SACRAMENTO, Calif. — One person is dead and another injured following a shooting at a Sacramento cemetery, Friday afternoon.
According to police, the two victims were shot at Odd Fellows Cemetery just before 1 p.m.
Witnesses tell ABC10 they were attending a funeral when it was abruptly stopped because of gunfire.
“Yeah, so we were all cutting hair in there and then we heard what sounded like fireworks,” said witness Emily Carson.
Surveillance video from Carson’s business captured what she described as a drive-by shooting.
Officers later found the victims, so far only identified as an adult man and an adult woman, near the Circle K gas station in the area of 24th Street and Broadway, approximately a mile east of where the shooting is believed to have occurred.
Both victims were taken from the scene to a local hospital where the male victim succumbed to his injuries and died. The female victim is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
“The adult female is listed in stable condition. The adult man has been pronounced deceased by medical personnel at the scene,” said Sacramento Police Officer Karl Chan.
A heavy police presence remained at the cemetery for hours, with officers blocking off access to the grounds.
Community activist Berry Accius with Voice of the Youth said this violence has a huge impact on the community.
“It creates that battleground that we don’t often want to see,” Accius said.
Accius said these incidents pave the way for retaliatory violence and said they continue to happen due to a lack of investment, especially in communities of color.
“We are all at a level of frustration and extreme… need because we know what the situation is,” said Accius. “We just have to work harder and we are going to work harder to make sure that there’s no more violence in our community.”
This is the second cemetery shooting in Sacramento this Summer. Sacramento State student Zarrie Allen was shot to death at the Sacramento Memorial Lawn Cemetery on July 20, during what the Sacramento County Sherriff’s Department called a gang-related incident of which Allen was not the intended target.
A motive for the shooting has not yet been released.