Two hospitalized after Old Sacramento fight escalates into shooting, police say

Two men were shot during an altercation Monday evening in Old Sacramento and taken to hospitals, authorities said.

Officers responded around 9:15 p.m. to reports of shots fired near K and 2nd streets, Sacramento Police Department spokesman Officer Karl Chan said.

Fire personnel transported two adult gunshot victims to hospitals. One of the two had been in critical condition Monday night, but Chan said both as of Tuesday morning are stable and expected to survive.

The incident appears to have been an altercation between “several” people that escalated into a shooting, Chan said based off preliminary investigation.

No suspect information was immediately available. Detectives continue to investigate, Chan said.

K and 2nd is near the pedestrian tunnel beneath Interstate 5, which connects Old Sacramento to Downtown Commons. Chan did not know whether the altercation happened inside the tunnel, but said it occurred in the “general vicinity” of the tunnel or its entrance on the Old Sacramento side.

Monday’s shooting is at least the second in Old Sacramento involving multiple victims in the past three months.

On July 16, a 21-year-old man and 16-year-old boy were killed and four other people were wounded in a shooting that law enforcement said at the time appeared to be an escalation of an altercation between two groups. Multiple firearms were recovered at the scene, and two suspects were arrested.

City officials and business leaders in the Old Sacramento Waterfront district called for enhanced safety measures in the area in the wake of that incident, which involved enough victims to be classified as a mass shooting.

Scott Ford, the district operations manager for the Old Sacramento Waterfront, said that in a survey sent to more than 100 business owners, property owners and residents in the area, responses showed the biggest priority was to provide better lighting.

Others called for curfews, restrictions on electric scooters and increased police patrols.

“I believe that it is about providing more constructive and healthy activities for young men and women, for kids,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in an interview with The Sacramento Bee this summer. “And at the same time, we have to take other steps that assure people that our destinations like Old Sacramento are going to be safe.”