Interview: Police Chief Kathy Lester discusses gun violence, downtown Sacramento shooting

A week after the mass shooting in downtown Sacramento killed six people and injured 12 in early April, the city was struck by another tragedy: a deadly shooting in Natomas left two men dead, including a local DJ.

The two incidents are emblematic of a larger increase of shootings since the start of the pandemic. Last year, there was a 31% jump in homicides within Sacramento city limits — a change from 42 murders in 2020 to 55 in 2021, according to police data. .

Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester was appointed chief earlier this year, making her the first woman in the department to hold the position. She has been with the department for 27 years.

Lester joined CapRadio’s Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez to talk about the rise in violence, and what options the department has for approaching it.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Interview Highlights

On why the they believe there were at least five shooters in the downtown shooting

We have a lot of evidence, and I really have to thank the public for their help on this. 

We opened up the citizen evidence portal, which was one of the side products of our body-worn camera system, and we have received over 200 videos, tips, photos and our investigators are going through all that information right now … and we’re using an analyst from the FBI to continue to work through tips and additional information. So I’m really proud of the work and the help that we’ve gotten from the public in regards to helping us solve this case. I think it really speaks to the public’s concern over an incident like this and their willingness to help out.

On how the potential link to local gangs affects the investigation

I think it’s a level of detail that helps us understand really maybe some of the motive behind the shooting, because that is a really big question. But I think it begs a bigger question that we should be talking about, right?

Right now people are asking the why, why does this happen, how could this have happened? What do we do different? And I think that’s really the conversation that we as a community need to have, right? 

There’s lots of discussion right now about changing the laws, about release of offenders, about gun control. Those are all appropriate conversations, for sure, but I think it’s really important for us to talk about what the drivers of violence are … If we don’t look at those things, we’re really not doing our job because enforcement alone is not the answer — it’s certainly part of the immediate solution. 

On why bodies of victims were left in the street for hours after the downtown shooting

We knew how concerning that was going to be to the community. I look at it from the perspective of being a mom, and how difficult that would be if my loved one were in the street — and this went on for quite a while.

We really try to work with the families from the very beginning because we understand how traumatizing this is in regards to having people laying in the streets when we are processing. We’re trying to investigate … [and] everything in that crime scene essentially becomes a piece of evidence, even people’s loved ones.

I absolutely understand how difficult that is, and my heart really does go out to the families. My job, and our detectives’ job, moving forward is to make sure that every piece of that scene is absolutely documented the right way, that we haven’t missed anything, that we don’t leave any gaps in prosecution.