SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Mayor Darrell Steinberg is calling for peace after a violent weekend in Sacramento, involving a total of 12 shootings from Friday to Monday morning.
On Saturday alone, nine people were hurt and three people were killed, including a nine-year-old girl, in four separate shootings.
"I ask everyone in Sacramento, regardless of your station in life, regardless of if you hold a formal position, to please call for peace, to call for non-violence, to call for grace," Steinberg said.
Amber Leslie Brent is mourning the loss of Makaylah Brent, her 9-year-old granddaughter, after this weekend's string of violence.
"Pease, please, this has got to change, this has got to change," Leslie Brent said.
Her granddaughter was killed and three others were injured in a drive-by shooting on Saturday afternoon at Mama Marks Park in broad daylight.
"I know my grandbaby wasn't your intended target. I know she wasn't. My grandbaby never hurt nobody," she said.
Damond Dorrough was there for it all.
"I just heard about 13, 14 shots. Everybody got low," Dorrough said.
He said that he's tired of the violence.
"This has to stop. It's only going to get worse," Dorrough said. "Don't nobody stand up right now and do what they need to do right now and intervene with what's happening. It's only going to get worse. We need you please."
He visited Mama Marks Park with Advance Peace and Brother to Brother. Two groups dispatched on the ground to do community intervention in times of crisis. Many of the people involved with both groups are former gang members themselves.
"A lot of us have been there before and done that, and... we want to give back from what we took from the community. We just want to help and make sure we have a safe environment for the youth coming up," said Aaron Cardoza, a Brother to Brother mentor.
Sacramento police say after this weekend's string of violence, the city is up to 35 homicides so far this year. At this time last year, that number was only 25.
"We need to get it back. I want it back," said Sherri Kirk, a cousin of the 9-year-old victim. "I want kids to be able to ride bikes, skate down the sidewalks, not running from bullets. This is not fair."
Kirk grew up in the Del Paso Heights neighborhood, but after repeated acts of violence and no change, she said this is no longer the same place she was raised in.
"Until we deal with the root of the problem, it's going to be a continuous cycle so we've got to get down to the root of the problem here because somebody's hurting somewhere," she said. "If you can take a life and not feel anything, there's some root issues."
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