Six people were killed and 12 others suffered “varying degrees of injuries” in a mass shooting in an area of downtown Sacramento, California bustling with nightlife, police said.
Investigators believe multiple shooters opened fire just steps from the Capitol, in the wake of a large fight, after last call early Sunday.
“We know that a large fight took place just prior to the shootings, and we have confirmed that there are multiple shooters,” Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester said at an afternoon press conference.
The dead include three men and three women, Lester said.
One of the deceased was identified by his family to NBC News as Sergio Harris. He was 38, according to The Associated Press.
President Joe Biden called on Congress for further action to address gun violence in the wake of the incident.
“Today, America once again mourns for another community devastated by gun violence,” he said in a statement Sunday. “But we must do more than mourn; we must act.”
Mayor Darrell Steinberg called the shooting “a senseless and unacceptable tragedy.”
“Can we not have a sane debate where, on one side of the line, you say that people who want to use firearms for sport or for hunting or, you know, with reasonable self-defense on one side of the line, and on the other side of the line we say there is absolutely no place for rapid-fire assault weapons anywhere, anyhow?” Steinberg asked. “I mean, can we have that? Can we make that distinction?”
City Council member Katie Valenzuela, through tears, said she was “heartbroken” and “outraged.”
His sister, Kay Harris, 32, told the news agency that she had been asleep when a family member called her to say they feared her brother had been killed.
Lester said gunfire had been heard by officers near the scene at around 2 a.m. The officers rushed to the scene, administered CPR and secured the scene, the chief said.
At least one city security video camera captured some of the violence, the chief said, and investigators noted that some area buildings were struck by gunfire.
“The scale of violence that just happened in our city is unprecedented in my 27 years at the Sacramento Police Department,” Lester said.
The injured were being treated at area hospitals. Lester said her detectives would get to the bottom of the attack and hold those who opened fire accountable.
