The energy that downtown Sacramento lost during two years of pandemic restrictions had just started returning when six people were killed and at least 12 were wounded early Sunday in Sacramento’s second mass shooting in five weeks.
The victims of this massacre were mostly young people who were out socializing in an active K Street mall. Now they will never go home to their families. Sacramento is again making national headlines for all the wrong reasons.
California has the strongest gun laws in the nation, yet steps away from the Capitol were city blocks that resembled a war zone. The casualties were ordinary people whose desire to go out on a Saturday night put them in harm’s way.
“This morning our city has a broken heart,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said at an emotional news conference Sunday morning. “This is a senseless and unacceptable tragedy.”
Video footage circulating on social media captured the horrifying moments when gunfire erupted after 2 a.m. on 10th and K streets. It’s difficult to watch knowing that six families will never be the same, their loved ones killed in the chaos. Countless others will be forever traumatized.