Sacramento City Leaders Looking For Answers To Violence Problem

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Sierra Prine was on his way to lunch in Downtown Sacramento when shots rang out behind him.

"A bit concerning because I pass by there every day," he said.

Sacramento Police say someone shot a man in an alley behind a liquor store on J and 10th streets after a fight inside. Detectives are still looking for the man.

"It wasn't much longer after that that the shooting happened in Midtown," said Prine.

From Midtown to reports of an unresponsive man on a sidewalk -now a suspicious death investigation to Oak Park and the shooting of a pregnant woman forced to deliver prematurely, people seeing it have had enough.

"I used to look forward to coming to work, now I kinda see myself watching my back who's behind me?" said Wyman Harrell.

Wyman Harrell runs the burger joint "Dads" on J. His front door is still boarded up after an attempted break in.

What's going on?

Harrell says, "This corner has just become a haven since it's nothing but abandoned buildings. You have three businesses taking up two whole blocks you know."

But that's just a theory, and it's just in Downtown. City officials want answers and solutions to understand why there's an uptick in violent crime, across Sacramento.

At a press conference late Tuesday, one Sacramento school district board member said, "This is tragic on so many levels because we've seen an economic boom in some areas in Oak Park and yet we still know that, despite investment, there's so much work that has to be done."

That work, according to school officials, faith leaders, police officers, and Mayor Darrell Steinberg, is part of a new commitment, to put more officers on the street and offer newer intervention programs for youth.

"More help is on the way," Steinberg said.

But as with life, change won't happen overnight.

City officials say they'll readdress the issue with more concrete solutions in the coming weeks.