Activist describes shooting scene, says gun violence is a ‘citywide issue’
By Daniel Macht
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SACRAMENTO, California (KHBS) — Sacramento community activist Berry Accius described Sunday’s deadly shooting in downtown Sacramento as another “senseless act of violence” in the city.
Three men and three women were killed and 12 others shot after gunfire broke out around 2 a.m., police said.
Accius said that after getting tipped off about the shooting he arrived between 2:30 to 2:45 a.m. and tried to comfort family members of the victims.
One woman with blood “all over her” was screaming that she had lost her sister, Accius said.
Another woman was trying to find out if her son was one of the victims. It seemed that was the case based on witness accounts, he said.
Accius called the shooting “mind-boggling” and “tragic.”
“It’s something that you never want to wake up to,” Accius said.
He recalled seeing one of the victims running “and still having her car in drive and saying she held her sister for the last time.”
Accius appealed to city leaders to take action, referencing another deadly shooting at a church in the county last month that killed five people.
“Here we are again,” he said. “I just have to ask our city officials, what are we going to do about this gun violence? The gun violence that organizations like myself have continued to say, there’s an issue. Have continued to say that would spread outside of these so-called poverty-stricken communities that you lack the investment of. That it would come into these areas that you’ve invested in. Then here we are.”
He later spoke alongside Sacramento’s Police Chief Kathy Lester, Mayor Darrell Steinberg and other city leaders.
“I believe this is a day of reflection. I think, and I’m hoping we see this is an opportunity,” he said. “But I also want to encourage folks, to know, it is safe in Sacramento. But the safety is going to be provided by the outcomes of today. And I feel like the outcomes of today will be that we should see more support and we’re hoping support won’t come later but come now.
He said added that “there’s nothing that could have been done to stop what was going to end up happening. This was going to end up happening, whether there was community leaders there or even police officers on the site because some of these things are happening are isolated incidents in isolated situations where certain people have issues and unfortunately this was a cowardly act where an issue hurt innocent bystanders.”
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