Six people were killed and 10 injured in an early-morning shooting on a Sacramento, California, street busy with revelers, and police said they were still searching for suspects with no one in custody.
"We are asking for the public's help in helping us to identify the suspects in this and provide any information they can to help us solve this," Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester told reporters.
The shooting occurred at about 2:00 a.m. local time, Lester said, near the Golden 1 Center, an arena where the Sacramento Kings basketball team plays and concerts take place.
Several blocks were cordoned off by officers and dotted with blue and red plastic cones that marked evidence. Police released no details on the ages or identities of the victims.
Family members waited outside the police lines seeking news about missing loved ones.
Among them was Pamela Harris, who said her daughter had called her at 2:15 a.m. to say that her 38-year-old son, Sergio, had been shot and killed outside a nightclub.
"She said he was dead. I just collapsed," Harris said. She said she was still waiting on official confirmation from police, adding, "I cannot leave here now until I know what's going on. I'm not going anywhere. It seems like a dream."
Community activist Berry Accius said he had rushed to the scene shortly after the shooting.
"The first thing I saw was a young lady draped in her blood and others' blood. She was just on the phone saying 'My sister is dead! My sister is dead!'" said Accius, whose Voice of the Youth leadership program is focused on gun violence prevention.
The violence occurred just blocks from the state capitol building in an area recently revitalized as an entertainment center. It shattered the welcoming atmosphere as pandemic masks started coming off in the past week and bars and restaurants began filling with people long isolated by COVID-19.
"The numbers of dead and wounded are difficult to comprehend. We await more information about exactly what transpired in this tragic incident," Mayor Darrell Steinberg said on Twitter. "Rising gun violence is the scourge of our city, state and nation, and I support all actions to reduce it.
The incident comes a little more than a month after a man shot and killed his three children and a fourth person before taking his own life in the same city.