At least two shooters opened fire in downtown Sacramento early Sunday morning as crowds emptied the area’s bars and clubs — leaving six people dead and wounding 12 others, police revealed Sunday.
The fatal victims included three men and three women who were killed, according to Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester. They have not yet been identified by authorities.
The suspects remained at large Sunday night as investigators continued trying to piece together a timeline of events leading up to the mass shooting, part of which was captured on police camera, Lester said.
A fight appeared to have spilled out from a local nightclub just before the massacre, but it’s unclear if the fracas and the shooting were related.
Investigators have discovered hundreds of pieces of evidence at the scene, including a stolen handgun. Lester described the scene as “really complex and complicated.”
“We’re asking for the public’s help in helping us to identify the suspects in this,” Lester said.
Police officers patrolling around the 1000 block of K Street in the city’s downtown — just two blocks from the state capital — heard a volley of gunshots fired around 2 a.m. and encountered a “large crowd,” Lester told reporters.
Videos shared on social media show crowds stampeding in the streets away from the rapid gunfire.
Authorities have not yet disclosed the conditions of the 12 surviving victims. Police said Sunday afternoon that the dozen hurt had “varying degrees of injuries.”
“This morning our city has a broken heart,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said. “We don’t know all the facts but we know there were mass casualties in a very short amount of time.”
Music duo Aly & AJ, who performed in the city Saturday night as part of their 35-city tour, tweeted that their tour bus had been “caught in the crossfire.”
“We sheltered in place and everyone in our touring group is ok,” the sisters wrote Sunday. “A reminder to keep your loved ones extra close today. We have to do something about gun violence in this country.”
The shooting was the capital city’s second mass shooting in just five weeks. In February, five people were killed inside The Church of Sacramento when a gunman fatally shot his three children under the age of 15 and a church elder, before turning the gun on himself.
