At least six dead in a shooting in Sacramento, the capital of California | International

At least six people have died and ten have been injured in a shooting that occurred this morning in downtown Sacramento, the capital of California, according to the police. “Agents have located multiple victims. It is a very tragic situation,” Police Chief Katherine Lester said this Sunday about the incident recorded around two in the morning. It is the latest mass shooting in the United States, where firearms cause an estimated 40,000 deaths a year, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive website. Armed violence hits the most populous state in the United States again despite being the entity with the strictest laws for the possession of weapons.

Witnesses to the incident have pointed to The San Francisco Chronicle that the shooting followed a fight that originated after the closing of the bars in one of the busiest areas of Sacramento and only a few blocks from the Capitol, the seat of the local Executive. Through Twitter, the police asked residents not to approach the place and have also given an update with the number of dead and injured. Law enforcement is searching for the shooter, who has not been identified and is on the run. A weapon has been recovered at the scene, although its caliber has not been specified.

“We need help from the people. If anyone saw anything, has any video, or can provide information to the police department, we need your help,” Lester said Sunday morning. The police chief has indicated that at the moment it is unknown whether the victims were attacked directly or randomly and that investigators are studying the available videos, mainly from social networks, to determine how many shooters were involved.

Those who frequented the popular nightlife site, very close to the Golden 1 pavilion, home of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, recorded videos in which people are seen running for cover while the sound of gunshots is heard. “It seems that many innocent people lost their lives tonight,” a woman who was waiting next to the police cordon for the identification of the deceased told the local press. She feared that her husband was among the victims.

“Sadly, we mourn again the lives lost and the injured of another horrendous act… The scourge of beloved violence is a crisis of our country and we must put an end to this carnage”, said Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, through a statement. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said he was waiting for more details about the incident. This has become the worst mass shooting in the region since the one that occurred last May, when a former employee of the train service killed nine colleagues and then committed suicide in the city of San José, 190 kilometers from Sacramento. At the end of February, a man killed three of his children and a fourth person inside a church in the state capital.

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Newsom, a Democratic politician, has embarked on a crusade against gun violence. He has done so by copying the ways Republicans have cracked down on abortion. The local government drafted a law that mimics the legislation of the Texas conservatives that allows any citizen to sue anyone who helps a woman to have an abortion through civil channels. The California law, which is expected to be approved by the local Congress this year, will allow gun manufacturers and their sellers to be sued.

Three quarters of all homicides in the United States are committed with firearms. In 2020, more than 23 million weapons were sold, a record figure, and another 20 million in 2021, according to data compiled by the Small Arms Analytics website, reports Agence France Presse. That number does not include so-called “ghost” weapons, which are sold unassembled and lack serial numbers, making them highly prized in criminal circles and which both the Joe Biden and California governments have introduced laws to ban. In June 2021, 30% of American adults said they owned at least one gun, according to a Pew survey.

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