New videos, details upend narrative of Sacramento massacre that killed six
Category: News & Politics
Via: jeremy-in-nc • 2 years ago • 27 commentsBy: JESSICA GARRISON, RICHARD WINTON, ANITA CHABRIA, BRITTNY MEJIA, HANNAH WILEY , LIBOR JANY
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
When police first arrived at the scene of the shooting in the heart of downtown Sacramento on Sunday around 2 a.m., they came across bodies lying on the street.
At first, it appeared to be a mass shooting that left six dead and 12 wounded.
But in recent days, more details have emerged that offer a different picture of the violence.
Here’s what we know:
What sparked the shooting?
Authorities still don’t have a firm motive.
But it’s clear now that the shooting was the result of a conflict among groups of people that turned into a gun battle on a crowded street filled with patrons leaving as bars closed.
Initially, police said the crime involved a man firing from a car as it drove up 10th Street just as patrons were leaving downtown nightclubs around 2 a.m.
But according to Officer Chad Lewis, detectives are “able to confidently say” — based on a preliminary examination of the evidence — that at least five people pulled out weapons and began firing them that night, with gunfire hitting innocent victims.
Police are expected to share more information about the crime in the coming days, as they continue to sift through evidence from a complex investigation. It is one that includes interviews with dozens of witnesses, more than 200 videos and social media posts, ballistics from the more than 100 shell casings that littered the sidewalk, and video from police cameras.
Who has been arrested?
Three people have been arrested, and police said they expect to make more arrests in the coming days.
But no one has been charged with murder.
Only one alleged shooter, a 26-year-old man arrested Monday, has been identified by police. Dandrae Martin appeared in court Tuesday. He was charged with being a felon in possession of a gun.
Dandrae Martin’s brother, Smiley Martin III, 27, will be booked at Sacramento County Main Jail on suspicion of “possession of a firearm by a prohibitive person and possession of a machine gun” as soon as he gets out of the hospital. Smiley Martin was shot during the barrage. Police and court records show he has a lengthy violent crime record stretching back nearly a decade. He is affiliated with the Crips gang, according to his social media posts.
A third man, Daviyonne Dawson, 31, was arrested after being spotted carrying a gun in the aftermath of the shooting, but did not actually fire it. Dawson is not accused of involvement in the melee, but will face charges of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm. He has been released on bail.
What do we know about the lead-up to the shooting?
Sacramento police also confirmed Wednesday that officers got a call involving the Martin brothers on Saturday night, just hours before the shooting.
In a video that was since released on social media, the Martin brothers appear standing in a parking lot brandishing guns. A Sacramento police cruiser can be seen driving by in the video.
Lewis revealed that police got a call a little after 8 p.m. Saturday about a disturbance at that address involving a group of people who were potentially poised to start fighting.
But before officers could respond, they got a call about two at-risk children in the area, separate from the Martins. Concerns about the children took precedence, with eight officers redirected to make sure they were safe.
By the time officers returned to check up on the Martins a bit after 10 p.m., the two brothers were gone.
Some four hours later, a burst of gunfire rocketed through the K Street mall downtown.
What do videos of the shooting show?
One shows a large group of people fighting on the street, followed by rapid gunfire. Another captures multiple volleys of gunfire, including what sounds like a possible automatic weapon, before people on the street run for their lives.
A graphic YouTube video that went live Monday seemingly showed the aftermath of the shooting. Police officers tried to treat people lying along the street, as friends and others gathered around.
“Please tell me what to do,” one woman pleaded with an officer, as she knelt over a body. “I’ll help you.”
“Help me roll her over,” the officer responded. He later said they needed the fire department to respond.
The person narrating the video said they heard “like 70 shots, 80 shots.” Up and down the street, people screamed out to one another and asked for help.
The video showed at least five people on the ground.
“Breathe, buddy,” one person said. “Keep breathing.”
Nearby, a CHP officer checked a woman’s pulse. She lay completely still.
A little farther away, an officer asked someone to look for anywhere else a victim might have been hit.
“There’s people dead everywhere,” the man recording the video said.
What do we know about the gang involvement?
Police have not named the gangs or what the motive for the deadly barrage might have been.
