceremony inside the council chambers at City Hall. The historic moment, which made Lester the first woman to lead the 172-year-old department, was dampened by the omicron variant’s winter rampage until a swearing-in ceremony at Golden 1 Center last month offered a bit more fanfare.

Barely three weeks later, Lester faced a historic moment no one — least of all a new police chief — would want as her investigators combed through the aftermath of Sacramento’s deadliest mass shooting. Lester and the city’s beleaguered department are in the crucible, tasked with finding several suspected shooters who fired at least 100 rounds on the crowded K Street mall after 2 a.m. Sunday, killing six people and injuring 12 others.

As a nation plagued by gun violence mourned the victims of Sacramento’s second mass shooting in five weeks, Lester shared preliminary details Sunday morning that were as sparse as they were tragic. The new chief was in a precarious position, forced to ask a community scarred by the department’s deadly use of force in recent years to come forward and help them find the gunmen.

“If anyone saw anything, has video or can provide any information to the Police Department, we are asking for their assistance,” Lester said. By Tuesday, police had arrested two brothers, Smiley and Dandrae Martin, along with a third man on assault and gun charges, though no one had yet been charged with the killings.

It’s not unusual for law enforcement to seek the public’s help with a case — it happens regularly in cities nationwide. But Lester and the department are looking for answers in Black and Latino communities where residents think twice about police cooperation, if they do at all.

In the wake of fatal police encounters with Stephon Clark, Darell Richards and others, a 2019 survey detailed deep distrust of police across Sacramento. Almost one-third of residents said they were less likely to provide information after those incidents, and nearly half of Black residents said they were unlikely to come forward. In neighborhoods such as Del Paso Heights, Valley Hi, Oak Park and Meadowview, the vast majority of people surveyed said they avoid calling police because they’re afraid of being harmed.

This was the complicated legacy that Sacramento’s previous history-making police chief, Daniel Hahn, left behind. As the city’s first Black police chief and an Oak Park native, he was unable to bring the community together as some had hoped. When Hahn retired last year, he was credited more for steering the department through turmoil, protests and intense scrutiny.

Relations between the community and police are so lousy, in fact, that the City Council is spending $600,000 to hire a Mississippi-based company for “truth, reform and reconciliation.”

None of this should preclude cooperation or excuse the public from helping — and so far it has. Police have gathered hundreds of smartphone videos, social media posts and eyewitness statements to help piece this case together.

The aftermath of this shooting could be a meaningful opportunity for Sacramento police to demonstrate empathy and humanity in communities scarred by despair and injustice. Doing so won’t cost the city $600,000.

On Sunday, Lester said Sacramento police were “resolved as an agency to find justice for the victims and their families.” This horrific tragedy could also be a chance for an unpopular department to start rebuilding trust in communities that lost faith in the police’s promise to “protect and serve.”