SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento police say that two groups of men began firing at each other in Sunday’s shooting downtown and that at least five shooters were involved in what authorities are now saying was a gang dispute that left six people dead and 12 wounded.
“Evidence in the case indicates that at least five shooters fired guns during the shooting, and that an exchange of gunfire took place between at least two groups of men,” police said in an announcement Wednesday. “As detectives continue to identify shooters and weapons involved, the number of identified shooters may grow beyond five.
“As detectives learn more about the shootings, it is increasingly clear that gang violence is at the center of this tragedy. While we cannot at this time elaborate on the precise gang affiliation of individuals involved, gangs & gang violence are inseparable from the events that drove these shootings.”
Police also said in a news conference Wednesday that one of the suspects, Dandrae Martin, fired a weapon in the shooting.
Martin, 26, made his first court appearance Tuesday and has been charged only with illegally possessing a handgun. Martin is prohibited from having firearms because of a 2017 domestic violence conviction in Arizona.
Law enforcement sources have been saying since Monday that the incident appeared to be a shootout between rival factions rather than the “mass shooting” that officials initially described in the wake of the 2 a.m. shooting that occurred near 10th and K streets as downtown bars were closing and large crowds were emptying out into the streets.
At the news conference at police headquarters, spokesman Sgt. Zach Eaton, asked if shooters were among the victims, said “We haven’t ruled that out and we haven’t ruled that in.”
Court records and police show at least two of the men killed were believed to be gang members.
Sacramento Superior Court documents refer to Sergio Harris, a 38-year-old man who was killed, as a member of the Del Paso Heights Bloods. Salinas police have identified another victim, Josh Hoye-Lucchesi, as a member of the Crips.
Detectives still are working to identify gang affiliations for others who may have been involved.
The notion that the shooting was a gang fight rather than random attack turns the focus of the incident to a long-standing issue in the Sacramento region, where various gangs have been blamed for an uptick of violence in recent years.
“This tragedy downtown is a very public example of what families in many of our neighborhoods know too well,” Police Chief Kathy Lester said. “The suffering inflicted by gang violence does not limit itself to gang members. It spills over to claim and shatter innocent lives and harm our entire community.”
So far, police have not announced arrests of any suspects charged with homicide or firing weapons, although they have arrested three individuals who they say were carrying guns when they were prohibited from carrying firearms.
One is Dandrae Martin’s brother, Smiley Allen Martin, 27, who was wounded in the shootout and is being held in an area hospital.
Police say he faces charges of possession of a machine gun and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. A law enforcement source confirmed the machine gun is a handgun that was found at the scene Sunday that had been converted to be capable of firing as an automatic weapon.
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