Sacramento Shooting Videos Show Mass Brawl Before Gunfire Erupts

Videos on social media showed what appeared to be a mass brawl before a deadly shooting in California's capital city in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Gunfire erupted in the area of 10th Street and K Street at around 2 a.m. in Sacramento—as bars and nightclubs in the city closed for the night and crowds of people filled downtown streets. Six people were killed, police said.

One video circulating on Twitter showed some people involved in a fight in the street, with others trying to break it up. People are seen running from the scene when the sound of rapid gunfire is heard.

A longer clip of the same altercation shows people fleeing the scene, while dozens of shots can be heard being fired over the course of 52 seconds.

"We are aware of a social media video that appears to show an altercation that preceded the shooting," the Sacramento Police Department said in a news release. "We are currently working to determine what, if any, relation these events have to the shooting."

At a news conference on Sunday, Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester confirmed that three men and three women were killed in the shooting. She said 12 others who were wounded were being treated in local hospitals.

She said investigators had located hundreds of pieces of evidence, including a stolen handgun, and were interviewing witnesses and reviewing tips in a bid to find the shooters.

"Investigators are working to identify those responsible for this horrific act," she said. "We know that a large fight took place just prior to the shootings and we have confirmed that there are multiple shooters."

She urged anyone with information to come forward with video and tips that could help track down the suspects.

Lester added: "Gun violence is truly a crisis in our community and has increased not only here in Sacramento, but across the nation. This tragedy only strengthens our commitment to reducing violence in our community and finding meaningful and lasting solutions to the problem."

In a statement on Sunday, President Joe Biden called for Congress to take action to help reduce gun crimes.

"Today, America once again mourns for another community devastated by gun violence," he said. "But we must do more than mourn; we must act."

In a statement, California Gov. Gavin Newsom also said that the "scourge of gun violence continues to be a crisis in our country, and we must resolve to bring an end to this carnage."

Sunday's shooting was the fifth mass murder in the U.S. and one of 120 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. It came just a month after a man killed his three daughters, a chaperone and himself inside a Sacramento church during a supervised visit.

The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass murder as four or more people killed in a single incident not including the shooter and a mass shooting as four or more people shot in a single incident not including the shooter.