Sacramento anti-gun violence rally honors homicide victims, calls for youth programs

People gathered Thursday outside the California state Capitol in downtown Sacramento to call for youth mentorship and community partnerships to prevent gun violence; not relying on legislation alone.

The rally honored the mothers who lost children to deadly shootings in the Sacramento region, including popular local music artist Giovanni Pizano, also known as DJ Gio. The 31-year-old Sacramento man was shot to death April 10 during an apparent attempted robbery in the Natomas Crossing neighborhood.

Social justice organizations are partnering with one another to help families by providing resources. The rally included hip-hop artists to speak out against “senseless gun violence” that had to too many deaths and people wounded, according to a news release from Organized Voices and Voices of Youth. The community groups hosted Thursday’s rally.

“This is a problem we’ve worked on for many years, many decades. And, quite frankly, it is up to us to save our community,” said Liz Kim of Organized Voices.

Cyncire Jenkins, 16, a member of Voice of the Youth, said too many have normalized gun violence, which is “not fair or okay” for the neighborhoods impacted by the needless bloodshed.

“We lose loved ones over gang activity, pride and foolishness,” Jenkins said at the rally. “We raise some to believe that the way to have to fit in is by tucking a gun into your pants.”

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg told the rally attendees the world would be a lot better if we listened more to young people. He said the young people at Thursday’s rally shouldn’t have to be crying out about the gun violence that overwhelms their neighborhoods.

“I know that they would rather not be here decrying the loss of their loved ones,” the mayor said. “They would rather be cutting ribbons for youth sports fields and arts programs, educational enrichment and job training.”

Steinberg said this “gun epidemic” is out of control because we live in a culture that “says violence is okay.”

Telon Sanchez, a member of Del Paso Heights youth intervention group Reaching Back To Our Youth, attended the rally to fight for her grandchildren’s future. She placed a few dozen photos on poster boards of gun violence victims, many of them her relatives including 9-year-old Makayla Brent struck by stray gunfire in 2020 at Mama Marx Park in North Sacramento. She said it’s time for people to forget about the so-called “code of silence” that stalls police investigations after shootings.

“It’s time to stop the silence,” Sanchez said. “We need people to start to talk. We need justice now.”

Anita Razo, DJ Gio’s mother, said children are being killed, and it affects everyone.

“I am not willing to lose any of your children or anymore of my children to gun violence,” Razo told the audience at the rally.

She said the community needs to step up and say enough to the killings, to the bystanders struck by gunfire and to being afraid.

“Let’s come together and be the beacon for change,” Razo said.

Berry Accius of Voice of the Youth said families of gun violence victims who continue to seek justice and lasting change “are forever changed.”

He said there’s so much more that we have in common with each other, including facing the threat of gun violence.

“A gun and a bullet knows no color, knows no race. It attacks when you least expect it,” Accius said at the rally.

Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, said he never expected his hometown would’ve experienced a mass shooting with a hundred bullets fired within a minute. He was speaking of the April 3 gang-related shootout on 10th and K streets in downtown Sacramento that killed six people and wounded 12 others.

“It shouldn’t be this way. This is not normal,” McCarty told the rally attendees.

He state lawmakers need to be a part of the solution by strengthening California gun safety laws and continue funding of youth intervention efforts. But he agreed the community must play an important role in preventing gun violence.

“It’s up to us. It’s up to our community,” McCarty said. “We see too many young people’s lives lost.”