Law enforcement sources have said police are looking for links between some of those allegedly involved in the shooting and the Crips gang.
“This tragedy downtown is a very public example of what families in many of our neighborhoods know too well, “ said Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester in a statement Wednesday. “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.”
What do we know about the guns used?
At least one of the guns police say were recovered from the massacre that left six people dead and twice as many injured had been modified with a so-called “auto-sear” or “switch” to boost its firepower. The conversion devices are illegal, and authorities say they are turning up at crime scenes across the U.S. with alarming frequency.
Amid the carnage along K Street in the shadow of California’s Capitol, Sacramento police detectives found a stolen gun that had been “converted to a weapon capable of automatic gunfire.” The discovery confirmed suspicions authorities had developed after hearing audio recordings of the shooting on social media that revealed the distinct sound of rounds firing off at rapid speed. Officials estimate at least 100 shots were fired.
Handguns retrofitted with switches have surfaced at other California crime scenes. Gunmen used them in the deadly shooting of federal guards in Oakland in 2020, as did gang members in the killing of four people in Fresno the year before.
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So, I'm curious how this will get spun to create more restrictive laws for law abiding citizens.
Well it's obvious, isn't it? Any gun (handgun or long gun) that can be modified with a so-called "auto-sear" would need to be banned. That would take all semi-automatics off the streets right away.
Sad thing is I would love to put the /s tag at the end of that but I know several people who have been advocating for the banning of all semi-auto guns for a very long time.
have you noticed that many of them know absolutely nothing about firearms. ?
Some but not all. One of those who advocates for this is from Tucson and spent time in the US Army and does know firearms very well. And he's jumped aboard the train to ban all semi-auto's. He's not an idiot but is rather willing to put on blinders. He's also turned far left in his political outlook.
But he does know firearms so this is one who is not advocating based on ignorance but partisan belief. It's a shame, he is otherwise a fairly intelligent man. Well read, educated... but has become more and more hardcore left to make it difficult to have any conversation with.
There's the problem right there.
Thanks for the clarification story. At first I thought some "rational person" got a hold of an "evil gun."
And I especially want to thank you for not posting pictures of those who have been arrested.
When I first heard of this something didn't sound right with the reporting. It seemed incomplete. One thing I learned from the military is that ALL initial reports are going to be wrong and / or incomplete. Sadly many don't have the patience to wait it out to get a better idea of what is going on or what happened.
I'm not going to attempt to make the stupid famous. We already have enough of that on TV.
"...modified with a so-called “auto-sear” or “switch” to boost its firepower. The conversion devices are illegal..."
There was that and mention of a machine gun. I'd have to question that, or was it simply a binary trigger - commonly available and prohibited in CA and a handful of other states. It is a trigger that fires an auto-loader on pull, and again on release - two for one, basically.
This Is one of those shootings that get flushed down the memory hole. Doesn’t fit the narrative Democrats use to exploit politically
And that is why they are so quiet about it.
It did seem to disappear from the front-page of national news rather quickly...
Maybe it just wasn't as interesting a story as the usual daily gun violence. Daily gun violence in America isn't news anyway - a day WITHOUT gun violence would be news.
Maybe, or maybe it just didn't fit the narrative that was wanted. So frequently we have a mass shooting and the politicians immediately jump out shouting for more gun laws to combat the scourge of gun crime. And a lot of those stories fade away when the actual facts start to come out. I believe this is another such occurance. Turns out this was more combat between two gangs and the people already arrested were arrested for existing laws and so far no homicide charges have been made. If the people arrested were already breaking existing gun laws what new law would prevent this?
I guess it's not a problem as long as violent gang members kill each other, but the problem is those innocent people who unfortunately get in the way. You don't even have to be out in the street - you could be in a car, and there was even a story a while ago about a man sitting in his living room reading and got killed by a stray bullet that went through his window.
Except that's nothing to what I said. Any death by gun violence is a terrible thing. But what I said was the politicians could not use this in the way they wanted to so it left the front-page of the news.
And you can die from choking on a piece of meat, you can slip and drown in a bath tub... Instead of your usual rhetoric why don't you postulate on potential solutions? I've done so in the past but it doesn't get discussed here because it's not the progressive mantra of banning guns and instead would require hard work. One would think that the history of the world has proven that banning something does not remove the problem caused by that something. Schedule 1 drugs are already illegal and banned, yet we still have overdose deaths from those drugs. Prohibition didn't prevent alcoholism.
