At least six people died and ten others were injured in a shooting in Sacramento, California, police said on Sunday, but have not yet made any arrests.
According to Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester, around 2 a.m. officers in the downtown area, where many bars and restaurants are located, heard gunshots.
She described a “crowd” present at the scene before the tragedy. “We don’t know if it came from a nightclub or a party. »
“We were able to confirm that six people had been killed and that ten others had been hospitalized” following this shooting, she explained during a press conference, without giving any information on the circumstances of the tragedy.
“We ask the public to help us identify suspects and provide any information that would allow us to shed light” on this case.
Police said they have not yet made any arrests, as the area around the scene of the shooting remains at risk.
The authorities have thus urged residents to avoid the area, delimited by a cordon and where a strong police presence has been deployed.
Videos posted on social media show people running in panic as gunshots are heard.
“It was horrible,” Berry Accius, a community activist who arrived at the scene a few minutes after the shooting, told local channel KXTV.
He described “victims covered in blood, people screaming, crying, others asking where their brother was or mothers trying to identify their son”.
“It is difficult to conceive the number of dead and injured,” commented the mayor of the city, Darrell Steinberg.
Shootings in public places are common in the United States, from schools to supermarkets.
According to the Small Arms Survey program, in 2017 there were about 393 million guns in the United States, more than people.
The right to possess arms is guaranteed by the Constitution.
Several initiatives by elected officials to strengthen gun laws have failed in Congress, where the powerful NRA gun lobby wields strong influence.
“Rising gun violence is the blight of our city, state and nation, and I support all measures to reduce it,” said Darrell Steinberg.
Since the start of 2022, the Gun Violence Archive has recorded more than 10,700 gun deaths in the United States, including suicides. Over the whole of 2021, the number is 45,000 dead, according to the same site.