The police said they have not yet made any arrests, the surroundings of the tragedy remaining at risk.
During the night from Saturday to Sunday, at least six people died and ten others were injured in a shooting in Sacramento, California.
According to Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester, officers present in the city center evoke a “crowd” present on the scene before the events: “It is not known if it came from a nightclub or from an evening,” she said as confusion still reigned over the circumstances.
“We were able to confirm that six people had been killed and that ten others had been hospitalized”, following this shooting, she explained during a press conference.
And to add: "We ask the public to help us identify suspects and to provide any information that would allow us to shed light" on this case.
Authorities have urged residents to avoid the area, marked off by a cordon and where a heavy police presence has been deployed.
Videos posted on social media show people running in panic as gunshots are heard.
Blood, people screaming...
"It was horrible," Berry Accius, a community activist who arrived at the scene a few minutes after the shooting, told local channel KXTV.
He described "victims covered in blood, people screaming, crying, others asking where their brother was or mothers trying to identify their son".
Shootings in public places are common in the United States, from schools to supermarkets.
According to the Small Arms Survey program, there were approximately 393 million guns in the United States in 2017, more than people.
The right to possess arms is guaranteed by the Constitution.
Several initiatives by elected officials to strengthen gun laws have failed in Congress, where the powerful NRA gun lobby wields strong influence.
“Rising gun violence is the blight of our city, state and nation, and I support all measures to reduce it,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said.
Since the start of 2022, the Gun Violence Archive site has recorded more than 10,700 gun deaths in the United States, including suicides.
Over the whole of 2021, the number is 45,000 dead, according to the same site.