At least 3 times I have posted on NT what I think the only solution to the problem could be. The problem is that it's just TOO LATE. What was tried in New Zealand and Australia (i.e. governmnent buy-back) is not going to solve the problem. Gun-love is too deeply rooted in the USA for legal gun-holders to give up their guns, after all there is the Second Amendment protecting them, criminals are not going to give up their guns, illegal gun holders are not going to give up their guns, criminals are not going to give up their guns no matter what kind of laws are passed.
I said that America has a special problem and it has to be solved in a special way, i.e. one that might horrify a lot of people but what else is there? I think guns and ammunition should be dispensed to every American over the age of 12. Every American should be put on the same footing to protect themselves from other Americans, and it seems from what I've read that there have been demands that armed guards be posted at schools, and I know they have already been posted at places of worship. There have been stories abouit lawful gun holders who carry having been instrumental in bringing down the killers. That is your only solution. Surely you must know it - you must know that any kind of gun control laws that are proposed will NEVER be agreed to. ESPECIALLY with a conservative-biased SCOTUS. It's your bed - so you'll have to come up with a way to be able to sleep in it without fear of being shot.
And if you give me the "Automobiles kill more people than guns", or "Guns don't kill people, People kill people" garbage arguments, then you'll just have to do away with all the cars or all the people instead of all the guns.
I think I just saw a news report that another incident happened in Times Square that had people running for cover., The first one was a motorcycle backfiring.
If I recall Australia correctly (and we have a person from there so perhaps she can correct me) but gun ownership is now greater than it was before the buy-back. I don't know what the impact was in New Zealand, didn't they just again ban certain gun types?
I do not agree with handing guns to everybody, especially to children at the age of 12. That IMO is just as wrong-headed and ridiculous as banning guns as that's like trying to put toothpaste back into the tube. Guns are out there world wide and I don't believe there is really any way for the government to remove them. The government has failed miserably with banning illegal drugs as drug overdoses and deaths continue to increase.
No, my suggestions that I have talked about before include
1) Age appropriate gun safety training starting in kindergarten or pre-school and occurring every year thru primary and high school years. As they get older the gun safety training can transition to gun handling and usage for those who desire.
2) Fully enforce existing gun laws, do not plea-bargain away the use of a gun in a crime. Fully prosecute those who lie on the ATF 4473 and fully prosecute those who are involved in a straw purchase.
3) Put teeth into reporting laws so that all information is properly entered into the NICS system. We have too many instances where after an incident it is discovered the person was able to purchase the gun legally because the information had not been sent to the NICS system so could not prevent the sale
4) Change HIPPA laws and work closely with health providers to insure that the mentally ill who should not possess a weapon are unable to buy one
5) Work with Hollywood to change how they use and glorify guns.
There are sure to be other ideas that could be added or modified. But this is the harder approach but I believe it's the better approach as it can get people to change how they think about guns. The gun control laws in China work in China because the people there have been conditioned to think in that fashion, it did not happen overnight. It was a process that ran for many years to get to this point.
And lastly, the "guns don't kill people, people kill people" bit. It's very much true. People kill people with guns, with clubs, with cars, with knives, with their fists, with greatly varied methods. But none of those things will kill a person all by themselves, it takes the active person with the desire to kill to put it into action. You can never get rid of it because you can never be sure what a person is capable of. But education and training starting at early years and continuing on for life is how to change minds. We have to change the way people think about guns to make this happen and it has to start at an early age.
I hold a permanent residence visa for Australia and my kids, grandkids and great grandkids live there. So I have a bit of knowledge of OZ.
You are correct, there are more firearms now than before the ban on certain weapons, but the stats need some context, like the following. I'm sure that Shona who lives in OZ will confirm this information.
My suggestion was pretty obviously tongue-in-cheek. I don't see any method that can solve the problem - although your suggestions may be valid, you should know as well as I do that they will never happen. Training all young kids with guns just makes them a wanted and required part of their lives. I wonder what happened to me? The only guns I had as a kid were a water pistol and a cap gun, but never having owned any other kind of gun in my life or even having gone hunting or ever using a real gun other than at high school where I became the school Marksmanship Champion (here is a photo of me receiving on School Games Day the biggest trophy the school even had, the trophy for top marksman (the photo was run in my city's newspaper)...
I shot perfect bullseyes in every target without fail. Had I ever been the right age to serve in a war I probably would have been a sniper. But I NEVER had any desire to own a gun, or to even use a gun other than in a Marksman contest. When I was the owner of a golf condo in Florida, my next door neighbour there brought in his pistol to show me and asked if I wanted to hold it. I was horrified, and wouldn't touch it.
IMO people have to be conditioned to want to own a gun. I was never so conditioned, nor have the people of China been conditioned to want to own a gun and nobody has one except special SWAT police groups (ordinary police do not carry them), the military and bank delivery van guards. Even bank guards do not have guns here. The people here don't run and hide when they hear a backfire, nor ever have even a fleeting thought that maybe they could get caught in a crossfire by a stray bullet.
What I first said about solving the gun violence problem in the USA was "It's too late", and that is it as far as I'm concerned.
Arvo..yes that is correct what you both said.. there are more guns here now than before Port Arthur and the buy back.
My brother has guns for hunting etc and follows the laws and regulations...duck season is on here at the moment..
But no matter what the law of the land is there or here...we have a totally different mind set when it comes to guns...
So comparing us to the people in the US re guns is not as you say in the same ball park.
For me I would not have a gun in my house anymore than fly to the moon...and luckily for us that would be much the same for the vast majourity of Australians.
Yes we have criminals, drugs, murders, shootings, bikie gangs etc, but one mass shooting was enough and rocked this country to its core. 🥀🥀🥀
We were totally devastated and absolutely shocked. I remember it like y'day and know exactly where I was and what I was doing...
This is not to say it can't happen here again in the future. But I think you will find we are content with the way we have handled it and try and prevent it ever happening again.
You are probably correct because the two sides just cannot agree on any steps that are outside their positions. The ideas I listed are inline with several suggestions from the NRA as well as other groups but they don't match up with the side that just wants to ban guns. Hell, Biden after signing his recent EO on gun control couldn't help himself and had to throw back to Congress to pass universal background checks and ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines." The issue with universal background checks as I see it is it allows the federal government to manage intrastate commerce which it should never be allowed to do. State rights and all... And as far as banning so-called assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, that was done before and it make no significant difference in gun crimes. But I guess that's the standard of insanity as well as government action, try the same actions again and hope for different results.
Living here, I obviously have a different idea on the issue than you do. I don't think it's too late to make a change but any change is going to be a slow gradual change.
I don't know that it's so much the wanting to own a gun, I think it's more that people are not brought up to respect other people. We see that happen all the time, hell we see it on this very board when someone gets upset with another person because they hold a different idea than the first person. If you are not brought up to respect other people then you start to see them not as people but as things. I believe that's really the majority of shootings in this country, you hear the defense of 'he dissed me'.. I was brought up with guns in the house in a glass front gun case that was not locked. I was given my first shotgun at 12. We didn't lock our house until I was 15. While we had some fights while I was growing up nobody in my town ever thought about taking a gun and shooting someone, we were brought up to respect other people. People slowly started to no longer care about people who were not like them... I believe this can change but it's going to be a very slow change taking generations to make the change.
You're making sense - unfortunately it isn't universal.
Exactly, shona.
The interesting thing about the study is the number of licensed gun owners has decreased by a huge percentage but those left are buying more guns. The siege mentality?
Two in our Australian family have rifles but they are used for getting rid of foxes since they both have farm animals and foxes is an invasive species and cause a great deal of damage.
My first thoughts on this went to a fight between two gangs at the start. The first news story I saw on this included an interview with the mother of one of the victims and he had the victim's cousin standing behind her. He was wearing a black & white checkered headband and my first thought was that was a gang flag.
Can't rule out gang activity. Those morons will shoot each other for the most trivial of reasons to include no reason.
It has been said about a Gazillion times: Criminals do not care about your gun laws.
Of course they don't. Doesn't prevent progressives from talking about how new gun laws will save us all.....